The phones have been ringing incessantly! It started within a few hours of our arrival. First it was all Becki’s Chinese friends, one after another. “You’re back in China and you didn’t call?!” Some of the calls have been from other Americans at the school. Some of the calls have been from Chinese who don’t speak English. Those are fun.
On Monday I learned how to jump on the back of Becki’s bike and ride side-saddle. It was fun, but it hurt. The “seat” is metal and you can only get on it halfway. Then, with my long legs, it’s a challenge to keep the feet from hitting the bike and from dragging on the ground. Quite interesting. We were going to the school to get Kim’s bike, since Kim’s not here. The bike was a wreck though, so we left both bikes there and just took a taxi back. It was so hot, and we were so tired!
A roadside bike repair guy
When we got home that night, we were both so tired it was bedtime, even though it was only 9:30. I was just about asleep when the phone rang again. It was a school person. She told Becki that there’s an English camp thing that needs some foreigners for the last day. Becki told her I was here, so the lady decided we’re both going. They’re going to drive us north to the Great Wall on Sunday morning, and we’re going to hang out with the middle school students and practice English with them. Then they will put us up in a hotel Sunday night and drive us home Monday after seeing some “famous sites”. That’s the plan, but this is China. Who knows what will actually happen. It sounds great!
Early Tuesday morning the phone rang again. This time it was a Chinese speaker, and Becki had no idea what was going on. A few minutes later another Chinese guy called. She wasn’t sure about this one either, but he at least had some English, so sometimes he spoke English and sometimes Becki spoke Chinese! He said he was coming before noon, but we weren’t sure what for. We were still waiting for movers to take Joanna’s stuff to her new apartment. We were also still waiting for the internet guy.
An hour later the maintenance guy Yang Shi Fu came. He’s probably 50ish. This was the birdcage incident. He was here for a few minutes then took the cabinet and left. An hour after that the internet guy showed up, but he was the plug-everything-in guy, not the set-up-the-computer guy, so we were all confused. He left and came back with another guy, but he was also a plug-everything-in guy. In the middle of all this, we were trying to make some sense out of the kitchen, so the apartment was in chaos.
After the internet guys finally left, the movers came. There were three. They stacked Joanna’s boxes and carried them out— on their backs! Ten minutes later the three men returned in duplicate. There were six sweaty smelly men tramping through the apartment. All of Joanna’s stuff was gone in two trips though. Thus ended yesterday’s parade of Chinese men.
This morning Kim called. Then someone called to arrange our pickup for Sunday. Becki was telling me the plan for that trip when the phone rang again. This time it was her dad. Finally. We’ve been waiting for that call since Sunday!
