ATM

Today I had a very strange experience. I was downtown with some friends enjoying the weather which was about 82 today. I ran out of money after lunch so I went to the ATM to get some cash. When I got in there I was waiting in line behind a few people - probably around 6 or 7 but that only means about two different groups since everybody goes together for these types of adventures. So there were two ATM machines and an unusually large group of around 10 teenage kids was in the line next to me.

To my suprise one of the girls starts to talk to me in English and quite good english. This is suprising because usually younger people are very shy but even more suprising was that she was asking me to help her with the ATM! I was quite taken back. I'm a foreigner in China and I don't speak Chinese and she asks me to help her. Not a bank teller. Not another Chinese person, but the foreigner. It seriously took me about 30-45 seconds to finally help her because I was not understanding why she was asking me. The machines have Chinese (and English) writing! I remember saying "Me?"..."but I'm a foreigner" This didn't seem to bother her so I said I would try. Eventually by reading a poorly translated error I figured out that the machine was out of money.

She was only 12 with great English and had never used an ATM before.