I Made Friends With A 9 Year Old Because of Steemit
I was just sitting there, eyes glued to the computer screen, like any good millennial completely addicted to technology would do.
That's when I felt something brush up against my shoulder and snap me out of it!
I quickly looked next to me to find a little Chinese boy, who materialized out of thin air, with his face even closer to my computer screen than mine had been.
He was pressing harder into my side now so he could get as close to my screen as possible.
Seems the rumors about differences in personal space in China are true, haha. I didn't mind, though. It actually just made me laugh out loud. His parents were laughing, too.
His mom said in English "Maybe you should ask the nice lady if you can sit with her."
She assumed I was nice 😆 (okay, fine... I guess she was right. Sometimes I'm too nice... I've found out that's a thing).
So, what was so fascinating on my computer screen that just got this little boy to invite himself over to my table?
It was something steemit related, of all things!!!
I was on steemtools.com, trying to solve a little more of the mystery that is this whole "steemit" thing.
I just happened to find a tool where you can see 🐳s and 🐬s who are on steemit swimming through water. Check it out: http://steem.loadsup.net/sonar/
He thought it was a video game!! 😆
So here I am, trying to explain crypto, steemit, and whales and dolphins to a 9-year-old who barely speaks any English.
We will soon see China's youngest member on the steemit community! (haha, probably not... but wouldn't that be cool?)
I ended up spending the next 2 hours just talking with his family and we ended up having dinner together. They even paid for my meal. And, I got their contact info and have an invite to stay at their house if I'm ever around Hong Kong.
I never imagined that Steemit would bring me real-life connections in such an unconventional way!!!
I seriously had the best night with this boy (his name is Spark, by the way) and his family! I even ended up hanging out with them a different night, as well! YAY steemit! 😃
I like to call this one "half dab/ half fail":
Spark's English was so cute. He said "very very thank you" to me. And he said "you call phone of my mom and you ask Spark" 😆 so smooth with the older ladies!
This one's super blurry, but I don't care because I love Spark's face in this one:
Spark got game. Dinner the first night plus a second date and met the family. Girl... you're moving too fast. :)
hahaha this made me laugh out loud
That's pretty awesome! You seem to be such a good people person, to make friends with all ages. And your sense of humor is pretty great. hahah
Very very thank you for sharing 👌
Hahaha! Very very thank you for your comment! You're so intuitive/smart... My best friend when I lived in Guatemala was 5 years old, haha. One of my best friends in the US is 78.
How awesome! Meeting strangers is without a doubt the best part of travelling, glad the swimming sea-life attracted Spark!
Me too! I'm glad because of sea life there "was a Spark" 😆 You saying attracted a spark made me think of saying that lol
Beautiful encounter. Kids are brilliant! And what a cool name :)
I had a great time! I saw this documentary once about Chinese people picking English names without knowing what they mean. I remember someone picked "Kotex" hahaha. I also met someone here in Thailand named Balloon lol
Balloon?? hahaha cute. Kotex on the other hand...
Don't get me started on the English name picking thing in Asia. I taught there for many years and would often ask parents of my students to tell me their birth names ("real" names, the one they actually answer to... except for HK where children's names are most often of English origin to begin with).
Yeah ok, sometimes it takes a while to master the exact pronunciation, but how sad is it that they have to adapt to us and not us to them?
I know, that's true! I think about that too...them adapting to us instead of the other way around. I guess it's because English is the one language that is most widely used around the world, so it's like the main second language for everyone to learn. I always wonder what if it was French, or Mandarin or something.
Ha! Everyone would be called Bernadette, Genevieve, Ambroise, Antoine... or my all-time favourite, Fanny 😆
Haha wow...Ambroise?
Yeah... don't ask. We're a weird bunch ;)
I love this post haha! That's a cute kid. The youngest member of steemit will soon write a post that goes along the lines of, "When I was nine, a nice lady told me about steemit and it changed my life" haha
Thanks, I'm glad. Hahaha yes!!! That's so true!! And it will be great for them especially in China where everything is censored!
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Sparky is sooo adorable. Now you have some place to visit when in Hong Kong. ♥ Also checked out the sonar.. hahaha enjoyed checking them out.
One of best reason of travelling is meeting interesting and kind people like that I am sure you already know it :) :) The difficult is when people do not speak English but this is part of the "game". Helpful and useful to improve our "problem solving" :) :)
Good point! It is kind of fun game...maybe I am smarter now with problem solving skills haha
If someone does not speak English or another language which I know, it will be a "problem" eheheehhehe I would not communicate by gesticulation eheheheh
Does he have his own Steemit Blog? I want to follow him :) It's so incredible meeting people while traveling. It's one of the best things of it!
I agree!! Meeting people and food... eating food WITH people!!!
So cool. I'd LOVE to have a family to stay with in Hong Kong because it's such an awesome (but pricey) city. I like how open this family is to befriending a foreigner.