A woman on a bus, a man on a bench...

Interesting things happen all the time, I'm sure this is not just a Lhasa phenomenon. I think it's what happens when you walk listening attentively to the Spirit... or even not so attentively listening!

Yesterday I went to do the most ordinary thing: pick up a package from the post office. An activity that I have completed successfully many times and has little adventure left to it, so I thought. When will I learn not to take it for granted that everything will be normal and that adventure wears off?

I hopped on a bus because I have had a cold and cannot breathe when I am riding my bike. The lady that I plopped down next smiled and in crystal clear English said "where are you from?" After regaining my balance from almost falling out of the seat (it never fails to catch me off guard when someone in this city speaks English, I don't know what I'm going to do when I go home) I responded and we had an extremely pleasant conversation for the rest of the bus ride. Next week we will have tea together... who knows what will happen after that?

Because I took the bus I arrived at the post office a little too early. Since I had half an hour to kill, I decided to walk over to the little park in front of the Potala Palace and rest and do a little people watching. I had only just sat down, seriously, the seat wasn't even warm, when this little Chinese man yells out at me "Wei!" and comes on over to share the bench with me. This man, unlike the lady on the bus, did not speak one single word of English, not even "hello". I know because for the entire half hour he proceeded to talk to me, even though the full extent of my Chinese vocabulary is maybe three dozen words and a handful of phrases (most of which are related to buying and eating food). After a while I explained to him (miraculously) that I had to go to the post office, so I got up to leave and from what I could understand he decided that he was going to help me, because I obviously did not speak Chinese and needed his help, at least so he thought.

However, I have been to the post office many times, and this man, from all appearances once we got inside, had never been. He was walking up to the wrong counters, he was talking to all the people, the ladies (who I KNOW because I've been there often) were speaking to me in English and he was translating for me into Chinese! We had to wait a minute while someone went to get the packages and the man proceeded to demand that they give me my boxes. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on, or what he thought he was doing, or what I was expected to do in response. After recieving my boxes from the confused postal workers I expalined to the man (miraculously) that I was going home. "xie xie ni" I called as I dashed out of the door for fear that he would "help" me get home.

And the adventure continues...