Dr Jekyll & Mr You

Could someone pass me a knife, please?  A really good Ginsu.  I need to cut the tension in our van.  You thought I wanted to stab someone, didn't you?

As some of you already know, but most don't, Mr You's days with us are numbered.  Fifteen to be exact.  A couple of weeks ago I wrote to the man from Michelin who looks after the driving personel.  Initially I was only writing to ask a few questions, such as 'Has he driven for other expats?  Is he from Shenyang?  Did you pick him up off the street on the way to airport to welcome us?'.  That last one I worded a little differently.  I received the answers quickly and he hasn't driven other expats and he is from Shenyang.  I also had the question posed 'What is the problem with him?'.  Well, I couldn't hold back.  I didn't bother to tell him everything, just simply that Mr You doesn't know the city very well, his driving is extremely aggressive and reckless and he is constantly on the horn.  I didn't mention the fact that just a few days before while driving Tim to work he hit mirrors with another car when he was driving too fast on the wrong side of the road.  The man from Michelin apologized several times and said they would start looking right away for another driver but it would take a week or two.  He also asked if he could speak to Mr You and ask him to slow down and be more careful.  I asked him not to speak to him, that it would make things more uncomfortable than they already were and we could handle it for a couple more weeks.

It really made us feel bad to have to get rid of him, especially with everyone else being so happy with their drivers.  We were worried that we were being picky and overly sensitive, until some of the other expats drove with us and got to witness the roller coaster ride first hand.  They also got to see Mr You's impatience and disregard for people in general.  It was nothing for him to drive straight at someone crossing the street and honk at them to move, even when they had a walking light.  He also drove like this in our apartment compound - not a great way to get on the good side of your neighbours.  I am using past tense because after the last couple of days, I am convinced that someone has spoken to Mr You about his driving.  He now drives slower than the rest of the traffic and today when we went out he didn't use the horn once.  It was nice to not be thrown around the van and jerked back and forth every few seconds.  Unfortunately his attitude toward me is now in the crapper.

Usually when we go out to the gate he is standing by the van waiting for us and tries to help the kids into the van, but not today.  He just sat in his drivers seat and mumbled "Ni Hao" after I did.  I asked him to take us to Isetan, another department store with imported goods.  I have been wanting to go but didn't have the ambition to try someplace new with him driving us.  After a lot of driving around he found the place but blamed the fact that he had trouble finding it on construction.  Perhaps that was it, I don't know.  I did provide him with a map I printed off on the internet.  Anyway, he pulled off the road so we could get out of the van he asked me how long we would be.  I said I didn't know and he made an eating motion.  I take this as being, 'Do I have enough time to grab lunch?' so I nodded.  I tried to tell him that I would call him when we were done and he could pick us up at the same spot.  I don't ever want to repeat my initial trip to YooHoo.

We left the van and walked down the street past the construction to the store.  We went to the kids' floor and they had some really cool furniture there including several bunk beds.  I've wanted to get Nicholas and Ryan bunk beds and they had some nice ones with slides going down from the top bunk.  Ryan wanted to get up on the bed and go down the slide so I asked if it was okay.  One of the four salesladies who were watching us said he needed to remove his shoes if he wanted to go up.  I took them off, he climbed up and started to go down the slide.  One thing I've noticed about most of the Chinese people here is that they are very nervous about kids doing anything that might cause them to hurt themselves, including going down a slide that is five feet off the floor.  One of the women tried to hold him while he slid and the other three all let out gasps as he made it to the bottom.  It was a pretty tame slide but they were quite worried.  I only let him go down one more time as I was worried a couple of them might pass out.

