Popcorn!

While heading down the brick path back home today, a literary figure stepped out of the pages of a recently read novel and parked himself in front of our apartment building: The Popcorn Man!
Before I even knew that my application was being considered by YWIES (Yew Wah International Education School) I had been reading an interesting-looking booked picked up from a pile at a high school rummage sale back in Turlock. The title was "Pearl of China" by Anchee Min. (Highly recommend it!) "Pearl of China" is a biography/historical fiction about the famous Pearl S. Buck, who forever changed both Chinese and American novel history...but that is another story! (Heh, heh...now you want to know more, right?) In the novel, Min recounts Pearl's childhood experience of the local popcorn salesman. Both Pearl and her best friend run out excitedly to watch the tradesman at work whenever he comes through town. The popcorn man puts the kernels in an oblong kettle, and turns the kettle 'round and 'round over a fire. Then, at just the right moment, one end of the kettle is removed and the kernels all pop at once with a deafening BOOM! Like the blast of a cannon, the fresh popcorn shoots into the awaiting long, cloth bag.
As we approached the apartments I first espied a woman selling plastic bags of popcorn in the shade...a little further away was a man turning some sort of black kettle over a flame, with corn husks scattered all about. I did not realize what was going on until my ears rang with the mighty blast of the "popcorn cannon" (as I think of it). I turned around with a excited smile on my face and shouted to my friends, "That's the popcorn man!!"
As I was cooling off in the apartment, I could not get that popcorn out of my mind. The kettle was booming outside, and there was a small sort of adventure to be had. Grabbing some small change, I hopped down the stairs to one of my new friend's apartment, and invited her to accompany me on the popcorn purchasing mission. She readily agreed, and we went on our way.
Okay, so, this must be said...I still am learning how to say numbers in Mandarin!! This makes buying anything without a predetermined price very difficult. ;-) I pulled out my coins (totalling 1.70 RMB) and showed them to the popcorn saleswoman. She wanted 2 RMB, which I am sure was a "western price," but having no ability to properly haggle, I agreed. My friend graciously ran back and got enough money for the both of us to buy what our eyes desired (which ended up being more than our stomachs could handle!) The saleswoman was very happy, and eagerly had us try the popped rice as well. In the end, we were all laughing and smiling...in spite of the language barrier, even. And we ended up with some pretty tasty popcorn. Tastes kind of like the Corn Pops cereal!