No TP for You!

Last night we took a taxi to RT Mart to load up on groceries. That place is a zoo! When we were checking out, the checker-girl was trying to tell us something crucial about the toilet paper we were trying to buy. She rattled off a long string of Chinese, and when our lack of comprehension was obvious, she tried a simpler sentence. It kept going like that- her using shorter sentences and speaking slower and slower, and us repeating “We’re sorrrrry! we don’t speak Chineeeese!” while the crowd around us and the line behind us got bigger and bigger, until finally she whittled it down to a one-word question about the toilet paper: “Tan? Taaaan? TAAAAN?!” (it sounded like that, anyway), and when we couldn’t understand even that!… she took the toilet paper away. Later she took away a few other small things we were trying to buy without trying to explain why.

It was hilarious, but only because we have enough toilet paper at home still.