I always say hello to the lady and her son when I see them but I'm rarely ever able to communicate anything beyond that, but she always remembers my name... I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never learned their names — and they only know mine because a nice lady on the 7th floor who has impeccable English talks to me sometimes and has apparently told people my name....
Earlier in the week I was passing the bank on the corner of our building when my neighbor came rushing out and tried to tell me about some free ticket deal at the theater. I got about 60% percent of what she was saying but I was missing the critical bits so it was pretty hopeless. I felt really bad because I could tell she was trying to do me a favor, but I thought she wanted to take me somewhere or get me to buy some product or something. We couldn't communicate and we finally had to awkwardly give up — with both of us feeling a bit frustrated. I thought it was really sweet of her to try though.
Then today on my way back from the convenient store (with yet another meal of salad and yogurt) I ran into her and her son. He speaks some English so she really excitedly told him to start telling me about the tickets.
"We put the movie tickets in your mailbox so please feel free to use them," he said.
I was floored to say the least. I went inside, found them in my box with a nice note in English explaining what they were and I was so touched... I immediately wrote a thank you card and went down to the local dessert shop and bought an assortment of fancy cakes and took it over. I tried to leave really quickly but the mom insisted that the son give me two cans of some drink from Germany...turns out it was a dark malt of some kind... I think I drank a beer tonight.... Hell has frozen over. Ha ha. It was actually ok though, so I'm not sure if it really was beer or not... But it was very sweet of them so I gave it a try and will actually be happy to drink the second can later. A few minutes after I took over the cake I was sitting in my apartment with...very few articles of clothing on because it was hot and I was saving electricity... when I heard a knock on my door. I ran around frantically trying to get clothes on as I heard another knock and then my dying-duck-doorbell went off before I could get a shirt on. When I finally got dressed and to the door the boy and his sister — who I've never seen — were standing outside to tell me that when I wanted to use the tickets I needed to go reserve the seats first.
Today was definitely one of those days where my lack of Chinese broke my heart, but it was really a special thing to have happen. They are definitely some of the nicest neighbors I've ever had — certainly far better than the psychotic, axe-murderer, screamer kings that live right next door that call security on me for talking on the phone... in a normal voice... urk...
Wow! What an awesome story. And the heartbreak I understand. I felt it every time we had Japanese guests, especially the elderly couple who were so very sweet!When I saw a note about this on Facebook, I thought it was the psycho neighbors but this is so much nicer. And, yes, it was some kind of beer. There are sweet ones. Ha!
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