Two women stopped in at our place this afternoon. They came to register us, since we are relatively new to the neighborhood. Registering with this or that office is not unusual. We have already had to register with our apartment complex, with the immigration department, with the local police station. All standard.Today's registration was fairly typical, though we were not exactly sure at first what organization these women were from. They asked for the basic things... names, passports, purpose of stay, etc. Then they asked if we were married, to which we said yes. Then they asked if we had children, to which we said no.
And then... Do you plan to have children? Eh? That's an interesting question. None of the other officials have asked that question. Umm... and then before I could answer further, the woman took out these two boxes and said... Well, if you're not, we wanted to give you these. They're for you.
We weren't sure what they were at first, and Bethany was saying, "Oh no no, it's ok..." But the woman said... They're free. They're 避孕套 (bì yùn tào). Something clicked in my head. Hey, I remember that term. Bì yùn tào is the word for... condoms.
Then everything made sense. We said, "Oh... thank you. Thank you." They left us their office number in case we needed anything. They were very nice. And then they left.
So, where were these nice ladies from? They were from the local government family planning office. They visit throughout the neighborhoods just to make sure that everyone is adhering to certain policies and regulations (which, by the way, don't apply to foreigners).
Even if those policies don't apply to us, we still needed to register.
And... we received a free gift with registration.
And... you received a new Chinese vocabulary term.
6 comments:
this makes me think over there everyone is being "watched"?! take care.
hmm... i guess 避孕套 is a more specific term but i learned it as 安全套. i guess we went from safe sex to birth control which makes sense given the location.
omg. hilarious!
~c
awkward!
i knew citizens had to register for this, but i didn't think about foreigners.
Yes, I think that, because this is something that citizens need to register for, my guess is that these ladies came over, thinking perhaps that we were citizens and not knowing that we were visiting foreign students. After they discovered that we were, I think they decided... Oh well, register anyways. And while we're here... we might as well give you young kids a free gift.
your chinese must be getting really good if you can pick up words like "condoms"!
Post a Comment