What a nice morning. The sun is shining, the temperature seems to be bearable and I can´t believe that I slept through all night. Wow! No jetlag at all! Probably thanks to the little kid behind me who instead of sleeping on the plane insisted on kicking my chair for 9 hours leavng me feel l (and for sure look) like a zombi when landing and going straight to bed once I was home.
I start unpacking my suitcase and find this nice little ornament which I bought in Bavaria for our front door.I get the hammer out and walk barefeet down the stairs to fix a nail in the door. With my last bang I´ m watch the door closing like in slow motion - CLACK - the door is shut!
"Ooops"….my frist thought and looking stupidly at my hammer in right and ornament in left hand. "Double Ooops" - I have no key with me! ...Oh dear.... "Ahh!- I have an Idea": Mr. and Mr.s Xing (the older Chinese couple who live below our living room ) have a ladder!!.. sure with that they can let me climb back again into the aparment via our balcony!
So I knock on their door and explain with my limited Chinese, hands, feet and my shut door, what trouble I am in. Immediate reaction: "Mei you" and pointing at my feet: "You got no shoes on!!!" - here are some plastic slippers (to keep your feet warm - it is only 28 degrees outside…). And we all venture into the back garden.
Mr. Xing get´s the ladder out and tries to position it somehow between the palm tree and the house.
Looking at the arrangement it is very quickly very clear that I will NOT climb back in through the balcony because a) the ladder is too short and no matter how much I would try, I´m not Tarzans Jane, b) the ladder is already missing the first rung and looks so rotten that it would most likely not even carry lightweight Mr. Xing. So that was a clear "No go".. we all agree about that.
By that time the guy from the office - which is based below our bedroom - comes out and asks what is wrong. We all together explain my little problem and he´s got an idea. I understand that someone he knows (either father, friend or god knows who) can be found round the corner and can unlock doors. Of coarse! After all I´m in China, someone capable of such skills can´t be too far away from us. OK -we wait for him.
Meanwhile my legs start to feel very very itchy. As I´m looking down I can see squizillion mosquitos enjoying the meal of their live on my bare skin. "Ahhh!!!" I shout, a strange look by Mrs. Xing and we all rush into the house into the Xing´s kitchen where Mrs. Xing comes along with some bottle which at first looks like soy sauce.
I somehow understand that I shall put that stuff onto my legs. By that time I don´t care what it is because I ´m already so terribly stung I would have put anything onto my legs which started looking like the popped up islands of Micronesia in the ocean.
Only 10 minutes later the office´s friend turns up and gets going on the log. Another 10 minutes later he gives up. "Bu keyi - can not".. bugger! For a minute we thought again the ladder option through the kitchen window. But we all agreed that even if I would make it up, I´m slightly too large to be able to slip through the metal bars - to be honest no human but a monkey would fit through it. But since we have no monkeys in Shanghai we needed a new idea.
Ha! The Ayi has a second key! Great idea- but won´t work because
a) I don´t have her phone number and
b) actually no ones phone number with me - my phone is upstairs..
c) don´t know any others phone number out of my head.
d) which means also I can´t consult Sophie from the relocation agency who is somewhat like my personal telephone joker for anything needing help with..
Bugger!-- New Idea: I can ask the office if they can let me use their computer which I can use to log into my emails and that way find out all numbers and try Ayi or Paul´s driver to come and help - Brilliant!
So I knock on the office door who guides me straight away to one of their desks, I finally call Paul who sent Wan Chang, his driver, on the way - Sorted! All I have to do now is wait half an hour for the keys to turn up. "Xie Xie"! - Thanks everyone - I´m ok now. I wait here on my door step.
And as I´m waiting I watch the rain outside and I can´t help myself but smiling and feeling somehow very happy for having managed that challange and life continues as if nothing would have happened. The office is working away, Mr. Xing comes and offers me a glass of water, I listen to the office´s Ayi cooking lunch. A few minutes later she walks past me with some yummy smelling Chinese stir fry and before I know it the office has pulled up a chair and invites me to join their lunch.
The funny thing is that I always wanted to know who works in this office and what they are actually doing. This was my chance to get to know them, to findout that they are dealing with antique furniture and they only shout loud into their phone sometimes because they are using satelite phones which seem to have pretty bad reception. I managed to spend an entire half and hour with them - the best language practise lesson I ever had .
Later on Wan Chang arrived - everyone welcomed him as if it would have been Santa Claus himself - And finally I got back into my appartment to continue with the Birthday preparations for Paul.
So what have I learnt in these 2 hours?
- I know now who lives with us in the house and have some fine neighbours
- We have a very safe flat
- Never leave the house now without mosquito repellent
- I can manage a fine conversation in Chinese even without my telephone joker Sophie
Next week I will go back to school and learn how to say:
"I´m sorry I´m an idiot - I locked myself out -AGAIN!"
Haha Geli, das ist echt sooooo typisch für Dich! Aber auch eine sehr schöne Erfahrung :-) und so nette Menschen!! Kuss Sveni
AntwortenLöschen