Yet another nickname

先是跑步女，然后是跳绳女。。。然后什么？ First running girl, then skipping girl.. what's next?

Yesterday at the gym I couldn’t find neither Rocky nor Frank when I first arrived, so I asked for them in the reception.

-Oh, they are not here, they have gone for dinner, said the guy I asked.

OK I thought and went to the changing room to change. Five minutes later I heard Rocky call ‘You La, You Laaaaaa!’ from outside the changing room. I quickly changed and went out to him, handing over the photos. Oh, and when I came out I bumped into Frank too.

-You guys are not out for dinner?

-No… I am having a lesson right now and Frank has been here all the time. We are not going to go out for dinner today, we are going to eat later in the backroom.

(Got to love how some Chinese people answer you when they don’t know the answer to your question: they just make something up!)

We all went into the stretching room where Rocky’s customer (a Taiwanese girl) was patiently waiting. When she saw me she went:

-你是跳绳女，是不是？ Ah, you’re the skipping rope girl!!!

-Eh, I am?

-Yes! Always skipping! Me and my friends call you skipping girl!

-Righty.

(So I am You La in Hunan, Skipping girl at the gym, Fat girl in some Chinese people’s eyes, Big feet in Shanghai’s shoe shops, and Running girl at my university. –Wow, I am rather impressed. I’ve never had a real ‘nickname.’)

We looked at all the photos, which they loved (yey!) and they were all rolling on the floor laughing when I tried to imitate the dialect that the older people had spoken.

They also found it very interesting that I had photographed a lot of people that we met on the street and that I didn’t know. They kept asking me:

-Who’s that person, who’s she, who’s he?

And I was just like:

-Eh… I don’t know. He’s just someone. And those people were just walking on the street… ehhh, I don’t know?

-So why did you photograph them?

-Ehhhh....

(yeah good question? Because they went so well with the background?! Gosh, I don’t even know myself!)

All in all it was a hit though, and now I am going to prepare the package for the family Yang in Hunan. Thanks for all of your advices! I will probably add some chocolate (wrapped in red), some cosmetic, maybe a package of snus (Swedish substitute to cigarettes –the dad smokes), and a letter. I am also going to ask Frank and Rock if I can take some photos of them at work, that I can send to their families. I bet the family would really appreciate that (although I guess if I walk around the gym with a camera I will become ‘camera girl’