Oh, what a night. We are back in the apartment – the power is back on. Its cold here – so we had both aircons feeding out heat into our room and pablos room. Then at 3.45 am we get a violent knock on the door and shouting in Chinese. We have a security guard at the front of the block – but it wasn’t him. There were two normal dressed men. I said ‘don’t open the door’! to Matt – They screamed and more knocking. We were scrambling for clothes. We were just a bit stunned – Was there a fire in the apartment block? I went to the window, and couldn’t smell anything. Was it something to do with the last guests owing something? Was it a break in? Was it some sort mafia? Were they after Pablo? All of these thoughts are speeding about while half asleep. But, as far as I was concerned that door was our protection. Our neighbours didn’t come to the door – it was just directed at us. For fifteen minutes (not exaggerating) of violent knocking we just looked each other and thought ‘What now?!’. Pablo slept through it. Then we had torch lights shining into our bedroom. Then I called an German Artist, Jan, who has lived here for twelve years and speaks chinese – and lives in the same apartment complex – to work out what the hell was going on. Anyway – apparently it was our air-conditioning that had broken down and was making excessive noise and waking everyone up…
Oh gosh. It took a while to get back to sleep – I don’t remember the last time I had felt scared – but not understanding what was going on, I did feel fearful for a few minutes there! It was a great example of just not knowing what really goes on, certain etiquettes, what things should sound like, (I just thought all the aircons here sounded like that) not knowing the nuances – I am so glad it was just an air conditioning problem.
mmm. I think few could deal with our lives – and the unexpected that constantly pops up – but, for some reason, we enjoy it – its been fascinating, and hard work – but its rewarding. Matt and Pablo have been troupers. I wouldn’t want to many nights like last night – but now we are laughing about it over coffee this morning! Oh, we need those aircons fixed – or we need to buy a new heater for pabs – I don’t want him to catch a cold, and we need clothes to dry more quickly – with the dampness here it would take days for things to dry if we don’t have heaters on – and we don’t have enough clothes for that.
I still can’t think about work – still settling in – got some incense for the bathroom – putting a few pics up on the wall – a bit more scrubbing. Our little apartment is going well. Internet is ON! This is a major step forward. I think I can start some work.