After the toy and furniture shopping, where we didn't buy anything and the kids didn't even ask (bonus!), we went to the supermarket portion of the store.  We bought a few things but didn't find anything that we haven't already found at YooHoo.  As we were heading out the door to go back to the area where Mr You dropped us off, he met up with us.  He took my two grocery bags and started out the door.  The kids had spied the excavators doing their digging and of course wanted to watch them, but I didn't dare stop.  Mr You had taken off down the sidewalk at a thoroughbread's pace and I didn't want to lose him since I didn't know where he had parked.  I had to grab Ryan and try to catch up but I soon lost sight of him.  I happened to look to the left into another store window and there he was, flying through the cosmetic section.  We went in and tried to catch up but that's really difficult with a couple of kids.  Eventually he went out another door and by the time we caught him he already had the groceries in the van.  You want to talk about pissed!  But, I kept my cool.  He would not beat me!

Next I told him IKEA and he grunted and took off.  Luckily it wasn't a long drive and when he was dropping us off at the door, again he asked me how long we were going to be.  I really hate this as he is supposed to be available to us all day and I shouldn't have to be concerned about his schedule.  He did the eating motion again and I knew what he was getting at.  He was hungry and wanted lunch but I'm not sure what he expected me to do about it.  Last week I gave him money to buy something but none of the other expats do this.  As long as we aren't going out of the city on a long trip, we are not responsible for feeding our driver.  I'm not sure what he does for lunch on the days that we don't go anywhere and he sits at Michelin from 8am to 5pm.  Maybe he gets free lunch at the plant.  I don't know and don't particularly care anymore.  I told him we would be done at 1:30 and left.

At IKEA Nick and Ryan got their token hot dogs (not quite the same as with Bumpy) and we went in search of a table and chair set for our summer kindergarten at home.  We picked one out then they played in the toy section for a while.  I was pretty annoyed at this point but was trying not to let things get to me.  Tim called and gave me a little pep talk which helped.  We paid for our purchases then got the boys a soft ice cream.  They were really being good today, even Ryan.  We also went to the IKEA Foods section and I got eight dark chocolate bars.  They are really tasty and cheap compared to the other imported bars.  Dark chocolate is my one real treat these days.

When we left IKEA Mr You was waiting outside for us and, without a word, we got everything packed into the van.  I had been going to go right home after IKEA just to end the tension, even though I wanted to go to YooHoo to get a few things that I wasn't able to get at Isetan.  It must be that little bit of bitch inside me (some might say it's a big bit!) that caused me to say nothing but get out the taxi book and show him YooHoo.  He didn't even grunt this time but just took off before I even had the kids buckled into their seats.  We did our trip to YooHoo and home without any more unpleasantries (or talking) and I felt a sense of satisfaction that I managed to get almost everything I wanted despite my driver.

So, in a little over two weeks we will be starting fresh with a driver that I'm sure will work out much better.  The person we are getting has experience driving other expats and even knows some English.  I had my suspicions quite a long time ago that Mr You had another job besides driving us, even though he is supposed to be available to us six days per week.  There were a couple of times that, when we asked him to drive us somewhere after Tim was done work, he seemed really irritated and in an even bigger hurry to get us home that normal .  Today when we got in the van there was a white dress shirt shoved into the pocket behind one of the seats and two more still in their packages in the back.  If he does have another job, whatever it might be, he dresses a lot better for it.  I hope for his sake that his attitude is a little more positive for that one.

I feel better now that the cat is out of the bag (or the You is out of the van!).  I didn't want to say anything for fear that he might find out and be less professional but I don't care anymore.  After today either he already knows that he is done with us or our little trip to the schools on Tuesday turned him against me forever.  I'm sure he's not a bad person but he really is a lousy driver.  Perhaps he will get a little sensitivity training before he drives anyone else.

Now that I have that out of my system (thanks for hanging in there while I purged) we can move on to bigger and better things.  On Saturday we are going to a barbque for all the expats hosted by Michelin and Sunday we are having some guests for dinner.  It should be another busy and fun weekend.  Also, we got our IKEA table set up and it's pretty cute.

It should be great for painting, coloring and the ocassional meal.  I'm hoping it will save the dining room table from getting abused (anymore) while we are renting here.

I guess that's about it for tonight.  I hope my pity party wasn't too painful.  Have a great whatever is it where you are!