Didn't See That One Coming

There are a lot of times in China when the only reasonable response to give is to say, "Oh China," laugh, and find someone to tell the story to.

There was definitely one of those moments in my room last night.

Here's the set up for the story:

In China, all water must be boiled before you drink it.  (When the Party really cracked down on this, it upped life expectancy something like 20 or 30 years.  Can you believe that?)  Last night, I was nearly out of water and figured I'd just boil some rather than going to buy it.  So I filled up the water boiler (which is plugged in in our bathroom) and flipped it on to boil away while I got my shower.

Also, in the interest of being as efficient as possible, I figured that my laundry could soak away in some soapy water in the sink while I showered, and then I could rinse it when I was done.  So I threw it (including a pair of my pajamas) in there, then hopped in the shower, enjoying the nice hot water.

I had set my clean pajamas out where they'd be in easy reach when I was done.

At some point during my shower, I realized that the water boiler was still boiling away, obviously having some faulty mechanism and not properly turning itself off once the water boiled.  So the room was full of steam, but I wasn't too worried about it.  I just made a mental note to myself not to turn it on again unless I was going to be around to turn it off as soon as it boiled. 

Faulty assumption number one: the water boiler will shut itself off.


As I got out of the shower, I glanced at my clean pajamas and saw that they looked a little odd.  A little discolored.  I shrugged, figuring that it was a trick of the steam in the room or that they had picked up a weird color from my laundry soap or something like that.  But on closer examination, I saw that in fact, they had become discolored.  And wet. 

While I was puzzling this over -- and trying to figure out how on earth my pajamas had gotten not only wet but also brown -- brownish water began dripping onto my head.  From a vent. 

My level of happiness, let me tell you, was low.  Especially as I realized that my other pajamas were drenched with soapy water.


Faulty assumption made months ago (or whenever I packed):  There is no possible circumstance that would cause me to need more than two sets of pajamas in Beijing.


We did get it sorted out without all that much trouble -- there was too much moisture in the air, which condensed in the vent.  The vent, being dusty, dripped gross brown water back out.  Onto my clean pajamas.  Ma fan. [lot of bother!]

I was very thankful for skype and the ability to call someone and tell the story and say OH CHINA.

I think that the moral of the story is that, no matter how well you try to prepare, sometimes life functions on the level of the improbability drive, and things will happen that you could not have foreseen.

And then it is a good idea to laugh, enjoy the story, and get on with life.

On a sidenote:  if you glance over at my sidebar, I have links to a bunch of blogs that are being kept by other teachers.  So, if you have some extra time, and would like to read their perspectives...enjoy!