5/4/2011
Everything seems to be coming to an end, whether we like it or not.
Today we interviewed the 煎饼果子uncle. He was warm and friendly towards us, and we were joking to the extent of suggesting him opening his own store in Ngee Ann’s Makan Place, sure that his store would have one of the best businesses around.
After doing our interview segment (which lasted for around 5 minutes +), we decided to head back to class. On our way back, I wanted to pick up a 肉饼to contain my hunger and the uncle saw me trying to pay for it. He insisted I take my money back and said it was on the house. He also got a shop assistant to hand me a packet of soymilk to go with it.
This is the 2nd time in my life I receive free food.
I feel quite shameless to retell the 1st.
1st time was a Saturday night my friends decide to dye/perm/cut/highlight their hair. We had eaten a bowl of grass noodles from a nearby store and I wanted a biscuit from the barbeque store. I pointed to the biscuit and he prepared for me, adding extra sauce and seasoning. When one of my friends came over and he recognized her as one of the Singaporean students that always go to his stall for dinner, he asked me whether I was with them
I should have said no.
He saw my friends calling out to me, and told me that the biscuit was on him
I turned bright red. I never believed in making someone pay for my own meals, and I always insisted on paying the bill, and taking free food was just… shameless to me. Initially I took his gesture as to be bad, he was belittling me for being unable to pay for my own snacks and meals. Singaporean shop owners will at most offer you discounts and free gifts, but the way they do it in china is to insist you take it, free of charge. Is this their style of hospitality? It’s so different from Singapore’s which doesn’t feel real and from the heart to me, but business is business and they earn their living from the stall, so taking away a chance to earn isn’t very fair of me.
I feel guilty inside. I must quit being a selfish person.
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