Run To The Future

I've had a few moments of confusion in China, mostly because my mandarin totally sucks. One of these was getting to the bus station to find no sign of any English. In the end got helped by one of the few people who speak English. I was suspicious of course - you tend not to trust locals who speak English and want to come up and talk to you when you are travelling - but he was quite helpful and when I asked if he wanted any cash for helping he said no. Another example of not getting ripped off in China... The best moment of confusion for me was buying some bread. I went into a small shop selling unleavened bread, cooked with chives (I think) and still warm. I asked for a slice (a lot of pointing) and for the price he showed me 2 fingers, then 5. So I think $2.50, right? Right. So I give him a $5 note. No, not enough! Wtf? Is he saying $25 for some bread?? Surely not. Hmm, so instead of handing over a $100 note, I put a few coins on my hand and he takes 2 of them. So 2 fingers plus 5 fingers equals $7! What a weird way of showing a 7! I felt like I had been ripped off because he seemed to change the price - I was so sure he had meant $2.50, and $7 seemed pretty expensive for that bread, but it was delicious so I didn't worry. Delicious enough for me to return the next day, and instead of the old guy, I got the old woman (his wife I guess), serving me. This time I bought four times the amount of bread, including different types of loaves. These are quite small, round loaves, some savoury, some sweet - and you don't know which until you buy and eat them ;) And guess what the price was again? $7!! So, he must have ripped me off!! I left, shaking my head, but again, all so cheap it wasn't a big deal. But then! Later that day I bought a can of coke for $4.50. I handed over the $5 note and I received 50 cents change...but instead of getting a 50 cent coin as I was expecting, I got a 50 cent NOTE!!! WTF??? So then it dawned on me. That $5 note I had offered the old guy in the first place, was a 50 cent note!! The price was $2.50 all along, and he hadn't ripped me off! I had just been very confused :D