Is There A Gong Upstairs?

That's what I asked myself as I awoke to a loud, steady "bong... bong... bong...", which must be someone doing construction on one of our neighbor's bathrooms, but instead sounds like it is within our own.

Anyway, since I'm already awake, I figured I would elaborate on Daniel's post. Last night, after Daniel and I went to NYPD (actually pretty good pizza!) with a group of CTLCers, we headed home on the subway with some friends. Since we live in a different area, they got off of the subway at the stop before us, and we were alone by the time we got off at the next stop. We had to switch to a bus, but since it was the first time we had taken this route, we had to stop to ask people where the bus stop was. As we stopped to ask someone where the bus was, three little girls trying to sell roses approached us, saying "mai le", which means "buy". We said "Wo bu yao" which means "I don't want it", but this did not discourage them. Instead, one girl grabbed the back of my shirt, and started pulling on it. Soon, the girl that was following Daniel (and maybe trying to pickpocket him?) joined in, and grabbed my shirt. Finally, the third girl wrapped herself around my right leg, like a monkey (and like I used to do to my sister when I was trying to be annoying :)). Eventually, Daniel was able to help me get all of them off of me, and we were able to get on the bus. The weirdest part was that there were other people around, but they just watched the foreigner get accosted. It was such a bizarre situation... it really made me feel uncomfortable and a little unsafe for the first time in China, because 1. you don't know who those girls are affiliated with (think Slumdog Millionaire) and 2. you can't just start hitting little kids, yet they are clearly invading your personal space.

Anyway, we got on the bus and made it back to our quiet neighborhood, with no other problems. Since it's 20 minutes later and the gong still hasn't stopped, here's another story, though much less exciting that the last. Three people came to our apartment to fix our bathroom sink and our kitchen sink. This was great because we had heard that in China, sometimes it takes a long time and a lot of pestering to get things fixed, yet for us, they came on the day they said they would. As one guy got to work, the other man and woman just stood around. Why they needed to be there, I have no idea. But since it was taking a little time, the man started looking around our apartment. I hung one picture of Daniel and I on the wall, which he inspected. Then he found the pile of pictures I am planning on posting on the wall, and without asking, just picked them up and started looking through the pile. After he was done examining them, he went over to our kitchen light and started knocking on it. By that point, the man was done fixing our sink, so the snooper could snoop no more. Just goes to show another difference between American and Chinese culture-- no value of personal space or things here.

Pictures to come!
Zoie