Vase Chase

It was International Women’s Day a few days ago, giving our foreign languages department a reason to show us a random and poorly communicated act of kindness. After a standardly awkward phone call, I had a tall, fan-like bouquet of roses, gerber daisies, and chrysanthemums (I totally spelled that correctly on the first try- can I get a ‘kudos’ please?) sitting in my living room. They stuck the flower stems in a chunk of green foam, which teetered precariously on my coffee table under the weight of the flowers, sending me on a quick search through my apartment. The only option I had for an appropriate container was my tea pot…

I needed a vase.

So, yesterday, after a fulfilling and substantial lunch at our favorite diner (I use the word ‘diner’ very loosely), Heidi and I pass a woman selling vegetables and other knick-knacks on the street.

(Vendors on the street are very different from what we are accustomed to in the U.S. If I’m at the farmer’s market, and I make eye contact with a vendor, I will receive a nod and smile, perhaps a hello, depending on their level of extroverted-ness, and I will walk by unscathed. If I show a remote amount of interest in their product, then a few behaviors are possible: small talk about the weather, a scarf I’m wearing, a hat they are wearing, a polite inquiry of what I’m looking for, how they can help, a ‘let me know if I can help you with anything’, maybe a sampling if it is food, or indifference about my presence until I actually want to buy something. I’m in my world, they are in theirs, and that’s the American, private, polite way.)

Being tall, white, and blonde, I already draw enough attention to myself in the street. I DON’T NEED HELP IN THIS ARENA. So they were already aware of my walking by. But as I was walking by, I noticed some awesome, dried, hollowed out gourds for sale. Much to my chagrin, I glanced down, slowed my gait, and went, “hmm.” Rooooookieeee.

She instantly started talking to me, and I said I wasn’t interested, and quickly walked away.

When I caught up to Heidi, Heidi goes, “You DO want a vase, don’t you? Get the gourd!” I had let my strong aversion to being heckled take me away from something I actually wanted. So we headed back, two strong.

Heidi picked up a small one, and I was checking out the bigger ones as the vendor was making small talk. She barely came up to our shoulders, and was quite sweet, with a bubbly laugh and rough, overworked hands. When she saw Heidi pull out her wallet, the women goes “NO NO NO! just take it, it doesn’t matter, they are so cheap and little. No big deal no big deal!” I don’t know about you, or what you would do in this situation, or even what would have been the most appropriate or most polite for something that little and insignificant like a gourd. But to Heidi and me, it was the principle of the exchange, not the price.

We engaged in a battle. She was forcing the money back into our pockets, we were taking it out again and shoving it into her hands, back and forth, back and forth as her giggling grew to an overwhelming guffaw. Finally, reluctantly, Heidi and I conceded. But as the woman’s back was turned, we shoved the money into a box that held bags and other supplies right before we took off.

We got her. We won. Neener.

As we were congratulating ourselves for our counter-intuitive bargaining skills and morally superior victory, we hear some soft footsteps behind us- the woman was about a yard away from our purses, money in hand, ready to slip it in- we never heard her coming! We backed our butts and purses away so she wasn’t able to reach them as her giggling began again.

“You keep it you keep it!” And we took off running with her silent scuttling following us. She slowed down and gave up quickly, but we were already completely impressed. We never heard her coming… and for a woman of over 60 to move that quickly and silently? What do these woman eat? Super rice?

So fun. After a semester and a half in this country, province, and city, I feel as though I finally have a hint of an understanding of the existing M.O. of the people here, and understanding that has made me much more comfortable in interactions and conversations. This vase chase was a sign of that.

Another Victory.