An interesting dinner

Max and I decided to stroll over to the small outcrop of restaurants and shops outside of our main campus gate for some dinner this evening. We found a nice restaurant down a few allies. The real reason we chose this particular restaurant was A. the restaurant actually had patrons and B. the horrible smell that had been lingering in the allies had finally dissipated. After struggling with the menu for a few minutes a swarm of waiters approached our table and began asking us questions, thankfully I was much better at oral communication than written.

I ordered us a few dishes, which turned out to be pretty interesting. About halfway through our dinner, one of the small private dinning rooms burst with giggling girls and screaming boys. Within the room we could see boys and girls running around covered in birthday cake and one boy in particular whose entire face was covered in frosting. It was refreshing to see kids having a good time and enjoying themselves. I had only seen students on campus thus far. At the end of dinner we paid the bill and Max asked if we should leave a tip. In all of my experiences in China, tipping is never done at restaurants, but the waiters had been nice. We decided to leave a 4 yuan tip, which is roughly 80 cents US.

Max and I strolled back out into the night towards our campus. About 100 yards down the road we heard a motor scooter approaching dangerously close behind us. We turned around to see one of the young waiters from the restaurant flagging us down. He told me that we had forgotten our 4 yuan. I assured him that it was a tip and that it was his. He asked me one more time. "No it's for you," I told him (or my garbled Chinese equivalent). He smiled and turned his scooter back into the darkness.