Notable meetings

The little seller of flowers

We then go back to the hotel where we find the girl who came to get us and her sister who studies at the HEC. I remember that it’s a great school from “Questions for a champion”, a shout out to my grand parents whom I love very dearly and miss a great deal. We go up to get ready, but when we come back down, they tell us that they have to go. To go eat, we head towards an alley with “Islamic Street of Xian” written at its entrance. We go into a small street full of people and very noisy with lots of restaurants vendors. We walk and observe. A little voice asks us in English if we want flowers. Dad who had his eyes on his camera looks up to say no thank you but sees no one. Again, this little voice asks us the same question. Dad lowers himself and finds himself in front of a little eight-year-old girl, selling flowers. This little girl, very adorable, wants to sell us some flowers so dad asks how much they costs and asks for two flowers instead of three. Finally he takes three and invites this adorable girl and her mother to join us for dinner, but she refuses because she doesn’t want to have debts towards the restaurant manager. Therefore we decide to eat only the three of us: dad, the assistant and me. Towards the end of our meal, I see the little girl sitting on a small table next door, eating noodle and since I find her so adorable I gather all my strength to say “bon apétit” in Chinese. But she doesn’t understand me and Liu Jia tells her what I meant to say. While talking with her, we learn that she comes from a very poor village in the Lanzhou region. I go back to my table when a lady from the restaurant brings us three Chinese fruit juices and I decide to give mine to the little girl and I’m happy because she’s happy. Then, we head back towards the hotel and walk towards a novelty store. Further down, we pass in front of another hotel and we notice that the prices are two times cheaper. So we might switch to save up and stick to the budget. We then encounter a street festival and find it fun. We pass in front of a McDonald’s where I try to find an ice-coffee to stay awake to write my text, but I don’t find any. So I decide to drink a tea, write and sleep.