Night adventure

Last night we had an adventure. I talked Linda into trying to find the stores she went to with Monkey on the bus. So we hopped on the 879 bus and set off to find the Home Depot. We rode the bus for about 35 minutes before Linda said she thought we had gone too far. So we got off intending to cross the street and take the bus home when we realized we didn't have any change - buses require exact change - 1.5 Yuan or RMB which is about $0.20 US. So we decided to go to a store up the street and look around before we took a taxi home. We went into the Vanguard store (a chain that is all over in Tianjin) which is like a combination KMart and grocery store. We picked up several items: more slippers for visitors to wear in our house, long underwear for tonight. When we went to get in line they were horrendous. It was already 9 PM so after waiting in line for 5 or 10 minutes and not moving we decided to just head home. So we put our stuff down and went out and hailed a taxi. I very confidently gave our address to the taxi driver and we set off. After about 10 minutes, He repeated a street name that didn't sound quite right so I repeated our street name at which he got very excited and repeated our street name very slowly for us and I repeated it back to him. He then gave us a lecture in Mandarin about where we were and how we were not in the right location and how stupid foreigners need to learn to speak the language and how this was going to wreck his night. (Of course I didn't understand a word of it so I'm making all that up). So we got going the right way and in about 15 minutes we were home. His meter registered 36 Yuan but he refused to take more than 20. I apologized for not speaking well and he laughed and said he didn't hear well and we left on very good terms. I tried to offer him 25 Yuan but he refused and gave me back 5 Yuan - that's only about .70 US and didn't make that much difference to us but I have a feeling it was a sacrifice for him. Once again I was impressed with the character of the Chinese people.
Linda and I consider this a good learning experience and we're ready for another adventure today.