A typical day (in some respects).
We sometimes wonder why it takes longer to do some things here in China. Today was a typical day of meandering through the day and coming to some snags along the way.
At 9:30 this morning we had a knock on the door. It was one of our fellow teachers who shares our cleaning lady. She said that she (the cleaning lady – her name is Liu) would be coming today instead of tomorrow. We shrugged, said ok and decided to run errands. Today is supposed to be the last good weather day for several days.
So at 11:45 or so we went and bought more time for our cell phones and then went to lunch at our favorite on campus restaurant the Sri Lankan or Indian restaurant in the international student dorm. It was closed. We were so disappointed. We decided to go to a restaurant we had heard about from some Persian friends. It isn’t far from here – about 10 minutes by bike. When we arrived it was difficult to find how to get into the restaurant. It's on the 3rd floor above a coffee shop. We looked around and finally found out we had to go around back. We had a very nice lunch. It was a little more expensive than if we had eaten at the Sri Lankan restaurant but very tasty – very tasty.
We then ran a few more errands. On our way to buy peanuts ( I know that sounds odd but there is a stand that sells nuts of all kinds and that is where we buy nuts) the city had decided, three days before spring festival, to close down a major street going north from our campus. There is a major demolition project going on along that street. The apartments on both sides of the street are being torn down, probably to make room for larger taller apartment complexes. So we ran into a major traffic jam – a major traffic jam. Cars were trying to go both ways on streets that were too narrow for two cars to fit side by side when there is another car parked on the street which always happens, so the traffic was really backed up and there were places where bikes could not get through. It took us 15 minutes for a 5 minute trip and I feel really sorry for the drivers of the cars. On the way back from buying peanuts we had to negotiate more traffic snarls and feel our way down several streets that were really narrow and clogged with traffic.
Our next stop was the bank so we rode to our bank which was sort of on the way home. But it was closed. There was a sign on the door in Chinese which had the date 1/16 on it. So we had to go back to another bank we had seen on our way – a very slight detour but now noticeable.
We then rode to the market and I continued on to a small grocery store to buy butter so Linda could make cookies. No butter. So back to the market to help finish buying veggies for the rest of the week. Got home about 4:00. The cleaning lady had not been there. Linda looked at her phone and noticed a message from our fellow teacher. She had misunderstood Liu. She is coming tomorrow as scheduled. We are now looking for something to do tomorrow while she cleans for 3 hours. I’m sure we’ll think of something, although everything on campus is now closed.
So last evening, when I wanted to post this, the internet was down. It has been down for almost 24 hours. We're glad it's back.
Today we had lunch at home and Liu did not show up until after 12:00, instead of her usual time of 11:30. She had ridden her bike here in 20 degree weather with a 18-20 mph wind blowing so it had taken her longer to get here. We are not tough at all.