calling for water

i made my first phone call in chinese! here we don't drink the tap water, so we have giant jugs of water delivered to our house so that we can put them on our water dispenser when the previous one runs out. we even have a water dispenser that has either hot or cold water. the cold water isn't really cold, just room temperature, but that doesn't matter in the winter. so we never even have to boil water for tea or anything like that.

anyway, in order to get this water delivered to our house, it has to be called for. until now, we asked a friend who could speak chinese to call for us. but i'd been feeling i know enough chinese to make this rather simple phone call, so when we were traveling together, she taught me and another friend how the conversation should go when we were calling for water.

water lady: wei (phone greeting)
foreigner: wo yao shui (i need/want water)
water lady: nali? (where?)
foreigner: [the name of the apartment complex followed by building number and apartment number]
water lady: (what kind?) {i forget how to say this in chinese}
foreigner: liang ge shi er kuai (two twelve kuai (units of money))
water lady: [some sort of acknowledgement]
foreigner: xie xie (thanks)
water lady: zai jian (good-bye)

so when i called, it went surprisingly well, in spite of my misgivings based on what my friend had said when she tried to call previously! i said everything correctly, and the lady appeared to understand. i hung up feeling victorious, but also laughing, because the water lady sounded exactly like my friend described! no wonder my friend was flustered. as soon as you say you need water, the lady says "nali" in a very direct, business like way that could be quite flustering to someone who was struggling to remember the correct way to say their own address. if you want to make my friend laugh now, just walk up to her and say, "weeeiii" and then just as she starts to say something else, say "nali"--it'll be great. =)

i could have found a way to include the tones in that conversation but i'm too lazy right now. little does the water lady know, she is the chinese speaking phone call practice for many many foreigners in my city. the ones who are brave enough.