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Treasure from ZhouShan Qundao
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Gu Wei Wei
"Pure" |
It was May 19th, 2001. We had rested overnight in ShangHai after an exhausting three-legged flight yesterday. With our delayed take-off in St. Louis, we had missed our scheduled second leg out of Chicago, but arrived in San Francisco with barely enough time for us to make the third leg. Our luggage ¡K quite another matter ¡K was it still in St. Louis? ¡K or was it enjoying the scenery of some far off spa? Certainly, it wasn't here. |
Our task for today was to buy a few things, especially underwear, to
tide us over until our wandering luggage and us were reconnected. Gao, our tour guide, had recommended we shop during the 45 minutes we would be spending on NanJing Road.
So here we are in the New World Department Store ¡K ten floors of everything we could possibly want ¡K armed with our credit card. Gao had even written a note in Chinese so that we could quickly explain our special needs. No problem ¡K right?
Don't you believe it! Bill is a large man, even in Santa Claus terms. His T-shirts must be generous XXXL. His briefs are similarly proportioned and these are his top priorities. And all the Chinese we speak are what a ShangHai Drivers Ed teacher taught to Virginia on our flight from San Francisco. For all intents and purposes, Bill is deaf and dumb.
As we fumbled with hand signals and carefully enunciated English to no avail, a pretty young Chinese lady asked, in English, if she could help. She stayed with us for all the time we were in the store, though all we were able to buy were two too-small T-shirts for Bill, which Virginia now uses for gardening, and a pair of culottes for Virginia. We would spend the next four days, washing out underwear at night and having our travel clothes laundered on the cruise boat. Luckily, we had a change of clothing in our carry-ones.
The young lady ¡K we thought she was an employee of the New World Department Store. Not so! Her name is Gu Wei Wei and she has taken the English name "Pure". She is a 20-year-old student at the University of ShangHai. When Bill offered her a tip, she said that China does not have this custom. Of course, travelers know that this is changing.
Bill gave her his card showing our address and e-mail address. And she allowed us to take her picture, which we are very proud to display in our home along with those of our family.
To our delightful surprise, we had two e-mail messages from Pure waiting for us when we returned home. We have been corresponding regularly since ¡K weekly while she is in school and daily when she is not.
Pure has sent us photos of her family in ZhouShan Qundao and we have exchanged small gifts with her parents. We are impatiently waiting for a home movie cartridge to be converted to the USA format so that we can enjoy more of her family and culture.
Meeting Pure has been a very heartwarming experience for us. She had said that Bill reminded her of her paternal grandfather, now deceased. We have proudly become her "G'ma and
G'pa".
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