Language is a wonderful thing

We were stumbling around as usual tonight trying to figure out how to eat something by pointing, using sign language, etc. Bill wanted shish-ka-bobs but he didn't want the ones the guy was trying to sell him because they had too much fat on them.... so he picked these other ones that he thought looked like beef. I told him I thought they looked like chicken gizzards. He thought that's ok, I like chicken gizzards. Then, he bit into one and, in disbelief, he took another bite...it was liver. He absolutely hates liver! He shuddered at having the taste in his mouth til we came across a McDonald's (they & KFC have a good point and pick menu so we go there lately when we can't figure out somewhere else to go). The guy that cooked the skewers must have been shaking his head at Bill when he wanted 8 liver skewers and then after taking a couple bites, gave them all back.

We had another funny "lack of language skills" story in Yunnan. We were at this tea tasting place. They used this toy that "peed" on us to prove the tea was hot (you pour hot water/tea on this little guy and he pees). I thought that was pretty funny. We had to buy some tea to get one so if you come over for tea, we'll demonstrate for you our authentic tea experience in China. Anyway, Bill was first in line for the next demonstration in our "tea party". Charlie told him that the tea leader had said he was supposed to lick the cup. Bill sometimes does things first and then thinks after so he licked the cup right away, much to Charlie's amusement. We were all supposed to just SMELL the cup, not LICK it! The chinese people in the room must have been wondering why was this strange foreigner (lao wai) licking the cup that they were supposed to smell !?