In my previous post I wrote about the school I attended back in China (which actually is still there and educating young minds) and about the fun things my friends and I used to do. If you haven't read the first post about my two best friends I encourage you to read it to get some background info. Click here.
The school was located on a smaller road that branched off the major road in my city, Taiyuan, Shanxi. There were a few shops on street corners that sold toys, food, and school supplies, and there were also tarp shops. Tarp shops are people who sell the same things in smaller quantities off tarps in the street. The merchant sits on the ground behind their tarps and sell things to students (I will refer to them as tarps). Our teachers would always warn us to stay away from them; not to buy anything. We always heeded their warnings...but we bought things anyway.
There was this beef jerky they used to sell that I was addicted to. I loved the spicy sauce, the tough beef and the saltiness, but I never had any money to buy it. So when my friends had some cash we would all share in the deliciousness. The tarps also sold BB guns, small toys, big toys, race cars, school uniforms, hats and handkerchiefs. In my school we had to wear a uniform, a yellow hat and a small red handkerchief we tied around our necks to signify that we were students (as if the uniform wasn't enough). Often times students would lose a hat or handkerchief which would result in big trouble with our teachers. The smart tarps would sell these things at ridiculously high prices, but we had no choice; either cough up the money or suffer the consequences. Once a parent and a tarp started arguing about returning the hat. The tarp would not admit to selling it and the parent would not relent from returning it. She ended up throwing the hat at the guy and sent her son to school. Soon a teacher was brought out, but the tarp still stuck to his guns. I don't know what happened, we had to go to class. I would have loved to see how that went down.
There was also a street vendor a block from the school who sold shiskabobs. We choose the vegetables, meat, or whatever else they had and cooked it on either salty or spicy pots of water. This was our after school snack and it was extremely cheap. We would buy at least 10 every time. Eventually, a bunch of our friends got food poisoning from it and our parents forbid it. We also heeded their command but we continued to eat it anyway.
One of the three amigos always had some money to buy stuff. He once bought a BB gun, cocked it on his belt and walked into school. I thought he was dead for sure but the teacher never caught him. The other amigo didn't really care, but he bought stuff every now and then. I never had any money to buy stuff. I was tired of bumming off my friends for food so I decided to take some money from my parents. They kept a stash of 10 cent currencies in the drawer so every morning I took a few of those while they were cooking so I can buy a few small toys. This went on about three days. One morning my mother sent me to school and before she left she saw me buy a toy from a tarp (I thought she left already). So naturally she asked where I got the money...uhhhhhh crap. I said that I was late to school and ran to class. Never have I ever been so relieved to hear the school bells ring and never thought I'd dread the end of school till that day. When I got home my mother and father had a serious face and talked to me about stealing. I thought I would surely be punished severely, but to my surprise they sat me down and talked to me politely, lovingly. I appreciated that. So I showed them all the toys I bought, half of which I had already lost, haha. I was so stupid.
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