11:

I was on my way back from somewhere, riding Line 10 of the metro. Laurence and I were texting each other, cracking jokes. I was standing next to these 3 seated women, who were talking about Obama (I could understand 奥巴马). Laurence texted me a particularly funny joke that made me laugh pretty loudly. At the same time, the women made a joke about Obama, and they started laughing. Almost immediately, they got quiet and started talking about whether or not I could understand Chinese. They actually looked pretty freaked out. Even if I could understand their joke, I wasn’t even paying attention to them until their little freak out. They finally concluded that it was just a coincidence, and about 10 minutes later, I was now sitting next to one of the women. I was still texting Laurence, and she made me laugh again. This time, the women cracked another joke, and burst out in laughter at the same time as me. Then they got really quiet and said “He does understand Chinese!” It was hilarious! I had to control my laughter.