The Good, The Bad, And the China Way

Well, this weekend was definitely a low point in my China adventure. And still, it was an adventure. I will relate it here, not to complain, but to make this a true picture of my life in China.

This week at school has been very stressful. It started with me being responsible for speaking in Chapel Wednesday, which meant a lot of time planning in the beginning of the week. This was bad because the end of the 9 weeks was Friday, which meant that I needed a lot of time for grading. Of course by Thursday I was a little stressed out because many disruptions to my schedule had meant I was way behind. But, I was determined to make the most of my Friday, because Saturday I was finally going to make it to the Great Wall.

Well, I woke up Friday morning with a nasty stomach virus. I won't supply the gorey details, but suffice it to say It was not a pleasant day. I had to go to school though, because my students had a major project due in Social Studies. They were bringing models of the Nile River, the pyramids, and other Ancient Egyptian artifacts as part of an oral presentation..... so staying in bed was not an option. I ended up going home early losing all that time I was planning on grading papers etc. Of course it took 40 minutes for my bus to come.... but I finally made it home.

Fast forward to 4 hours later when I wake up from a long nap. It was about 8:00 in the evening and I decided to put in a movie. I was contently watching a movie when suddenly, all the power turned off. Yes, everything was pitch black. And no, I don't have a flashlight. Oh, except for a built in one on my cell phone. When I looked in the hallway and saw light, I knew the problem was mine and mine alone.

*** Let me just insert here a bit of info. about bill paying here in the metropolis of Beijing. Almost all bills are prepaid. The only paper bill I get is water, which is taped to my door. Everything else- phone, gas, electricity, etc. is all paid ahead of time. It took me quite some time and many explanations before I finally understood that whole concept, but I had taken my electricity card to the bank and bout 500RMB worth of units about a month ago. My friend Sri had told me that it would last several months, soooo I had not bothered to check it recently. That was a mistake.*****

OK, back to my story. At this point, my nasty virus had not left me. I had a smashing headache, and my stomach was still quite unsettled. I got on the phone and tried to call my neighbor and friend Sri who gets me out of the majority of trouble spots I land in here in China. Well she did not answer. I was near hysterics by the time she called me back. When I explained the situation, she said she thought there was a 24 hour machine you could use to add units.

Well, thankfully Sri was home and immediately came over to get me. Together we set out to find a machine. We visited several banks and ATM machines in the hopes that one was the kind we were looking for. Unfortunately, they were not. After we had walked several blocks (still with the smashing head and unhappy stomach) Sri called our Ayi and asked her if she knew where to go. Her daughter thought there was a place about half a mile down the road. So we set off for there. Thankfully, We did find it, it was open, and I put all the cash I had on me onto my electric card.

**** Side note. on the way back, Sri bought some Kettle Corn that a man was making off of his cart on the side of the street. It smelled so incredibly good. And even with my stomach the way it was I could not resist a few bites. It was PHENOMENAL! It makes all popcorn I have ever had pale in comparison. And I was even sick!****

We finally made it back and I put my card into the slot in my electric box. It read on the meter that I had 500 and some Units of Electricity.... and the electricity DID NOT WORK IN MY APARTMENT!!!!

At this point I was barely functioning. But I did find out that I have some lovely neighbors. In the course of the next hour, I think there were 7 neighbors, management, 2 dogs and finally an electrician who helped solve the problem. My next door neighbor, brought candles and a flashlight. Of course I could not understand anything anyone was saying, but they were really nice about it. Apparently there was a wire loose and that is why the power would not come back on. So they ended up calling an electrician, who came at 10:00 on a Friday night and charged 8RMB which is about $1.00. I could not help thinking what the cost would have been in the US.... So, that is my tale of the good, the bad, and the Chinese way. I was still sick on Saturday and missed my Great Wall trip. But as someone said, it's not going anywhere, so someday I will make it to the Wall. In the meantime, I really need to learn some more Chinese so I can try to thank my lovely neighbors.