Testing My Limits

After being sick (and staying in my room the majority of the time) for two weeks, I decided I had enough energy to sustain myself for a few hours at a mall.

I called my only friend who hadn't gone on a trip this holiday weekend and asked if he would like to join. He had to take care of something beforehand, so he said he would meet me at the mall.

I decided to go to Festival Walk at Kowloon Tong for the first time to shop (I had been there before just for dinner). I went up to the top floor (maybe 7th, but it's labeled as something else) and found a store with nice clothes and very good sale prices. I bought a skirt and t-shirt for myself and three shirts for my brother. All were 70% off.

My friend met up with me there and we continued shopping around the gigantic mall. I bought some other items I needed and then we had dinner.

By the time we were done with dinner, it was around 9:30 pm. We went back to a store where my friend sort of wanted a jacket, but he finally decided to wait.

Upon boarding the KCR train home, I suddenly realized that I had left my lanyard with my keys in a dressing room. I thought I had left it in Esprit, so I quickly got the number from my receipt and called it. The salespeople said there weren't any keys left in any dressing rooms.

So I called the first store I went into where I tried things on and remembered taking my keys off, but the woman didn't speak or understand English very well. It was time to attempt to use whatever Cantonese I had in me. I somehow got across the fact that I had left my keys in the fitting room, and she affirmed that she found keys. She was saying in Cantonese to pick it up in the morning, but I tried to explain in my Chinglish that I wanted them tonight.

My friend and I got off at the next stop and went back to Kowloon Tong where I ran to the mall and was rushing up the many escalators in the mall when I got a call from the woman from the store. She said in Cantonese that she was at the KCR station. It sounded like she said she was going to get on the train, so I started freaking out and trying to ask her where I could meet her. I realized she wasn't understanding, so I quickly stopped two girls in the mall and asked one of them in Cantonese if she spoke English. She said "Yes," so I asked her if she could translate for me and I handed the phone over to her.

The woman from the store said she was at 7-Eleven by the KCR station. The girls said they were headed that way, so they would come with me. We got to the 7-Eleven, but there was no woman in sight. I tried calling the number, but nobody picked up. I tried calling again, again no answer. Then I got a call back and picked it up and handed the phone over to the girl. I saw two women walking toward us just as the girl asked the woman over the phone if she was wearing a red shirt.

I got my keys back and said "mgoi sai" to everybody and ran back to where I had left my friend earlier (so he wouldn't have to exit the KCR and pay an unnecessary fee).

What an exhausting day. At least I am well enough to be able to run around like I did, though my cough is still pretty bad and I'm somewhat congested.

It seems all the workers I encounter don't know as much English as CUHK students, and I don't know enough Cantonese to understand everything they say to me. Today was definitely the hardest testing of my Cantonese, and I failed miserably (though it may be better than my friend's). I guess I better work harder at making friends with local students who would be willing to teach me Cantonese.

Aiyah.