Portuguese

There is this girl, she's a classmate so by default I see her everyday and therefore cannot tell her just how much she annoys me sometimes. So, step by step, how she annoyed me today.

I asked her if she wanted to come with me to 三里屯 to look for French food. She doesn't even try to read the message and asks me what, even though in the mass message I sent out I said to read the Chinese before asking me what it was about. I told her to read it again and she did but said it was too hard. She's in the same class as me. I don't understand, especially since she's always bragging about how good she is at Chinese. She isn't; I AM.

Anyway, we're travelling and she always has to make everything related to her; about her, about her country. Because Portugal is the fucking bomb. Because it's the best place on earth and it has the best food and Chinese food sucks compared to it. Then, fucking go back to Portugal, why are you in China, anyway? Because she loves languages. She could have stayed in Portugal in her crappy language class; at least she would have been surrounded with people just like her with awesome food.

We get to the bakery; she looks at the prices and gasps and starts talking about ridiculously expensive it is. And how it's cheaper in Portugal, and better. Again, then fucking go back to Portugal. But no, she kept complaining and another travel mate took it upon himself to pay for half of her meal because essentially he has an unlimited supply of money to spend in China. Then, as fate would have it, her food didn't come out at the same time his and mine did, and she said that "of course," it would happen to her. Her sandwich, however, was late because they did not have a chef working on weekends and therefore the cafe girls were making a tuna salad from scratch. Which turned out amazing, so she didn't complain about that.

If anyone who reads this blog read my other blog's post, we know that the meat shop, Boucherie Michel, was more expensive, so of course, she gasped even more and looked at me as if I was crazy when I payed for my sliver of cheese. "You're seriously going to pay for that?" Yes I am, because my threshold for paying for things I consider worth it is different than yours. I don't know how this girl doesn't understand that everyone in the world has different standards and income levels. Yes, I will pay that much money for cheese, because I love cheese and have been without it for a month. If it is delicious, it is worth it.

This girl also takes it upon herself to constantly tell people that she is on a scholarship, that she got her tuition and her room free, and also gets 1000元 a month for spending. I understand that if you're poor, you can't spend that much  money, but you also have the choice for whether or not to spend that money, and where to spend it. We went to dinner at this hole-in-the-wall fake Korean place, and the guy and I looked at the menu while she ... sulked. I don't know how else to describe it. It looks like sulking to me, so I will therefore call it sulking. I wanted a delicious soup, which she didn't want, but I ignored her (because she never wants anything new) and asked him if he would have some. He didn't want spicy soup, so we settled on a nonspicy soup that looked delicious. And stir-fried broccoli, because he was craving veggies, as we all are in this city. Then we put the menu down and she looked at us and said "I don't want soup, so all I'm eating is broccoli?" To which I said, "Then pick something that you want, I'm not gonna order for you," and almost shoved the menu at her, because quite frankly, I was getting pissed off with her attitude, as if she expected good food to just be handed to her. I wonder if she ever ordered from a restaurant or if her mommy always ordered. She and the guy settled on sweet and sour chicken, a dish that I have eaten whenever I've been at a restaurant with her. Some people are like that, but I didn't mind because I simply wouldn't partake. I didn't make a big deal about it. I didn't even mention that I wouldn't recommend that dish.

The waiter brought us a pot of tea; she looked inside and replied, "Ew." To my chagrin, the guy asked her what the matter was, and she said that the tea they provided was a regular tea, really cheap and really gross. I poured myself a cup and proclaimed, "It's just barley tea, it tastes just fine. It's lukewarm though."

"It's cold?"
"No, it's lukewarm."
"In Portugal, we have hot, warm and cold, and that is cold."
"It's refreshing. It's lukewarm; it's like 30 degrees (celsius)."
"I hate cold."
The guy: "You don't like cold food?"
My thought: Oh no, not this again...
"I can't eat cold food. I can't have cold anything."

You can imagine... about a week ago, I invited her to eat 粥 with my roommate and I... just in case she didn't like the 粥, I also ordered a 炒面... which when it touched her lips was cold to her, so she refused to eat the rest of it. Refused. I mixed up the noodles a bit, said that it was just the ones on top that was probably cold, and tried some and sure enough, it was piping hot. She took one more bite and said it was still too cold. I told her to have them refry it so it was hotter. She refused and said she would just eat something random when we got back to the dorm. I told her she would still have to pay, to which she made a face and said fine.

Oh, hah, when we were going to pay for the dinner we had tonight (18元 each), I only brought a ten, so being my usual, apparently flirty self, I said that next beer he got would be on me. When the guy asked her for 20 so he could give her two back she stared at us and said "I only have this much for the next week. I don't have any money left." When he said that she could just give him 10 and he'd pay for it, she suddenly did this "It's ok, it's fine, I'll just pay for it and be poor for the next month" motion and they had the Asian squabble over not paying and how much to pay. So, she put in 10 instead of 20.

Why am I "friends" with this girl, again? Because she's in my class. I have to see her 5 days a week. And she's always available whenever I want a companion going out (wonder why), but every time I have obliged my insecurity about going far places by myself, I've found myself getting stressed. So, I will stop asking this girl out to places unless it is an activity where I do not have to be focused on her. Three people is too little. Four people may be ok. I wonder if everyone else feels this way about her; I know at least 2 people do.

Here's to the best country in the world: Portugal.