Thirty-Three At 33: Who's the Boss?

I’d never thought I’d be walking through the streets of China barefoot on my way to Kentucky Fried Chicken like some backwoods bama on a food run, but oh… here I am. It’s July 12, 2011 and Aggie insists that I eat a little something before getting on the bus that will take me to the train that will take me to another train that will get me to Vietnam.

Soaked to the bone and barefoot!

Why no shoes, why KFC, and who is Aggie you might be wondering…

Well, the reason we have no shoes on is because the term “rainy season” means much more than I suspected. It’s raining cats and dogs and elephants out here and for some odd reason the streets of China are paved in tile; it’s actually the sidewalks. If you’ve ever ran through your bathroom while the floor is still wet, then you know what it feels like to walk around China during the rain. So instead of taking one more un-lady like face plant in public, I did like the locals and kicked off my shoes. Problem solved… yuck.

Why KFC?

KFC is almost on every other block in China, sometimes two on the same block; it’s the fast food of choice. Watermelon vendors are also in excess, but I abandoned the idea of explaining the irony to Aggie; she just wouldn’t get it. We ended up at a grocery store instead of KFC because, quite frankly, I rarely touch the stuff in the U.S so I’m definetly not doing it in China.

Which brings me to the next question: who is Aggie?

One of the benefits of my previous job at Nine West was that I got the opportunity to work with people from all around the world. Since I was on the production side of the business, I corresponded daily with various agents from China or wherever else we were producing shoes. Working with the same agents year after year, but having never met in person, you begin to reference them to others by first name. You even start to assign them personalities, understand their feelings through different quirks in their writing and occasionally, during holidays and special occasions, you send and receive personal greetings, cards, and photos; but for the most part it’s all business.

Last Christmas our department took our regular Christmas photo and we emailed it to all of our counterparts saying “Merry Christmas!” Since China sleeps while we work and vice versa, the next day I received an email from Aggie, a China agent who I talk with frequently, asking if I could label the people just from production, so that her team could see who is who. “Sure, why not.” I sent the email with the labels. The following day I received another email, “Oh, look at you! You have such a baby face! How old are you?”

“Baby face?!”

Who knew that that one email would spark a litany of back and forth emails between she and I. Over the course of the next few months, I began learning about her family, her life in China and she began learning about me. So, when I told her about my trip and that I was coming to China, Aggie went to work! She began sending me information about hotels, trains, prices, crime, tourist attractions and anything else she could get her hands on. She honestly could put Frommer’s out of business.

The team at Paramount Asia!

“Are you coming to see us?”

“Absolutely! Let’s all have lunch!”

Now, Aggie and the team of girls she works with have been following my travels through my blog as best as they can (Blogspot is blocked in China). While I’ve been on the road, I’ve been getting emails from them expressing how they like this destination or that activity and how they couldn’t wait to show me around their city. So, when I finally met up with Aggie, she brought Julie and I immediately said, “I’m the tourist, you guys are the guides. I’ll go wherever you want.” Aggie responded, “Here, Aggie is boss” and she and Julie began pulling out maps and notes and schedules and speaking in rapid Chinese.

Wow! Go to work!!

These girls are no joke!

I had no idea what she meant by boss, until she told me the schedule, booked my hotel in Guangzhou for me and absolutely refused to allow me to pay for anything. Whoa… So NOT in the plan… Way too generous. “No, Aggie is boss,” she said when I tried to literally wrestle her away from the cash register. We spent the next two days exploring tourist locations and parks in Guangzhou and shopping in wholesaler markets and eating everything in Donguan.

Seeing Aggie bargain is a sport! “You tell me if you like something and I’ll do the talking, but don’t show the merchant that you like it,” she suggests. Being the shoe hound I am, I immediately saw a pair of shoes I absolutely had to have. The style was original, the shoe was hot and the handiwork was real quality. “I love these! How much are they,” I asked the shop keeper, forgetting Aggies rule.

He pulls out a calculator and puts the price so I can see. Aggie looks over my shoulder, takes the shoe out of my hands and starts shaking her head and clucking her tongue. She’s pulling at the leather and poking the lining and telling him how the leather is inferior and the buckles they used are not worth the price. “Oh and look at the work around the toe! Where did you have these made?” By the time she finishes talking to the shop keeper and sporting her shoe knowledge, the price is now less than half of the original! The only problem is that now I’m not sure that I still really want it. “Dang, did I really want that piece of crap shoe!” I purchase it anyhow because dirt cheap is really too good to pass up. As soon as we leave the store, Aggie is high fiving me and jumping up and down. Oh I get it… We head to the next store and I step back and watch this miniature dirty Harry do her thing.

Aggie and her husband!

Later in the evening, I was speaking to my husband on Skype and complaining that she was spending too much and I needed to figure out how to pay her back. Aggie overheard my conversation and yelled “No, it’s okay! When we come to New York, then you can pay for everything because New York is more expense!” We all started cracking up laughing and my husband says, “Yo! She’s smart, but she’s got a deal!”

Thank you Aggie! She and her husband, as well as Julie, showed me a part of China that I wouldn’t have seen on my own, fed me and opened their home and I’m immensely grateful to call them friends.