We got really tight with our new friends.

 We got really tight with our new friends. We often make connections with folks who rent rooms at our house. This pair from China made it to "next level single serving friends." Today we took them to have something they have never tried "Mexicans food" we took em to our favorite spot, the Mercado. Actually our friends still haven't tried Mexican food since they got dishes from the Cuban truck.
 I got the "dirty Diaper special" aka Mole plate. After eating and discussing everything from politics, romance, fashion, life and the daily grind we decided to take them to see us depicted in the train station mural. 
We talked a lot and Olive and I have been taking a crash course in Mandarin. It's very embarrassing to me that I don't know many Chinese phrases. They do appreciate that I know a lot of Chinese history, politics and culture. They seemed surprised. I don't blame them. Americans are known for not knowing things. They 
say that all the world is into American culture but why isn't America hip to any world culture. I have to explain to them that our country is groomed to mentally never leave high school. Our people think of leaders like sports teams and have too much groupthink to tolerate or see the value in understanding other cultures. 
China used to suck royally as well. They come from a place that had no pop culture for a long time under Chairman Mao. Everyone wore a uniform and music was only to glorify the state. Our friends like that we can speak out against the leaders here. In China you go to jail for speaking the way do freely. We made it clear that we don't like 45, they thought his trade war was unnecessary and ugly. We agree. 

All of us noticed how our respective country's are wondrous places full of interesting cultures, cuisine and traditions but also plenty of dumb-asses and authoritarians who make things suck. 
We are all smarter people after spending this week getting in each other's heads. They worked similar hours to us so we had a chance to chill out together a lot. 

Took friends to first Mexican food, they choose the Cuban. These particular patrons have zero points of reference looking at a line of carts containing cuisine from all over Latin America. So it's the photos of the food that made the deal. Fidel won this round. I had the Mole plate. That looks like a dirty diaper so I can forgive them for not throwing up a glamour shot of that mess.

Unlike most of the guests, they are not on vacation. They were at home. We related to their hustle and teamwork because that is what we employ as well. 

Now It's close to the end of our single serving friendship. 
They will go on to other adventures and we will miss them. 
When we met it was mutual suspicion and mechanical courtesy. As the days went on we started eating together, having awkward silences, sharing and ignoring each other...and now we kind of jelled. 
They giggle with Olive a lot and we hang allover each other like we been friends for years. We won't see them again most likely but we will always remember the great connections and think of them when we use their language. 
It may come in handy, some folks from Taiwan are due to land in one of the rooms tomorrow.
 :) zàijiàn

We have been "single serving" friends to a couple of cool cats from China

We have been "single serving" friends to a couple of cool cats from China. 

There is a bit of a language barrier but that's my fault. They were nice enough to show up knowing a lot of my language. 

They are a riot. One of them was brave enough to ask for a ride on my tallbike. It was super funny. They got really animated. 

Afterwards the question was about something else they had never tried but heard a lot about. Mexican food.

"citizen's auxiliary, nosy, spy, prank, and neutralization klub"

We live in a place that rents out rooms. Lately it's been several pairs of 20somthing women. 
We hit it off with the pair of Canadian friends, now we miss them. 
Currently we have New Jersey and Washington DC in one room and China in the other. 
The Chinese women were much different than the usual couples and friends on Vay Cay. The women from China are here for work. We hung out with them for a long time last night. 
When they first saw us, they had no idea what we were about. "Why you dress like daaaa? Is it festeeva?" We say "No were are the house clowns." "Like actor, Movee staa?" Me: Yeah, we are big movie stars, we are huge here, and in Bogota." 
I hadn't asked where they were from. They eventually said that they are with a Chinese firm. 
They were proud to be some of the few people from China allowed to travel the world (this raised a huge commie red flag). They are here working for marketers in the animation field. As I was defragging what was said it dawned on me. These are humans from communist China. 
I instantly and invisibly put on my "citizen's auxiliary, nosy, spy, prank, and neutralization klub" (C.A.N.S.P.A.N.K.) badge.
 If they are up to any espionage or subterfuge against our country I will sniff it out and lay down a few spoilers and red herrings. Your welcome Uncle Sam, glad to help. 
We continued our counter espionage diplomacy with them until late at night. It was a nice time and they were really delighted when we said goodnight to them in their language.
 I was gonna take a photo of them and Olive but after I got the camera I realized that everyone in the room were gorgeous millennials in skimpy clothing lounging in front of a fan. 
If the cameras come out, it's gotta be their idea not mine (or I look like a creepy douche). 
We have a week to get in their heads and take good photos. We will see what happens. 
Dig this...I could (and should) be wrong about them. They were wrong about us. "We thought you worked for Disneylaaaa." Hahaha. 
But it's still good to keep that security culture up and running all the time. 
It's civic duty. 
E Pluribus Unum!

Wal-marketing.

Our town has divested in Walmart. I'm so happy to see this. My eyes are always trained on watching leaders make crap moves I almost missed seeing them act very insightful and beneficially to our lil corner of the world. 
Walmart is like a giant, mega trawler lumbering along gobbling up everything in it's path.
I can't think of anything less American than a car manufactured in Mexico, idling in a Walmart parking lot, filled with Saudi gas and sporting an American flag made in Taiwan. W.T.F?
I don't personally trust any organisation that is bigger than the local school house.

Lets follow a plastic chair. From it's start being brutally manufactured (in a puff of smog) in China by a "next to slave" laborer, then it gets shipped in lots of puffs of smog to our country, then an underpaid worker stocks it at Walmart and sells it for way less than any local small biz can sell wooden chairs. The consumer takes the plastic chair home. It lives as a chair for under 10 years or so. As it breaks down in the weather, grit fills the tiny holes making the chair always appear dirty. Eventually it gets thrown out to be burned (in a puff of smog) or thrown in a landfill to slowly leach chemicals into the soil. Who wins? Rich guy in Arkansas and some Chinese business men, who loses? every one else. I see any item made of plastic like a drop of ink in a bathtub, at first it's just a perfect round orb in clear water. After a long time though...it's mostly gone and all the water is irreversibly tinted with poison blue. If you don't fight for your world then you don't deserve a world. Just say'in

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