On Tuesday I decided to visit the furniture where I bought my mattress. Since I’m still without a bed frame and headboard, I thought it was time to get serious about finding one. I really don’t want to sleep on the ground forever. I stepped in the store and the Crazy Funny Saleslady (CFS) from before spotted me from the back of the store and came running shouting “Hello, Hello!” In English. She put her arm around me and said, “My friend!” with a big smile on her face. She asked if I wanted to sit down and have some tea so I agreed. She asked about my mattress and I said that I loved it. She gave me a “I told you so” look. I told her I wanted to look at the beds again. We looked at different styles on her tablet. She showed me some fancy headboards and used the word “romance” to indicate the fancy style. I jokingly told her that I don’t need romance in my bedroom. We both laughed remembering the first time when she tried to sell me a wider mattress in case one day I married a fat man and I told her I wasn’t currently on the lookout for a husband.
I asked about wooden bed bases so she marched me around the store showing various beds and asking, “Do you want to take this one?” with a look of expectation that she just knew each one was the one. When I didn’t find one I liked, we went back to the tablet to look at pictures. She explained that I could get a wooden base with a fabric headboard, or vice versa.
The beds here have built in storage underneath the mattress. From what I had been shown, it seemed that the wooden bed bases did not have that feature while the fabric ones did. As I tried to clarify my assumption, I pointed at the pleather swatches on the table using the word for fabric. By this point I had CFS, her coworker, and her manager all helping me. They were quick to clue me in on the fact that pleather is not fabric. Since I didn’t know they were trying to tell me the word for pleather, they pulled out trusty ol’ Google Translate to help enlighten me. The sales girl pointed at the leather and said, “Skin romance” in English. I shook my head and said that I didn’t understand. They asked why and I used the word in this language for romance. They confirmed my interpretation. I again repeated that I don’t need romance in my bedroom and we all had another good laugh.
We looked at the fabric/pleather styles and I found one that I liked well. It wasn’t the beautiful wooden bed I had envisioned but it was nice. After they gave the price, CFS asked if I was ready to take it. I said I wanted to think about it and look around at other places to see if I found something I liked better. She dramatically inhaled like I had just stabbed her in the back with a knife. She exclaimed that their furniture is the BEST in the whole city and WHY would I want to look anywhere else. Finally she said she would let me go look and realize that they were the best. Furniture shopping here is ridiculously stressful for me but CFS at least helped me laugh through the stress!
On Saturday, I realized that I hadn’t spent a lot of time in the community practicing my language. I decided to return to the furniture store to buy the bed to just get it done. I confess that there is a small part of my decision in buying the bed that was due to how much I liked my saleslady. I have had so much fun with her that I felt like buying the bed that I liked but didn’t love would at least give me fun memories to think back on. As I entered the store, I realized that all the workers now recognize me. The secretary shouted for CFS and she again came running with her English, “Hellos!” She ordered some tea for us and then asked if I had made a decision. She took me to inspect the floor model to make sure I was sure. She told me she had been waiting and waiting for me to come back. I told her I make slow decisions and she agreed adding a VERY slowly.
Since it was a Saturday, the store was busy and she had other customers to attend to. The culture is different here in that they are so attentive they follow you around the whole store as you shop and then sit down to have tea for an hour as you discuss life and the sale, yet they will abandon you to help a customer who comes in after you. This happened on Saturday and I really didn’t get to chat with her again because she was so busy with customers. Instead, the manager sat down and helped me do all of my paperwork. I feel like if you’re going to be ditched, being ditched for the CFS’s boss is not an insult.
We drank coffee as we filled out the paperwork and he took my money. Afterwards, we talked about life. I discovered he was from the northern part of this country but moved to this city for work. He had learned English in school but hasn’t had anyone to practice it with. He had visited Sweden, Greece, and Georgia (the country) but didn’t get a chance to practice English in any of those places. He took a motorcycle trip with 5 friends to Georgia and said it was very fun. He then used google translate to tell me he thought I was brave. He said it’s scary to leave home, go to a faraway land alone, and try to learn a new language. I used the chance to tell him that it is hard but God helps me. I thought of the song, You Make Me Brave, and wished I could play it to him in his language and tell him it’s been my anthem for a couple months now.
As I got ready to leave, he made sure to let me know I could call or message with any questions I may have. CFS also apologized for abandoning and said she should buy me a meal sometime to make up for it. She told me to come back sometime just to talk. I plan to do so because it’s currently my favorite place in this city!
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