为什么学中文？ 因 为 我 想 交 朋 友。

Today I tried ordering food in Chinese for the first time. I hadn't tried it yet because I am shy about speaking Chinese with strangers - I feel like I am wasting their time. But today I did, and it turned out to be kind of an adventure.

I went to the Chinese place across the street from my office and asked for some dumplings, and the owner was only a little surprised - I think I have probably said "xiexie" to him before or something.

While I'm eating my dumplings, a white guy comes in and has a conversation in Chinese with the owner, who tells him he has a new dish that's delicious, and also that there's another white person who can speak Chinese here (that's me). So I invite the guy to sit with me.

We had a nice conversation about how he has been to a lot of different countries, I should go to China, and the internet is a series of tubes. So I made a new friend using Chinese! Awesome!