Caught up in the craziness of National Holiday a few weeks ago, I neglected to share a story with you that was such a classic “China moment:”
Erin and I were sitting in the backseat of a taxi in Kunming, having just returned from a week in the village. It was a rainy, dreary day; dark thunderclouds covered the sky while rain poured down. As we were riding from the airport back to our apartment, all we could talk about was how badly we wanted western food for lunch! After a week of village food, we were craving pizza!
There was one major issue, however: we were too tired and it was raining too hard to go all the way to a western restaurant. Thank goodness for delivery!!
We called a restaurant in Kunming appropriately called Lazy Bones, which specializes in delivery. Erin and I had decided on our order: 1 personal pepperoni pizza, 1 personal barbeque chicken pizza, and 1 order of cheese garlic bread. Delicious! Our mouths were watering just talking about what we wanted to order.
Our craving for pizza was so overwhelming that we called Lazy Bones to place our order from the taxi. As with all delivery orders, the Lazy Bones employee (who is Chinese and speaks a little English) began by asking my name, phone number, and address. Once all the formalities were out of the way, he asked in broken English, “What would you like today?” I said, “1 pepperoni pizza, 1 barbeque chicken pizza, and cheese bread.”
He paused for a minute and explained that they did not have pepperoni pizza. “No problem,” I replied; and we ordered a cheese pizza instead. Then he said, “You also want buffalo chicken?” Yes, and one barbeque chicken pizza. “I would also like an order of cheese bread.” He said okay, no problem.
We went over the order one more time, he promised the food would be delivered within an hour, and we hung up the phone. Erin and I could hardly contain our excitement!! Nothing is better than pizza after a long, tiring week in the village!
Sure enough, less than an hour later, our door buzzed – the delivery man had arrived! I swooped in, handed him cash, and practically sprinted to the kitchen table. A bit confused, I realized there was only one large pizza box. “Strange,” I thought. Perhaps they had put both personal pan pizzas in the same box to conserve cardboard. I was sure it wasn’t a problem. Of course, the delivery man also gave us something wrapped in foil and another small plastic container. We had more things than we had ordered, but the delivery man was long-gone at this point. Oh well, we thought he must have given us part of someone else’s order.
Erin and I gathered around the kitchen table, ready to enjoy our feast. We had no idea how many surprises were in store for us… first, we opened the pizza box. SURPRISE! There was only one pizza! What?!?! We ordered two pizzas, why did they only give us one cheese pizza?? Ugh, we were annoyed.
Next, we opened the plastic container…SURPRISE! It was filled buffalo wings. “Where did these come from?” we wondered.
Finally, we unwrapped the foil… SURPRISE! It was a cheeseburger. What in the world?!? Someone must be playing a joke on us!!
Seriously, Lazy Bones delivered us 1 cheese pizza, buffalo wings, and a cheeseburger. That is not at all what we ordered!! We ordered 1 pepperoni pizza, 1 barbeque chicken pizza, and cheese bread. How did this happen??
As we thought about it, we started to piece the puzzle together… We received a cheese pizza because there was no pepperoni – makes sense. We received buffalo wings because the employee thought that is what I meant when I ordered a barbeque chicken pizza. We received a cheeseburger because the employee didn’t understand when I said cheese bread – he heard cheeseburger.
Erin and I just looked at each other and laughed. Really China?!? Why is everything here, even a simple task, so difficult? You just never know what you’re going to get or how things will turn out …
Even though our order wasn’t anywhere close to what we wanted, the food was delicious and it was our comic relief for a rainy day!
