Double Life, Double Happiness (Toys L Us)

Chinese New Year was this past weekend. It kind of slipped my mind this year until my landlord told me about the Chinese New Year party she went to last night where they had live steers (castrated bulls, I just learned the difference) and lots of asians. It sparked something in me so on Saturday I went to Chinatown just try to find some oriental flavour in Lima.


By then New Years Eve and New Years Day and passed and not much was going on in Chinatown. I wanted dragon dance and loud drums but there was none.

I walked up and down the streets, unsure what to do, unsure how to connect to my roots. "Hablas cantones?" I asked one old Chinese lady. She said "No, de que quieres hablar?" (what do you want to talk about?) and actually ran/speed walked away before I could answer. I felt awkward so I walked into Hong Kong Market and bought some soy sauce, which made me feel more silly.

Finally I sat down in a restaurant and ordered a BBQ pork with some veggies and rice. I got to practice my rusty Cantonese after figuring out that my waitress spoke too (using Spanish to ask if someone speaks Cantonese can cause confusion if they do speak Cantonese but not Spanish). She was from Gong Mun (Delta Mouth?) in China, I don't know where that is but we talked a bit in Cantonese and though it was just small talk, it felt good, like something deep inside me working itself loose, dislodging Chinese words and phrases. She took away the fork and knife and brought chopsticks. Her husband was working here in Lima and she had come to join him in September but she was not adjusting well. She still hardly spoke a word of Spanish. Another waiter came over and started talk to me about immigration laws to Canada and asked if I could help him. I told him I probably couldn't and the switching between languages made me dizzy.

The dishes came and they were massive, intended for sharing. I could have used some extra empty stomachs to finish the food.


Before leaving, I asked if she knew which buses went back Miraflores. She waved over a Peruvian waitress and asked her "Meilaflolo?" I couldn't help but laugh at the the perplexed look on the Peruvian girls face. "Miraflores" I explained, careful to enunciate my r's. Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where there's a Toys "L" Us in Chinatown.