An Answer to That Question

How did you meet?

It's all documented here. . . .

Tuesday, May 24, 2005
On Sunday night that guy at the gym (who always attempts to talk to me in English) asked me to wait for him. Of course I didn't because I had to go home and take a shower. Plus, what would we do if we couldn't talk to each other? But again tonight he pursued. It is actually quite sweet because he gives English his best shot! He told me that I am 'a woman good' and that he likes me. Maybe I'll take him out for a beer with the other foreign teachers sometime. We'll see.

Wednesday, June 1, 2005
The last couple days have been amazing. On Monday night my 'friend' was at the gym and friendly as ever. When I finished working out I hung around talking to him and the sweet girl who works there (not sure of her name, but she can speak some English!). My friend went downstairs to shower and I waited around for Nancy to finish. Coincidentally, we all ended up leaving the gym at the same time. He--Tao Ming (I now know his name!) offered to give me a ride home on his bike. No, not bike as in moped or motorcycle, but bike as in bicycle. Oh shit, I thought. . . I'm going to hang off the back of this thing like all the Chinese girls do.

But, luckily, we just walked. He stopped and bought me a yogurt drink (very popular in China). When we got to my apartment I ran upstairs and grapped my Lonely Planet phrasebook to help along our conversating. We talked for over an hour. He can read English and is picking it up rather quickly. He asked me about my family and told me about his family and told me he was happy because he was with me. Aww! Oh, and on the walk home we saw some foreigners--which I called "Laowai" (which means 'foreigner' but maybe is a little derogatory) and he laughed like crazy. He corrected me, evidently "Waiguoren" is a more politically correct term.

Anyways, as we were standing outside, about to say good-bye, it began to rain. So we stood under the doorway of my apartment and he gave me a kiss.

TO BE CONTINUED. . .

Footnote: That friend, who later became my husband, is (as you probably know) Zhao Ming and not Tao Ming as earlier referred to.