The larks, still bravely singing, fly

[cyrano]

I didn't get out of work when I expected. I'd said I'd be at Yulong Cafe to pick up my chicken at twenty til five. The place was empty when I walked in except the cute girl at the counter. (The usual. Long black hair in a pony tail, thick frame black glasses.) She looked up. "You pick up?" I nodded and said yes. "You *late*!" she said, trying hard not to smile.
I may have to have more Chinese food.
I realized afterward that I'd ordered the dish in my limping Chinese, I'd taken the order and said "She shie" (Some day I need to find out exactly what that means), and pretty much the only thing missing to make me a complete Asian Fanboy was the Jayne t-shirt with the Chinese characters that I have been told say 'Troublemaker'.
And then I wandered up and down lower Castro, which I almost always find pleasant and surprisingly relaxing, and gave tourists restaurant advice while I waited for Amarain to finish my order of Thom Kha Gai.
All in all, not a bad first day back.

Comments

[merlinofchaos]

"Xie xie" is Mandarin for a casual thank you. Xie xie ni would be a more formal thank you. It has different pronunciations depending on where the speaker is from.

[nutty-irishman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've also seen it spelled "Chie-Chien"; in fact, one of my daughter's grade school counselors was named that.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Dude. Your daughter's counselor was named "Thank You"?
It's not as bad as "Dweezil" but it's obvious that those parents either didn't want kids or didn't do much in the way of planning. (:

[denyse.livejournal.com]

Well, the 'ni' just means 'you', so the difference is between saying thanks and 'thank you' I guess? I never really thought of it as being more formal.

incidentally, I had lunch at Yu long today. I'm working at Kaiser Mtn View off Castro right now.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I can be on Castro in about five minutes if the lights are with me. We should totally take advantage of this proximity, although it will be tricky to do so next week, as there will be a metric assload of training.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

That works. Although she said it back to me, so I'm guessing it also means "you're welcome" or perhaps "you could have asked for my phone number, you clod".