Always "the Foreigner"

Last week, the boys and I went to school to serve lunch to hungry classmates. Always a joy.

It was cold and the ground is already frozen with a thick layer of bumpy ice, so I decided to take a taxi home. I usually stay on the same side of the 8-lane street to catch a taxi even though it takes longer to get home. That day, I decided to cross the giant street and try taking the shorter way home.

The wind was whipping and cold. The kids were tired because, once again, I had stayed too long at school, soaking up the conversations with other adults (highly valued these days), and it was almost their nap time. We stood, waving down taxis, for about 10 minutes. Several stopped, but always with another passenger. Do they do that in America? In other Chinese cities? Here, if you tell the driver where you're going and it's in the same direction as the passenger(s) they already have, they'll let you in. Bonus money for them, I suppose. No one was going near our home. Bummer.

So I crossed the street, hopeful for an empty taxi. An empty one means they'll take us straight to our door. One with a passenger means they'll take us to a certain point, then we have to walk 10 minutes.

We waited. And waited. Several stopped, again, no one going in our direction. Then an empty one approached. Malachi and I waved our arms vigorously, letting the driver know we wanted in his car! He zoomed by. A few minutes later, another slew of cars came by. Another empty one passed our waving arms. What in the world?! I may have yelled something like, "Why won't you stop?!" Of course, the boys picked up on it and started yelling random words. Not my greatest Mommy moment. But the frustration was really kicking in.

After a total of 3 empty taxis passed us, finally a dear soul stopped and picked us up. I told him where we wanted to go, then started questioning him. Is it change-over time? Why did several empty taxis pass us? Didn't they see I had 2 young kids and it's freezing outside? He simply replied, "They saw that you're a foreigner and assumed you don't know how to speak Chinese."

And there it was. Another reminder that we'll never fit in this place. Our face prevents that, even if they don't take the time to stop and talk with us.

A great reminder that we're all aliens in this world. Someday we'll all fit in...