This is a story about perhaps one of the weirder attempts to break the law that I've ever witnessed..
I decided to walk home from work tonight, physical activity being rarity for me out here because I'm too unmotivated to join a gym and the pollution makes it bad to run outside... (ok fine, I just don't like exercising). Anyway, so I was walking down a pretty crowded street with nice malls sprinkled around at every other block (welcome to China), and I turned onto a smaller street and felt the presence of someone rather close behind me. Granted, out here, the laws of what is socially acceptable as appropriate physical proximity differ greatly from those in the west.. so I didn't think too much about it.
So, I'm walking around with my headphones in tucked neatly behind my huge earmuffs (which also happen to slightly block my peripheral view), and a great song comes on my iphone, so I start moving my head back and forth and thinking about how in 72 hours, I'll be hanging up my winter jacket for the week and heading south for a vacation (head in the clouds, as always). As a result of my awkward movement down the street, I assumed that the creeper behind me was just trying to get past me so he/she/it could walk faster along the street and away from the crazy, bouncing westerner that was me. But then, the unthinkable happened. My music stopped... mid-song; mid-thoughts of white sandy beaches and warm sun. Being so abruptly forced to return to back to the freezing reality of Shanghai is really just not ok.
I turned around and saw the shadow that was once behind me now directly to my left, and I looked at him, raised my eyebrows like a mother who just caught her horribly unsubtle child elbows-deep in the cookie jar (we've all been that kid), and to my disbelief, the guy smiled at me, returned my phone to me, winked at me, and walked away. I started laughing at him as he walked away, and he kept looking back at me sheepishly, somewhat smiling, somewhat panicked about what I might do... and I kept looking back at him laughing. Granted, it was pure luck that I had that awkward and accusatory expression on my face when I turned to him (maybe I have permanent skink-eye, who knows), but his reaction slash attempt to wink his way out of it was even funnier.
I'm not sure what to make of the situation... except that I definitely got lucky that he returned my phone to me. Maybe it was the gaping crack on the back of my phone, or maybe it was pity as he saw me snap back into sad reality, but either way, I don't care.. except now I have to spend the evening backing up every little detail of my phone in case it happens again. I hate the thought of losing the "notepad" on my phone... filled with the random thoughts that pop into my head every day (trust me, I need the phone to keep track of them, because people certainly don't want or need to hear them).
Moral of the story? I would say don't listen to music while walking because that's what pickpockets target.. but that's exactly how I realised that my phone went missing. From now on though, I'm definitely going to practice giving out dirty (and pathetic) looks in the mirror.. I'm convinced that's what got my phone back. Only in China...
I decided to walk home from work tonight, physical activity being rarity for me out here because I'm too unmotivated to join a gym and the pollution makes it bad to run outside... (ok fine, I just don't like exercising). Anyway, so I was walking down a pretty crowded street with nice malls sprinkled around at every other block (welcome to China), and I turned onto a smaller street and felt the presence of someone rather close behind me. Granted, out here, the laws of what is socially acceptable as appropriate physical proximity differ greatly from those in the west.. so I didn't think too much about it.
So, I'm walking around with my headphones in tucked neatly behind my huge earmuffs (which also happen to slightly block my peripheral view), and a great song comes on my iphone, so I start moving my head back and forth and thinking about how in 72 hours, I'll be hanging up my winter jacket for the week and heading south for a vacation (head in the clouds, as always). As a result of my awkward movement down the street, I assumed that the creeper behind me was just trying to get past me so he/she/it could walk faster along the street and away from the crazy, bouncing westerner that was me. But then, the unthinkable happened. My music stopped... mid-song; mid-thoughts of white sandy beaches and warm sun. Being so abruptly forced to return to back to the freezing reality of Shanghai is really just not ok.
I turned around and saw the shadow that was once behind me now directly to my left, and I looked at him, raised my eyebrows like a mother who just caught her horribly unsubtle child elbows-deep in the cookie jar (we've all been that kid), and to my disbelief, the guy smiled at me, returned my phone to me, winked at me, and walked away. I started laughing at him as he walked away, and he kept looking back at me sheepishly, somewhat smiling, somewhat panicked about what I might do... and I kept looking back at him laughing. Granted, it was pure luck that I had that awkward and accusatory expression on my face when I turned to him (maybe I have permanent skink-eye, who knows), but his reaction slash attempt to wink his way out of it was even funnier.
I'm not sure what to make of the situation... except that I definitely got lucky that he returned my phone to me. Maybe it was the gaping crack on the back of my phone, or maybe it was pity as he saw me snap back into sad reality, but either way, I don't care.. except now I have to spend the evening backing up every little detail of my phone in case it happens again. I hate the thought of losing the "notepad" on my phone... filled with the random thoughts that pop into my head every day (trust me, I need the phone to keep track of them, because people certainly don't want or need to hear them).
Moral of the story? I would say don't listen to music while walking because that's what pickpockets target.. but that's exactly how I realised that my phone went missing. From now on though, I'm definitely going to practice giving out dirty (and pathetic) looks in the mirror.. I'm convinced that's what got my phone back. Only in China...
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