Moment #516. Chinese at out-of-town buffet. Tue, Jan 24, 2006.

01/24/2006. I went to lunch at a Chinese buffet in a town about 1 hour from Indianapolis. I took in my big black bag of books in various languages. My standard Chinese restaurant set includes English, Traditional Chinese, Simmplified Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Spanish. The waitress/hostess seated me, and asked my drink preference. I thought about putting out the Chinese books prior to going to wash my hands and getting my first plate. Usually I want to be there to witness the waitress' first impression so I decided against it. But I think I should have put them out first.

After getting my first plate, I put out three books (both kinds of Chinese, plus an English one underneath one of the Chinese copies), and then a different waitress came by. She came by a couple times for me and other customers before finally noticing the books. She didn't say anything the first time she noticed them, and there didn't seem time to strike up a conversation.

Finally, she came by and inititiated a conversation about them. Her English seemed limited to very little besides restaurant vocabulary, and she said she couldn't read English. But I think I got across the idea that she might be able to learn by reading both together. She ended up accepting a Simplified Chinese and an English copy, and accepting another pair for anyone else.

I used to put addresses and food recommendations in these reports that I sent to the ward mission leader and some friends. But I decided to withhold that information from public posts.

Driving home from this lunch appointment led to the next placement.