Monday, October 27, 2014

Ice Cream, Rickshaws, and Happy American Women

Eat Ice Cream.  Ride a Rickshaw.  Be Happy.


Though ice cream may not be considered a Chinese fare, like hotpots, Peking Duck, Shark Fin Soup, Eel, and Wontons, one evening in Tianjin, while walking through their multi-street market, the ice cream at a food stand just beckoned!
Meet my adventure buddy, sister-friend, Charlotte.  She was one of the 11 people I was with in China in 2002.  Ice cream and a ride in the rickshaw seemed like a great way to end an eventful day.  

As these two ice-cream-toting, middle-aged, American women climbed into the rickshaw that was powered by this sweet, older, Chinese man who weighed maybe 110 pounds soaking wet, the irony of it all hit us both at the same time.  We laughed until we cried all the way to the hotel.  That poor man was pedaling for all he was worth while these two American women porked the very American ice cream.  We gave him a wonderful tip, thanking him profusely, and inwardly praying that he would not have any muscle spasms on the way home!  Yes, ice cream, rickshaws, and lifelong friends...it doesn't get any better than that!  (Ask me sometime about the hotel room, twin beds, and late-night laughter!)

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