Brian Sutin | |
Every time we go we spend an outrageous amount of time obsessing over what to bring for gifts, so much so that my wife sometimes prefers to just not go after all. Sometimes even after careful planning, things go wrong.
My wife had a friend who requested coffee. I asked my wife what kind (raw beans, ground, instant), and she said instant. Of course, she had never made coffee before, so what did she know? So we purchased a bunch of instant, which when presented did not go over well when given to someone who was expecting Kona coffee beans. We came off looking very cheap. Bad guanxi. My wife was so embarrassed that the next time we went to Shanghai, she didn't call this woman ahead of time. Then we ran into her on a random street corner in downtown Shanghai (probability nearly zero). This woman is now a former friend.
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