Anne and the Mall

As I approached the mall, two 15 year old girls began to circle around me on their bikes.

"Hello," one of them said as they circled me.

"Hello," I responded.

The girls started to bike off but then one of them circled back.

"How old are you?"

"27"

"Oh"

Then they biked I way. I think they were trying to flirt with me but I found it very intimidating.

On the sixth story of the mall was a Vr room, a gym, and what seemed to be some sort of dermatologists office. I peeked at the VR room but the quality of the video on the projectors was terrible and VR always seems like a scam so I didn't enter. On the fifth floor was a movie theater, but I didn't buy a ticket because all the movies were in Chinese. There was a mountain climber movie, an animated movie, a historical chines drama, a historical chinese martial arts movie, and some cgi action movie about a man covered in guns. I'm sure any of them fun, but 60 yuan seemed like a lot for two hours where I had no idea what was going on. There was also a Pizza Hut, which had some of the strangest looking pizzas I had ever seen.

The fourth, third and second floors were restaurants and clothing stores. I decided to continue my search for shorts. All of the women working in the department stores were very eager to help me. At least four clerks said hi to me and began giggling when I said hi back. I would have been flattered if it didn't feel like fetishism. Nevertheless, I did ask one of the cuter ones for help finding shorts, but was again disappointed to only find jean shorts and basketball shorts. The first floor had a book store and I immediately went in, hoping to find some books in English. There were, of course, none, but there was a coffee shop in the back and I have been craving coffee like crazy ever since landing so I went to the back to get a cup.

At the table near me, four girls sat hanging out with each other. One of them stood up and walked up to me.

"Hello," she said.

"Hello."

"Are you American?"

"Yeah, I'm from California."

"I've never seen an American before."

"Cool."

I went up to the counter and ordered a cup of coffee. The girl seemed cute, but a little young for my taste. As I sat down to wait for the coffee, the four girls came to my table.

"I'm Anne," said the girl who originally approached me.

"I'm Riley."

"Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

The girls began to giggle as the barista gave me my coffee.

"The coffee is very good here."

"Oh that's good."

"Do you like it?"

I took a sip.

"Yeah it's good."

The girls giggled again. Now the barista approached me.

"You like?"

"Uh yeah."

"Can you hold up the coffee and say it's gooda?"

The barista pulls out her phone and begins to film me.

"Umm okay. It's gooda."

"One more time."

"It's gooda."

"Thank you."

The barista goes back to her counter. Anne approaches me again. I notice that she is definitely wearing color contacts, but it kind of works. I also notice she is pretty tall, which I kind of like.

"Why are you in Gaochun?"

"I'm teaching English."

"Oh, my english isn't very good."

"It seems pretty good to me."

All the girls giggle again.

"You are very handsome."

"Oh thanks, you too."

"You have very big eyes."

"So do you."

"No, I don't. I have small eyes."

"Uh yeah, I guess you do."

"Can I take a photo with you?"

"Sure."

Anne stands next to me and takes a photo with a filter that makes us look like pigs with very big eyes. I notice her arm brushes against mine as she takes the photo. Then all of the other girls ask if they can take photos with me too, so I end up taking photos with all of them.

"Do they have any English books here?" I ask Anne.

"I don't know."

"Okay, I'm gonna go look. Bye."

"Bye."

I don't know what's come over me but I feel the words falling out of my mouth.

"How old are you?"

"18"

Fuck.

"Okay, bye."

"Bye."

I go back into the bookstore and begin to browse. Yuan are bigger than American dollar bills, so I browse a bit and buy a cheap wallet because money was constantly peeking out of the top of my old one. I also almost buy a 2,000 piece Totorro Lego set, but decide against it. I've spent enough money already. I renter the coffee shop to put my money in my new wallet and send a few emails using there wifi. Anne is gone, but two of the other girls are still there.

"Are you looking for Anne?" one of them asks.

"No, I'm just sending a few emails."

The girls giggle and walk away. I leave the mall and realize I am starving. All I have eaten today are some green peas and a dragonfruit pizza. I am still scared of ordering at a lot of the local Chinese restaurants and I'm missing America, so I walk into a nearby Dairy Queen and order a hot dog and some french fries. I turn around and there is Anne and another girl eating ice cream. Anne and I make eye contact and she smiles. I go and sit far a way from them behind a sign, hoping not to call to much attention to myself. I look out the window and make eye contact with Anne's reflection. She smiles again so I quickly hide in my phone.

The Dairy Queen employee tells me my food is ready and I approach the corner. When I turn around, Anne and her friends are all standing right behind me.

"How long are you here for?" Anne asks.

"One year."

"Wow"

I shuffle nervously and before I know what's going on the words are falling out my mouth again.

"Can I get your wechat?"

"Sure"

As I get her wechat, our arms brush against each other again. Then, all of the other girls ask for my wechat too so I give it to all of them. I quickly say bye and flee the Dairy Queen. As I leave, I notice all four girls have texted me their names on wechat.

As I walk home, I feel really cool. I know it's stupid, but I got a bunch of girls numbers without doing anything. I saw a bunch of cool things, I'm gonna move to Nanjing. I've beat China. I've cracked the code, I can do this. I can do anything. I've had a seemingly perfect day. The hot dog tastes terrible, but at least the french fries are good. I barely remember wiping my ass with my bare hands. Today was an all around success. My year in China is gonna be perfect.

As I get close to my hotel, I notice some traditional Chinese music coming from a park. The park is pitch black, there are no street lamps, but I enter, intrigued by the music. It's a little spooky, I'm half worried I will find a ghost playing the music, but the music is so beautiful and my day has been so great I feel like I must follow it. As my eyes adjust to the dark, I realize this is the the garden with the old pagoda Peter took me to earlier today. Man this city is small. The music is coming from where all the old people were sitting doing nothing earlier. The music is coming from a speaker and in the center of the circle are a group of women doing Ti-Chi. I tried to film and take pictures, but it's too dark to get any sort of image on my phone and using a flash seems rude, so I just sit and watch for a few minutes. The whole thing seems so magical.

When I get back to my hotel, I realize my cheeks hurt from grinning all day. That night, I sleep like a king. Nothing is better than this. I feel like I've had a truly perfect day, and I know that things are just going to get better and better. This is bliss. I am happy.