I feel lucky enough that I have experienced relatively minimal jet lag since arriving back in China. The first day I fell right back into my routine of going to bed around 7:30 pm and waking up before my alarm clock at around 4 am. For whatever reason, on this side of the world, my body feels like that is the best time to sleep and I've had little success convincing it otherwise. The only side affect might be grogginess, since I fell asleep wearing my glasses, and didn't notice until my vision became blurry and splattered after getting in the shower the next morning.
Speaking of the shower ... I've been showering in fear since I got back. I've explained how the hot water bill works before, but here is a refresher: I have a card, maybe similar to a laundry card, that I load with money and then swipe it on the scanner of the hot water tank. When the hot water runs out, I can swipe the card on the water meter again with my emergency "stash", and receive a conservative amount of hot water that lasts for 3 more days (according to Riri). When I first arrived, the water had already been swiped so I had yet to go through the loading the card with money process.
Problem: The hot water ran out on my last morning as I was preparing to leave for the airport, 10 seconds into my shower. Not only does the hot water run out, but apparently ALL water runs out (so even if I had been willing to take a cold shower, which I was not, it wouldn't have been an option).
Problem: The hot water meter/tank is outside my apartment on the landing.
Problem: I'm wet, cold, and in my towel.
It took about 30 minutes for me to figure out how to use that emergency stash of money kept on the hot water card. First, the swiping mechanism isn't very intuitive, and second, there are two hot water meters on my floor, and they're not labeled. Swiping the wrong tank could give my non existent neighbor an emergency stash of hot water. As I contemplate which tank most likely belongs to my apartment, I dash back into my apartment every time the elevator moves, which was probably a little ridiculous .. the chances of it opening on my floor aren't that great. But things don't ever function logically in China, and I have had a negative affect on all technology related to my aparment.
Since my arrival after the holidays, I went to the water company on the first day to reload my card. But when I got to the landing and looked at the meter ... I forgot to label which tank is actually mine. I made my guess, but all that happened was a beeping red light. Last time I got a sound effect like a race car engine starting and revving. I'm thinking the red light may not have been the best sign, but I tried many other ways to swipe the card, and even the other tank, and nothing else happened. And so, I shower in fear. Hoping hoping hoping that the water doesn't run out one day before school, and I have to show up to work a greasy mess.
Work this week has been a little atypical. Even though we obviously just came back from holidays, Chinese New Year is in two weeks, and we get a whole week of vacation for that as well. Consequently, most families elected to take a 6 week vacation instead of an awkward 3 week off, 2 weeks on, 1 week off schedule. (Why weren't the teachers given that option ????)
Anyways, I came into work Monday morning, knowing the attendance situation and I unwisely announced to Wendi that I am a mom this week. Her face looked like she was trying to show acceptance, so I amended my statement. I FEEL like a mom this week. I probably should've said that first. I have one student. One little 3 year old to devote all of my time and attention. I am basically a 9-5 mom. Maybe nanny would've been better word choice. So most of my lesson planning is on hold, and we've just joined Wendi's classroom for the time being. This means I get to interact with Wendi's students a lot more, which was exciting until one student informed me, "Ms. L, your Chinese isn't very good." Thanks for the support, kid. Mandarin lessons resume today! Thank goodness. I apparently need a lot of work.
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