Water

Back at Whitworth, we used to have a dorm chant. It went like this:
Leader: "Here at Whitworth, what do we do with our sidewalks?"
Group: "Water, water, water, water!"
Joke being that the sprinklers were always misaimed at the sidewalks instead of the lawn. This joke came to mind today since I've been really struggling with the water system here. In my mind, it plays like this:
Powers that be: "Here in China, what do we do with hot water?"
Me: "Well, we certainly make sure it doesn't make it through the pipes to Kari's shower!"

It was a cold shower this morning, and since soccer I showered at Line's. I did have a fantastic/successful exchange in Mandarin, my first successful conversation with a stranger who wasn't a taxi driver.
The ladies at the water place speak enough English to ask if I want to put hot or cold water on my card, but it appeared there was an error when I went to buy water today. They tried to tell me to come back in the morning, when I asked what time, they continued to tell me in the morning. So finally I switched to Mandarin, and this was our exchange. *note: chitter chatter is unrecognizable Mandarin.
Me: Ji dian? ("What time?")
Lady: *chitter chatter* ba dian *chitter chatter* ("8 hour")
Me: "Shang ban" ("Start work")
Lady: Ohhhhhhhh... *calls her supervisor* *chitter chatter* .... ren hou ... ("then") ... *chitter chatter* mei you shui ("not have water") ... *chitter chatter* ... *hangs up* is okay!
Yeah .... except that it's not okay. Because when I swiped my card, I didn't get any water. I guess there have been leaking problems ... among other things. So hopefully I don't have to move like one of the other families in our building.

This next part, I don't know if it's China, or if it's just human nature, but I guess Line and I made a mistake when we decided to share an ayi. Line decided that if her socks are being folded, that her ayi is probably coming for too many hours. Line really didn't want to cut her hours, because obviously her ayi depends and expects that income. Since I was talking about it for song long, I'm borrowing the hours from Line, and actually she gets a few more hours, and she doesn't mind. What we didn't know: there is an ayi hierarchy, and the "head" ayi is throwing a fit, and calling Line, and calling our translator. Apparently she feels that my apartment is her job, because she has the right to first pick of jobs... or something like that. I feel bad, because my ayi really did a fantastic job, and I would like to keep her. Not really caring for the territorial, underground catty remarks and stuff. I'm going to consult with some of my local friends though, to make sure this is a personality thing and not an offensive cultural thing before I make a decision. More on this next time!
I had a little bit of gender-role whip lash today. Some of you may have seen this facebook post:
"Oh men. There are some things that transcend all cultures and nationalities. As I left soccer early to head to the knitting club, I hear back on the pitch, "Yay, the girl is gone. Now we can play naked!"
We had a lot of Europeans and Chinese playing that day, and a couple Latinos... and me. The only representative of both the female gender and the U.S.
So I go from this .... to the knitting club. I brought my knitting book today that Connie had given me for Xmas, called "Knit knacks". The girls at the club were overcome with cuteness by the front cover which pictured a cozy for a french press. There was more "ooooo"ing and "ahhhhh"ing and deep sighing when Line and Dana presented their matching socks mother/baby socks that they're knitting for one of our pregnant coworkers. And to make matters worse ....

Line taught us how to make caramel truffles today in anticipation of our ladies Valentine's night. I think we were high on thought of having such delicious-ness. It was absolutely contagious. I don't know about the last time you had the giggles, but if it's been too long, I highly recommend making caramel truffles with your coworkers. Seems to do the trick!

Last, I'm creating a list of mistakes that I catch when I re-read my blog post, in honor of my serious issues with "righting" homophones. Here's the one I caught this time:
- Instead of "throwing a fit", I wrote, "throughing a fit".