harbin cabbie convo

had an interesting convo with my cabbie tonight. I show him the screenshot of my hotel info which includes the name and address in English and Chinese. he looks at it and says "I can't read this." I respond "i can't either!" "you can't read either?!" "nope!" he gives me a look and reads it, confirms the location, and tells me to get in.

we drive a bit in silence. then he asks "what are you, Korean?" "nope, I'm American." "oh, yeah, I didn't think you were ugly enough to be Korean." lol.

we talk a bit. where I was born, how come I know Chinese, what my parents do, how much they make, yadda yadda. I mention that my dad's retired. he asks how old. I him he's about 70. cabbie gives me a look. "I'm 32!" "you don't look it."

he thinks a bit. "you came here alone?" "yup" "aren't you married?" "nope" "why not? you're so old already. don't you want children?" "I don't think I like marriage, and no, I don't like children." he gives me a look. "you Americans have too much freedom. girls should get married and have children. in my generation, you got married and had children. if you didn't have children right away we blamed the woman. she must be sick or something. and the husband would kick her out to find another wife." I knew this, but we've had a fun conversation so far so I'm just being me when I reply "well that's stupid. what if it's not her fault? what if she wants children but *he* can't have them?" he looks at me. "we say that the woman is sick. it's like a chicken who cannot lay eggs. you kill the chicken." I laugh, "but women are not chickens!" he mumbles "it's just an analogy!"

I laugh again "good thing I'm American!" he concurs. we chat a bit more about other things. as I'm getting out of the cab he admonishes me to get married soon, before I'm too old. I laugh.