On Friday of Last Week (April 30, 2010)

By Jihyun Lee

On Friday of last week, I went to PriceSmart with Mami who is Japanese taking the subjects of Group1 with me. She wanted to buy some chocolates and said she will help me. I was so happy to hear that because I had to buy lots of food, so I needed some hands.

We got off the bus at the bus stop nearby the mart. Everything went well until standing in front of a register that scans the bar-code of the products. There were a pack of onions, a pack of apples and some food in my cart. The register scanned a bar-code of a pack of onions and required me to enter the quantity of these. I counted onions in a pack and push the number 8. After that I counted apples in a pack and push the number 13. Then, it showed me the total, around 134 dollars. I felt that it was a bit too expensive, but I paid for these.

Mami and I moved to a bus stop, and I checked my receipt while waiting for the bus. At that time, I knew that something is wrong. The pack of onions’ price was $22.33 and the pack of apples’ price was $64.61. I grasped two packs and started to run to the mart for getting money back.

Fort St. John is a small town where it is very quiet and never busy. When I ran with the packs through the middle of the street, people saw me like a marvel. Because a little Asian girl ran crazily, this sight might not be ordinary to them. At last, I arrived at the customer counter and explained to a staff what had happened to me. Then suddenly the staff started to laugh. “I have never seen a Chinese like you,” she said. I was really ashamed. “I am not Chinese, I am Korean,” I whispered.

After the refund, I had to run again because Mami was waiting for me at the bus stop for a long time. I couldn’t make her wait any longer. When I almost arrived there, Mami was eating a chocolate next to the bus stop signboard. I was going to go across the road, but unfortunately, two cars were getting nearer, and I waited for them to pass. The first car passed fast, but the second car did not. I felt annoyed and glared the driver of the second car. It was Michael, my teacher. He was smiling and waving his hand to me like a child.