An afternoon with the locals.

As time progresses, I am getting to know the locals a bit better.  When I first came here I met many of the local on the way to school, but there is a anther street too.  I don't often use this street, however since I met Jie, she has introduced me to the locals and to the old folks who sell simple vegetables on the street.  However, the biggest problem is that they all speak dialect.  Not only do they speak dialect, but they don't understand my Chinese.  I think also they are unfamiliar with foreigners, after all I am about the first one here!, but when they at first don't understand me, most of them are convinced that we will never understand each other and make no further attempts to communicate, except by WeCaht!  It really annoys me when a new person comes to talk to me and one of those who has decided that they can never understand says "Ting budong" meaning he, me, doesn't understand.  From my perspective, if they speak slowly and use mainstream words instead of dialect, I can start to learn....but for them it is much quicker to use WeChat.  Generally the difference between 'regular' Chinese and 'local' Chinese is accent and pronunciation.  I am not convinced that it is actually a dialect.  I believe that if I could speak 'regular' Chinese well , then I could understand 'local' Chinese.  The easiest comparison I can think of is 'regular' English and Geordie.  Officially I don't know if Geordie is a dialect.  It has certain dialect words but generally I can understand it.  I think it would be the same here, however when I send recorded conversations to my Chinese friends from out of the area, they don't understand the local speakers either.  Anyhow back to the point!  At about 11 a.m. I had decided to go and pick up a parcel and send another one.  Just as I ws leaving, I got a text from Jie "What are you doing?"  I said I was just heading off to send a parcel.  She said she was playing in the street.  I said I'd meet her on the way.  I saw her from a distance, and as she approached she walked off into a cu train shop and held the door open for me.  I wandered in.  She sat down at a heated table in the back of the shop, invited me to sit down and opened a big bag of small oranges.  There was a frozen duck in a plastic bag on the floor defrosting nearby. (for those of you familiar with China, it was already dead!)

The shop owner right (I think) and two customers

We sat around for a while and the shop owner took an order from the two people in the left in the video.  The woman is spitting out orange pips ( apologies to her!).  The customers left, and so did the owner.  Jie changed seats to the 'driving seat'.  She is a powerful character and likes to be in charge. 

Jie in the 'driving seat'

The little guy who sat opposite me.  A rarity in China, he was wearing a crash helmet.  Very few people wear them.

The owner returned with a bag of duck eggs ( yes they sell lose eggs in the shops and you put them in a carrier bag and pay per weight).  Everyone seemed excited and ran outside.  I took the opportunity to take a video of the shop.

 Eventually I went outside.  There was a big lorry, with a few people crowded around it.  Best guess was that it was selling wholesale, as people were buying in bulk.  If I was one of the local shop owners, I think I would have been annoyed!  All I could easily see was duck eggs and toilet paper!  I reckon it must have been cheap, as people were buying quite a lot.

vegetable sellers at the side of the 'cheap lorry'

Duck eggs and toilet paper. Centre picture is one of the local street food vendors and Jie is on the right.  One of the duck eggs was broken and the vendor ate it raw.  Evey one was disgusted.  I laughed.  Jie handed me an egg and dared me to eat it raw.  I did.  They were surprised.  It tasted really nice!

The 'chap lorry' and the commotion outside the curtain shop.

After a while the turmoil died down and I told Jie I had to go to town to post a parcel and collect one.  I wandered off, did my business in town and came back.  It was getting late and I had not yet eaten lunch. I invited Jie.  She said she would eat back at the shop.  I met her there, and with hsop owner we had noodles boiled egg and I had a sausage thing.  Not sure what it was, but I had had one yesterday and it had tasted good then too!

 The street food store

After wards we popped back to the shop and had a chat and exchanged photos of family etc.  The shop owner was easier to understand than Jie and took more time to understand me.  The evening drew in and the shop started to get really cold.  Legs under the heated table I was ok, but had to put my hood up.  I wondered why they didn't close the shop door.  it would have made a big difference!  I had slept badly the night before and kept dozing off.  Eventually I decided that it was time to leave.  Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to meet Jie's English teacher, but I a sure that there will be another opportunity for that in the future.
P.S.
The next morning I went out to buy breakfast and 'think' that I met the English teacher.  To be confirmed!