Chaotic Day 8

More loud noises!  I've learned that these renovations happen frequently and our friends here in Beijing even had to live through one set of renovations lasting four months!  They had cracks running up their walls after it was done!  Please no!  I can already see Jude losing his sanity.  Aiyi has taught them a coping mechanism where they put their hands to their cheeks or tear out their hair and "pretend" to go crazy.  Unfortunately when I got home yesterday, Jude was so exhausted from "pretending" to go crazy that he was sweating.  He threw himself at me like a suction cup and wouldn't stop screaming hysterically.  Again we had to go out for supper just to leave the house.  I cooked today and tomorrow's supper yesterday after the workers were gone.  This is getting very stressful!

That all took place after the crazy afternoon events.  Just before leaving for my class, Aiyi arrived and promptly dragged me down to the front gate of our section of the complex.  There she and the guard proceeded to start up a furious discussion in rapid fire Chinese that I had been supposedly brought there to solve.  It was all I could do not to let my mouth drop to the pavement as they became more and more hostile to each other (hand gestures, face-making and the whole deal).  Kathi (our MCC rep) came to help me figure it out.  It turns out that one of the guard's cars was stolen and they are watching anyone closely who enters, wanting everyone to sign in.  But Aiyi apparently cannot write characters and he didn't believe that she works for us.

I got a late start for class, and I took advantage of the bus ride to zone out... so well that I didn't get off the bus.  Alarmed I got off as soon as a I realized and hailed a chuzuche (taxi).  "Anjialou, ma?"  I said, asking brokenly if he could take me there.  I jumped in the front seat and we started out.  I became alarmed when I saw no sign of him stopping where I had asked and gestured to the side of the road.  His response was to drive even further and proceed to drive down into a deep dark parkade where he continued to drive deeper and deeper around the winding parkade.  Realizing that he had no intent to stop (even though I had no idea where I was) I said "Zai zher!"  (Right here!)  He looked at me, bewildered that I wanted to get out in the parkade.  I looked at him bewildered that he would have brought me down here in the first place.  Turning on the light because it was so dark, he promptly charged me 10 kwai and I hopped out, trying to find my bearings. 

I'm not saying he had bad intentions, since it is possible that my directions were too vague, but I wasn't about to find out.   

I managed to get to class, where I had to explain to my teacher all the events.  Thankfully she has been very sympathetic to my hectic existence since James left.  Because of the one child policy, I find that most Chinese people who know I'm alone with two boys are very sympathetic because of how busy they think it would be with two kids.  Somehow, I then had to focus so that I could learn the Chinese Perfect Progressive Tense.

So now we are at Day 9 and who knows what it holds.  The corner of my left eye has been hurting the last few days, and this morning when I woke up it was swollen.  I've never had a sty before, but I'm wondering if that is what it is.

So far we really have been doing well, but at this moment, James can't get home soon enough for me!