Where Have All The Comments Gone?

My two loyal 'commenters' have taken a vacation (I guess we all have to do that once in a while) so to keep my ego padded the rest of you readers really should consider leaving me something.  If I feel like I've been abandoned I might just fall into a Chinese depression.

Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning up and making a casserole for our dinner guests.  We had a lovely evening with Celine, Caroline and Kristoffer and it felt good to entertain again.  During the summer it was so hot and humid that I didn't feel like doing much cooking for company.  It also isn't so nice to sit inside with the air conditioning on but now we are able to open the windows and have a nice breeze blowing through.

It is now less than one week until my Mom arrives and everyone is getting excited.  We decided that today would finally be the day to go and buy a piece of plywood for Nicholas's bed.  Since he has a king size Nanny will share with him but the bed is so cheap and uncomfortable for an adult that we needed to fix it up a little.  While our bed has a full board to support the mattress (no box springs in this place!) Nick's only had these tiny slats running from each side to the middle.  He is light enough that he doesn't notice but when we lay down on the bed there is a mound in the middle where the frame is and if you sit on the end of the bed the mattress actually falls through the slats.  We decided the best thing to do would be buy a piece of plywood and set it on the slats and frame to support the entire mattress.  Easy enough, right?  Sure it is, when there is a Home Depot, Kent or neighborhood hardware store within a ten minute drive of home.

I took the measurements for the plywood about two weeks ago but only got around to trying to find it today.  On one of the expat sites I found the name of a market that sells Do-It-Yourself supplies that was supposed to have anything a person would need for a project, including plywood.  I printed off the business card and when we got in the van I showed it to Tian Ye.  He didn't know the place at all but I read the description from the website which said that it was across the street from another market, and he said he knew where that one was. Off we went, tape measure in hand.  We even measured the van to make sure it would fit and although one large piece would have been too big, we determined that if we had the board cut down the middle that the two pieces would fit in the van and still work for the bed.  Again, easy to do if you own a saw, which we don't (in China anyway).  We hoped that it would be possible to get the boards cut to the correct size at the market.

When we got to the building that housed the market there was no parking so Tian Ye wasn't able to come in with us.  Tim really wanted him to but I didn't because I was confident I could work it out and get what we wanted.  You don't know unless you try, right?  We took the kids and as we walked into the market you could tell that these people don't often get foreigners in to look around.  One guy got right down and, while trying to grab at Ryan, started yelling "Hi!".  I quickly scooped him up to keep him away from all the hands that were coming at him.  We walked in and could tell immediately that we were in the wrong place.  It was filled with furniture and nothing related to DIY.  We stopped to show a woman the paper I had and, oddly enough, the man who had been yelling "Hi" as we walked in joined her and helped us out a bit.  They said we were in the wrong place and told us where we needed to go.  Too bad I couldn't understand her and by the time we got back to Tian Ye we forgot the words she told us so he couldn't translate.  On the way out of the building we encountered another man who was yelling "Hello!".  I'm not sure if he was deaf or thought that we were but he was extremely loud.   When we got outside Tian Ye got out of the van and while we were trying to explain to him exactly what we were looking for, an odd, older looking man came up behind him and stared at us with a goofy smile on his face.  Although he was close enough to kiss him on the cheek, Tian Ye didn't know he was there until I smiled and gave him a nod.  Tian Ye turned around and said something to the man (my guess would be "What's your problem?") and he walked back a few steps.  As we spoke again we couldn't help but notice the old man swinging his arms around like he was trying to catch bugs in his hands.  We didn't see any bugs but that's what it looked like.  Tian Ye called the phone number on the paper I had (something we should have done before we left Eastern Venice) and found out that this particular place was at the opposite end of the city near the Michelin Plant.  Oops!  Oh well, we got back in the van and decided to go to IKEA before continuing on to the correct market.  No worries!

We ventured into IKEA which was very brave of us considering how busy it was.  We only went to the floor where the checkouts are so we could pee in western toilets, the kids could have hot dogs and we could buy our dark chocolate bars.  As we stood at the elevator door in IKEA Tim and I started yelling "Hello!" at Nicholas, just teasing him about the man who had done it earlier.  He had a good laugh about it.  

From IKEA we drove a while longer and stopped at another building.  We got out of the van and Tian Ye said we should go to 2 (second floor).  As we walked in we had lots of people saying hello to us again but one woman stopped and stood in front of us, eating an breakfast wrap that looked like a burrito.  We went around her and into the building.  Again we found out we were in a furniture store but decided to look around for a bit anyway.  Tim fell in love with the furniture which I can only describe as "Chinesey".  He wants to buy some and ship it home before we leave for good.  I'm not so sure.

As we strolled around and up to the second floor to find more furniture, we got on an escalator and Tim, who was behind me with Nicholas, said, "Jan, these people are following us".  I looked behind and sure enough, there was the woman with the burrito standing directly behind Tim and a young couple behind her.  They had all followed us and Nicholas had noticed and told Tim.  We laughed about it and I told Tim to watch his pockets although I was pretty sure that they meant no harm.  We continued to browse, checking out bunk beds and desks with burrito lady accompanying us the whole time.  She stood very close and watched intently as we shopped.  The young couple followed too but stood behind.  Eventually we started to get a little freaked out so we decided to leave but couldn't find an escalator.  Instead we started to trot away and jokingly told the kids to act like spies to get away from burrito lady.  We located some stairs but Ryan was so slow going down them that she caught up to us.  I grabbed him, kicking and screaming because he wanted to walk, and started running down the stairs.  Tim looked up and said "Zai jian" (Goodbye) and I think she finally got the hint.  Either that or she couldn't keep up.  We got out of there and back to the van, none the worse for wear.

