TIC

We China hands have an expression, "TIC," or "This is China." It's the verbal equivalent of a helpless shrug that accompanies those otherwise speechless moments when life in China throws you a curveball. Today was one of those days.

Ironically, I taught a session on TIC at our new member training. I admonished our teachers; Lower Your Expectations, Be Flexible, and remember that You Choose Your Attitude. I think I survived today without being a hypocrite, but the day's not over yet :)

Around 7 am I headed out for a bike ride. Since I have a really light teaching schedule currently, I've tried to schedule in some exercise while I can. I explored/got lost in a new section of Hanyang, and made it back to campus around 8:15. It was a good ride - the fun of seeing new places, the fulfillment of a good workout, and the promise of a much-needed shower back at home. As I was cruising toward my apartment, I saw the new teachers heading out for the 8:30 meeting where they would get their textbooks. From the crowd, one of the returning teachers, Jay, called out, "Hey Trevor, aren't you going to the meeting?" I replied that I already had all the books from last year, so that there was no need. "[Our co-teacher] wanted all of us to be there - he called me this morning."

I quickly did a cost/benefit analysis of taking a shower and thus either missing the meeting entirely or being very late, versus going to the meeting in my sweaty workout clothes. Option B seemed to be the best, so I somewhat self-consciously proceeded to our destination with the other teachers. It turns out that the school had switched to the 2nd edition of the textbook series, meaning that I indeed did need to be there to get the new books. Only one problem - the school had ordered half as many texts as needed. Oops. I was one of the unlucky ones that left without the new books. As I pondered with Jay how this would affect my lesson plans, we grabbed some Wuhan-famous reganmian on the way back. Oh well, TIC.

Old Book / New Book:
What has been changed, what remains the same?

When I got back to the apartment, I realized I had just enough time to shower and bike over to Aloha to help a friend unload the equipment for his new ice-cream business at 10 (maybe I should wear my watch when I'm out biking, hmm…). The truck arrived, and after some arguing with the guards, we managed to get it parked reasonably close to the restaurant. Apparently commercial ice-cream making equipment is large and heavy. Thankfully we had about eight guys there to wrestle three large, heaving boxes off the back of the truck. Apparently, unloading large, heavy boxes is made more difficult when one half of the workers can't easily communicate with the other half about how the box should be moved, slid, tipped, carried, or set down. Still, after about an hour, the equipment was de-crated and moved into the restaurant. Then I got an urgent phone call from our co-teacher: we had an emergency meeting at noon - in about 20 minutes - regarding the textbook situation, and I needed to inform as many people as possible. After sending out a text message to the teachers, I had just enough time to bike back to campus to be there for the meeting. Well, TIC.

The gist of the meeting was basically that not only were some of us teachers without the new textbooks, but so were all of the sophomores who were starting Oral English this week. So, after all the headache and hassle of trying to get new textbooks for the teachers, we now needed to get old textbooks for the teachers. Of course, since I already had a full set of old textbooks, this completely negated the need for me to have been there at the first meeting. The rest of the meeting was comprised of basic information and warnings to the new teachers, and I just sat quietly and reminisced as each point came up. Two hours after we began, we were dismissed. TIC

Trickle, trickle, little drip; how I wonder why you are

I had been planning on doing some work at Aloha this afternoon, so I was eager to get going since I was running late because of the meeting. I ran up to our apartment to get a drink of water and grab some supplies, when I noticed a drip from our office ceiling. This is never a good sign. I looked out the balcony window to see a sheet of water falling from above. That is definitely not a good sign. I ran upstairs to our neighbor to see if the water was in her apartment, which it very much was. Her balcony had flooded and was seeping into her office and under her faux-wood floor (and down into our apartment). Back down the stairs all the way to tell the landlady the problem, then all the way back up the stairs to the roof to see what exactly the problem was. Apparently workers were filling up rainwater catch-basins on the roof to check for leaks(?), and left the hose on when they went to lunch. Oops. After diverting the water elsewhere, I went back inside to try and help our neighbor. In order to help her balcony drain, I ended up opening the access cover on the drain pipe (at our balcony), and let the water drain there - and down my arm - to avoid the blockage. Meanwhile, just for good measure, the leak in the ceiling spread out and dribbled on my desk and laptop. About an hour after I had gotten back to the apartment, the leaking stopped and calm returned to the world. This Is China.