One thing that I have particularly enjoyed during the past week is having the opportunity to strike up conversations with random strangers.

Conversation #1: Yesterday evening I went for a walk in my favorite park. On the way back, I passed a woman who was about my age and appeared to be friendly, so I waved and said “Hello!” She seemed very pleased with this. Then I thought to myself: try saying hello again, but in Chinese. So I wave again and say, “Nihao!” She smiles widely and speaks excitedly to me in Chinese, none of which I understand. I know that she has asked me a question or two. I smile, shake my head and shrug my shoulders. Then I wave goodbye.

As I am walking away, I think, maybe I should try using Google Translate to have a conversation with her? So I turn back to her, and I type on my phone, “What was the question you were trying to ask me?” The app turns that into proper Chinese and I show it to her. She smiles widely and types her answer into her phone in Chinese. I point my phone at her phone, and the translation is, “You are so beautiful. What year were you born?” I am somewhat surprised by the question, as I tend not to ask strangers how old they are. However, I just assume that this is normal Chinese manners. So I write, “196x”. (Yes, I am leaving out the details in the retelling of this story.) I show her. She grins again, points at herself, and says, “Me too!”

Then I make a motion to her, oh wait. I take off my baseball cap and pull up a lock of hair, motioning to myself: “My hair is gray, but yours is not.” She giggles a bit. She motions to her own hair, leans over and parts it to show the roots, and says, “Oh, but that’s only because I dye my hair!” We both have a good laugh and I wave goodbye.

It was a lovely, very brief conversation, but so human and friendly.

Conversation #2: My room is right next to the running track, which is an incredible hub of activity once the sun goes down. Due to the orientation of my room, I can only see a small slice of the track. So last night, when a bunch of music started at the track at 8 pm. I went out to see where it was coming from. In the middle of the track, someone had set up a speaker and they were playing Chinese dance music. There were about 30 people dancing some type of line dance in a circle around the speaker. They appeared to be doing something, Macarena-like, but more impressive and complicated. It looked like so much fun. I was really enjoying the music. So I just stood around in the dark to the side, tapping my feet, humming along and enjoying the spectacle of it.

After about 10 minutes two female students come up to me, and start a conversation:

• Them: Hello!
• Me: Hello!
• Them: We’re Tibetan.
• Me: You’re from Tibet?!
• Them: Yes!
• Me: Wow, that’s cool. It must be really different in Beijing than in Tibet.
• Them: Heads nod vigorously The air is very clear in Tibet. deep breath
• Them: The air is not very clear here. Heads shaking
• Me: The air can be bad here. Pantomime of coughing hard
• Them: giggling at my pantomime
• Me: Are you from a city or a rural area in Tibet?
• Them: Our families are animal herders.
• Me: Wow, that’s amazing. What kind of animals?
• Them: Lots of kinds. Sheep, goats and yaks.
• Me: Yaks! Yaks are seriously cool.
• Them: Smiles and head nodding
• Me: Are you here tonight for the dancing? Do you like to dance?
• Them: More head nodding
• Me: Are you two of my students?
• Them: Confused looks
• Me: Oh, sorry. I teach here at CAU. I thought I might not have recognized you. I am teaching Food Science majors and I wasn’t sure whether or not you are both my students.
• Them: No, we aren’t your students
• Me: It’s nice to meet you anyways! What are you studying? Are you vet students?
• Them: No we’re not vet students. We are studying ….(They tried to get Google Translator to work for this, but the answer was incomprehensible. We never did figure it out.)
• Me: Well, it’s been nice talking with you. I don’t want to keep you from your dancing.
• Them: Can we be friends on WeChat?
• Me: Sure!

We exchange our contact info and they disappear into the night. I go back to my room and revel in the fact that I just got to meet two young Tibetans, for the first time. I’d love to meet them again. I’d love to hear about their lives. And I am keen to learn more about their yaks.