Meeting Evonne after 13 years

We arrived in Shanghai on a Saturday. The next day, I met up with Evonne and her boyfriend Fred for dinner. XiaoDing came with me so I wouldn't get lost. Shanghai is huge.

XiaoDing and I left the training camp early so we'd have time to look around before the scheduled meeting time. We were wandering aimlessly in the malls until I suggested that we should just find a bookstore. He said he was just thinking that. So off we went to the bookstore which sadly did not have a wide selection of English books. I bought a History of Philosophy book, he bought a collection of Japanese short stories (which I told him he would enjoy but I wasn't really sure) and something else I don't remember.

I warned Xiao Ding that we'd probably be talking in Filipino most of the time. He protested with a "Why?" "So you wouldn't understand," I teased him. "You're so bad. Your friend can speak Chinese," having earlier told him that Evonne's Chinese is sooooo good. I said, "Yes but MY Chinese isn't that good." "But it's ok. It's already ok." "Let's see."

Upon meeting Evonne and Fred, Xiao Ding had to ask Fred if he was Chinese. Fred told him to guess and Xiao Ding said he really couldn't tell. So finally Fred told him he was born and raised in the Philippines. "That's why I was wondering why you could speak Filipino so well." We had to laugh at that.