Just the other day I got in a cab since I was in a rush to get to the bus station from where I take the bus to school on Wenesdays. After telling the old guy where to take me, he proceeded to ask me a slew of questions: where exactly I was going, what bus I was taking, suggesting an alternate bus stop... now chatty banter is one thing, but this guy was annoying me, perhaps a little more than usual since I was in a rush and feeling rather impatient.

Why couldn't he just do his job, take a simple request and drive me there? No I didn't want to try a different bus stop or route- lest I get lost or take a different bus with a schedule that I was unfamiliar with... I was already cutting it close and all of his questions were just too much for me to handle. I told him politely and firmly more than once to just take me to the bus station as I had requested.

Then he started in on the personal questions(all of this exchange was going on in Mandarin Chinese): What do you do? Where are you from? And then he asked the most hilarious question of all: "Ni shi da lu mei ma?" (which I will loosely translate from Mandarin Chinese as: Are you a Mainland China babe?) That's the most hysterical thing I've ever been asked! Not only is my Mandarin Chinese not very fluent, but I've often been told that I have a funny westerner's accent. I don't think that it was a compliment but more a reflection on the poor old cab driver's failing faculties... he didn't seem to be "really with it." Or perhaps he was just a lonely old man trying to strike up conversation with a young single woman.