After some further searching we finally came across a small shop that had power tools and a market across the street so we decided to go in and take a look.  We left Nicholas in the van with Tian Ye but took Ryan with us.  I don't like to leave the kids as he is not meant to be our babysitter, but Nick is pretty easy.  When we first walked into this market we saw flooring but weren't sure if we would find plywood until Tim saw a cart going with drywall on it, then we figured that we had the right place.  I was ready to go to another floor when Tim said he could smell lumber so we continued in the direction we were already going.  The funny thing about these markets is the number of people working in them.  Each booth, which is very small, usually has at least three or four people working in it.  This translates into a lot of people sitting around doing nothing for most of the day.  When they see us coming it's a bit of excitement so they look and say "Hello", for a lot of them the only English word they know, and wait to see what we will do.  We stopped at the first booth we found that had plywood and commenced a discussion with one of the women who was working there.  I indicated to her that we would need the wood cut and we had figured out the price but then I wasn't sure about the thickness.  Tim and I discussed it for several minutes and were getting a little frustrated so we left the booth and took a walk to regroup.  Eventually we came across another rack of boards and I spied one that looked like the right thickness.  We stopped and a woman hopped over to us on one foot.  I wasn't sure why she was only wearing one shoe, a very pretty one, but we started discussing price, size and having the board cut.  When we had decided to take two and have them cut, we turned around and realized that a man was sitting on a stool with the woman's shoe turned upside down on a 2x4, hammering a nail into the high heel.  He finished up and handed her shoe back so she could walk again.  We concluded our dealings by paying her and were wondering how we were going to find the place to get the wood cut when she called over a couple guys who took the two boards and put them on a big cart.  One of them started to wheel it away so we followed him through the market to an alley beside the building.  There were more little shops here and the man stopped at one where a couple more guys unloaded our boards onto some 2x4's that were on the ground.  They set them up to cut them while delivery trucks drove by us, coming within inches of running over our boards.  Tim monitored the cutting, a good thing since they didn't follow the measurements we gave them, while I tried to field questions from the group of people around us.  I did okay with understanding and answering in Chinese.

When they got the boards cut with a saw similar to a grinder, they loaded them back onto the cart and we headed for the van.  When Tian Ye saw us coming he looked like a deer caught in the headlights.  I'm sure that he didn't believe we could get the boards into the van and would destroy it trying.  It really wasn't difficult and was simply a matter of laying one seat down and having Tim sit in the front for the drive home.  The toughest part was getting Tian Ye to explain to the man pushing the cart that we didn't want the extra pieces that were cut off, that he could keep them or throw them out.  Tim tried to tip the man but he wouldn't take more than a handshake.  Everyone there was very friendly and it ended up being a pleasant experience.  Add to that the fact that we managed to accomplish our task without help made us feel really great.  To celebrate, we decided to get some Chinese food for lunch. 

A couple weeks ago, while I was shopping,  I asked Tian Ye to pick up some fried rice and dumplings for Tim.  The rice was fantastic so we asked him to take us to get some more, as well as noodles, today.  After driving with our plywood for a bit we stopped at a little store that sold children's clothing.  Tian Ye said his friend owned this shop and would go in there for the food.  Of course, why not get Chinese food from a children's clothing store?  We were confused.  For a minute we thought he said that he had to watch the store while his friend went to get the food, then we speculated that this was food made in someone's house instead of a restaurant and this woman was related.  He brought a menu out to us in the van and asked what we wanted.  He said if we ordered from one side, the food would be quick but if we wanted the fried rice or anything from the other side of the menu, it would take up to a half hour.  We said we would wait and ordered the rice, noodles and some beef.  Tian Ye went back into the clothing store then came to sit in the van with us.  At this point I tried asking him if the food was coming from a restaurant and how we would get it.  As he was trying to explain a woman on a motorcycle drove up to the little store with bags of food.  Tian Ye yelled out the window and asked how much it was, 23 yuan was the answer (about $3.50), then got out and gave the woman the money.  She gave us the food and we were on our way, so much for the half hour!  So where did the food come from?  What we managed to ascertain with our keen deductive reasoning skills is that the food comes from a restaurant that has no parking around it.  The easiest way to get the food is to order from Tian Ye's friend's store then have it delivered with their free service.  Sound good?  That's what we're going with.

When we got home Tian Ye helped us bring the plywood up then left.  I wanted to eat before putting it on the bed but Tim and Nick couldn't wait.  Tim ripped the mattress off and set the plywood into the frame.  Hooray!  It just fit and now the bed is very comfortable.  Nanny shouldn't have any trouble sleeping!

As a bonus, the food we ordered was really tasty.  The day was a great success and after playing outside for a while this afternoon, the boys were very tired and went to bed without a fuss.  Tim and I are relaxing, except for the blogging, and chillin' for the evening.  Tomorrow is a holiday so no school or work!

Don't forget, comments are welcome and may soon become mandatory!