A Bad China Day

A bad China day looks something like this….

Ben and I go to a coffee shop.  We ask the waiter if we can go upstairs.  He says no. We ask why. He says something we don't understand.  We sit downstairs. The waiter brings out an ashtray.  We tell him we don’t want an ashtray.  Then he says we can go sit upstairs.  Apparently, upstairs is no smoking and down stairs is smoking.  I get it now.

Ben orders his drink and soon thereafter leaves. I sit and wait for a student to come hang out with me, and work on other things as I wait.  The coffee shop fills up rapidly.  I put in my earphones and listen to music, but can still hear the talking around me.  A couple comes upstairs and sits 2 inches away from me.  They don’t talk, they just stare at the wall and sit very close to me.  In about an hour, I just need to move, so I do.  Someone else comes and sits about 6 inches away from me… now 6 inches I can handle, 2 inches… not so much. 

Unfortunately, the student never shows up, so I end up leaving because I just can’t take how many people are in this small space.   

When I finally leave the Coffee shop, I walk a while.  After about 10 minutes, I realize that the fog is so thick that I can’t see where I am at, in relation to where I want to be… so, I just get a taxi anyways.  It’s cold, I’m wet, I have to pee, and I’m tired.

I flag down a taxi, but it ignores me completely.

I flag down another taxi and explain 3 different ways where I live.

Once the taxi driver pull up to my apartment, he tells me he doesn't have any change, so he charges me more by drive to a nearby shop.  He buys cigarettes with my 100 kuai.  When I eventually get back to the apartment and receive the change, I count it to make you sure I didn't end up paying for his cigarettes.  While I'm counting, he tells me goodbye.

Zaijian (goodbye)

Deng yi xia (Wait one moment)

Zaijian (goodbye)

Deng yi xia (Wait one moment)

5 times later, I get out of the car, very annoyed.

Then, when I am finally home and I sit on the couch, close my eyes, and hear…  an insane amount of honking right outside my window. 

I give up.  I can’t escape bad China days.

(Post Script Note: Okay... so this wasn't my worse day in China, and some of it was even my own fault, but still, I can't help but get super annoyed sometimes.  Does anyone know what I mean?)