Exciting Morning

What an exciting morning!  Woke up to realize that the toilet isn’t working properly - the water fills the bowl and ssssslllllllooooooowwwwwlllllyyyyyy drains.  We’ve resolved to quit trying to figure out ‘who did it’ and get it fixed.  Plumbing is quite and issue in China.  (Has everyone heard my story about trying to use the dishwasher?  To make a long story short - the open ended pipe that’s under the kitchen cabinets shoots out dirt and leaves as the dishwasher drains!  Needless to say, we wash dishes by hand.) 

I do have a plunger!  After spending twenty minutes splashing around I thought Justin might like a turn..  His solution was to call the service center!  Calling and trying to explain a problem in half English/half Chinese is usually as frustrating as trying to fix the problem myself!  As he left to go play basketball, I decided to give it one more try.  There is something about plunging a toilet, even when it’s just water you’re dealing with, that is SO disgusting!   I won’t be going into the plumbing business anytime soon.  I gave up and called the front desk.  

About ten minutes later, a nice little man showed up at the front door with a plunger.  He wasn’t quite as concerned with keeping the water in the toilet as I had been.  Actually, he didn’t even mind sticking his hands down the toilet drain!  As he plunged and splashed away, I realized that the drain in the shower was making a terrible noise.  I can’t imagine what kind of pipe maze hides under the bathroom floor!  Using hand motions, I asked if he wanted me to turn the shower water on to fill the pipe.  Great idea!  Didn’t help!  

When I came back to check on him, he was taking my trash can to the shower, filling it with water and dumping it with full force into the toilet.  Over.. and over.. again.  My bathroom is quickly becoming a miniature water theme park!  I suppose the water in theme parks here might not be much cleaner!  

He appears to have tried everything he can think of, starts to get a bit frustrated, calling on his radio for help.  The few words I can understand are:  not good, two meters, something, house, her, water, i don’t know.  Then, he looks at me and talks so fast in Chinese I have no clue what he’s saying.  I respond with, “I hear you, but don’t understand you.”  He smiles, and then just leaves the apartment.  I’m assuming he’ll be back with something that’s two meters long to stick down the pipe??  Who knows!

Chinese Name

Nothing too exciting to report over these past few weeks.  I did however get a new “Chinese name” from my friend at Head to Toe.  (Head to Toe is a massage place not to far from our apartment - great pedicures, massages, and even hair cuts!  You can get a hair cut and one hour massage for less than $20!!  I have learned that I prefer getting my hair cut twice a year while in the US, but that’s another story.)  Anyway - the friend I referred to earlier gives a great massage, and she even speaks decent English.  Her English name is Dani, taken from her Chinese name of Dan Dan.  Last week, she asked me if I had a Chinese name.  I’ve actually tried several, but am always up for being given a new one - mainly due to the fact that Emily, in Chinese, translates to Mae Li (which means beautiful.)  Quite awkward when people ask what my name is, and I’m supposed to respond with, “beautiful.”  Yes, call me beautiful!  Weird!  Ok, so Heidi and I are getting a massage and joking with the girls about Chinese names.  (Side note - they normally tell Heidi that her name doesn’t need to change because in China, they can just call her Hei Di!)  I always get the, “you are SO tall” comments, so Heidi jokes that my name should be Gao Mei - meaning Tall Beautiful... ha ha ha.. After several attempts, Dani says she has the perfect name for me - “Shuang Shuang.”  Our first question, “What does that mean??”

Dan Dan has a pondering expression on her face.  “How to explain  this?”  She says that it is a VERY good name and has a good meaning.. but can’t quite explain what the meaning is!  She starts by saying that Dan Dan means number 1 and says that Shuang Shuang is number 2.  After about ten minutes of trying to understand what she’s saying I conclude that it must have something to do with birth order?  Maybe this isn’t the best new name for me.  After all, I’m the oldest! 

The next day, we took Heidi’s driver, Annie, out to lunch.  She speaks a bit of English but we mostly communicate with her in Chinese.  We told her about this new name I had been given and she laughed and laughed and said, “Oh no.. this name not too good for you Mae Li.”  Turns out that in Chinese, odd numbers are called Dan Dan.. and even numbers are referred to as Shuang Shuang!  Go figure :)

Back in Shanghai

I arrived back in Shanghai on Saturday after spending the month of July in "The States."  It seems appropriate to call 'them' 'that' now that I live eight ba-zillion miles away!  SO thankful to have the opportunity to travel back and forth and stay in close touch with family and friends.. I've had so many comments regarding my lack of writing on this blog, that I'm going to make an effort to keep everyone updated more regularly - so here goes!

Jet Lag .. oh how wonderful!  Heidi and I arrived in Shanghai at 2pm and were met by my wonderful driver, Steven.  He's a very nice man so he quickly grabbed some of our luggage (between the 2 of us we had 6 bags and a backpack!) and we headed for the van.  Justin was excited to see all the goodies I brought back - even excited to have new deodrant and hair gel from "The States."

This first week back hasn’t been too eventful - most of the women here travel back to the US for the entire months of July and August - so it’s a quiet neighborhood here in Jinqiao!  The weather is HOT HOT HOT and HUMID!

The four of us (me, Justin, Heidi and Josh) purchased tickets to the USA vs Australia Olympic Exhibition game on August 5th.  After finding out that both Justin and Josh needed to be out of town on business, Heidi and I invited a Chinese friend, Willie (her chosen English name).  She was super excited at the opportunity to see her first basketball game!  Since we still had one extra ticket, we let Willie know she could bring a friend.  Heidi was on the telephone with Willie, as I overheard Heidi’s half of the conversation.. It went something like this..  “Willie, you know - basketball. .. and you can bring any friend you want.”  “Oh Sure!”  “What, your friend is a boxer??”  laughing..  “He works where??”  “At a hostel?”  (This shows how interesting a simple telephone call can become with someone who’s native language is foreign to ours.  Willie speaks good English, but on the telephone understanding it can be challenging!)  We later found out that her friend is a doctor who works at a hospital!

The game was really fun!  I was able to get some good use out of my new camera taking shots of Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Jason Kidd, etc...  Also quite entertaining listening to the game being announced in Chinese.  Oh the joys!