My blog
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The next nightmare...
Monday, Nov 19, 2007 3:48PM / Standard Entry
Shortly thereafter, the food arrived. The amount of food for the number of people we had at the table was astounding. Though the dishes came out two or three at a time, it seemed as if they never stopped coming. The presentation was also a sight to behold. There were vegetables cut into different flowers and birds. There was even a yam cut to look like a dragon. Gone were the humble plates and chipped bowls and in their place were platters and tea settings with golden accents. Even the chopsticks were fancy. While most of the dishes were recognizable, there were still very many that weren’t. It wasn’t limited to “Sweet and Sour Pork” or “Broccoli Beef” either. There were shadows of these dishes, in that the tastes were similar, but gone was the heavy, over oiled feeling after eating. There were plenty of different types of meats and vegetables. In short, everything was delicious.
And, more importantly, the entire place was spotless. There wasn’t a speck of dirt anywhere, let alone on the ground. There was actual carpet and a tablecloth, both of which had been lacking at the recent accommodations. In short, this restaurant could have been in any major metropolitan city in the world, and here it was on an island in the middle of nowhere.
After eating, we all went back to the room to relax and further recuperate. I have to say it was nice to just sit around and do nothing. My boss was still talking with the woman he had gone to see and meet with, and so Tina, Grace, and I were pretty free to do what we wanted. We started playing some games with Grace and had her work on her homework for a bit, but before I could set up any sort of plan, I felt a slight sort of rumbling in my stomach; and unfortunately for me, it was a sensation I knew very well. My stomach has always been a bit of a troublesome travel companion. I have a tendency to carry all of my stress in my stomach, so to speak, and if I’m going through something, it would be the first thing to feel the effects of it. So, not surprisingly, after the night I had just survived through, my stomach was, to put it lightly, not a happy camper. I had been very lucky up to this point in that I had had no trouble with traveling or eating or anything, but my run of luck was about to change.
I told Tina I would have to go and find the bathroom as ours still wasn’t working, and so I would be back shortly. She had no trouble looking after Grace, so she waved me off to go and find the bathroom. Now as I was walking back toward the big building we had eaten lunch in, the need to go to the restroom increased dramatically. I needed a bathroom, and I needed it right away! I walked faster, and faster, willing myself not to run, and to make it to the restroom. The worst part of this situation was, however, I didn’t know exactly where the restrooms were, and I certainly couldn’t read the Chinese words to find it on my own, so I had to hunt down an employee, so I could say in my broken Chinese, “Bathroom where?” At that point, I could probably say “Excuse me, where is the bathroom?” if I thought about it enough, but in my preparations to ask someone, I wanted to get the answer as quickly as possible, and I figured that it would be easier to understand two messed up words than it would be to understand 7 or so of them. So to distract myself in my quest for looking for the bathroom, I said over and over to myself in Chinese “Bathroom where, bathroom where, bathroom where.”
However, after I reached the large building we had had lunch in, there was nobody there to ask. So all of my practice was for nothing. The hostess who had greeted us and taken us in to be seated was nowhere to be found. Nor was anyone in the restaurant itself. I walked to what I assumed was the lobby, desperate at this point, and futilely looked for someone to ask where the bathroom was. It was like a ghost town. I was starting to get really upset, or at least my stomach was. Here I was, finally feeling confident enough in my ability to ask where a bathroom was, and I couldn’t find a single person to ask! And I was pretty frantic to find one. A person, or a bathroom. After finding nobody at all inside, I went outside and started to circle the building. Some of the bushes were starting to look pretty tempting. Finally, after walking around hopelessly for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably closer to a minute or two, I found a man up one level who appeared to be hand washing his laundry. I assumed he was a hotel employee, and I looked up at him, and even though he didn’t notice me said “Bathroom where?”
I know I startled him, because he looked up quickly, saw me, and then just pointed in the direction of the stairs, and jabbered at me. I had no idea what he was talking about. In my desperation, I hadn’t thought of what I would do when they answered. I hadn’t even thought past me asking the question. I guess I had assumed that they would be close to one and be able to point it out to me. I hadn’t taken into consideration that there might not be one close by, so lengthy directions would be needed, or that the person would be busy, so unable to take me there.
The man, however, seemed to understand my dilemma, as he looked at my face after talking, and when I didn’t respond, he pointed to the stairs and started to walk over to them, motioning for me to follow. I walked over to the stairs, and walked up them, and he was there waiting for me. Once I reached the top, he started off just around the corner, and pointed at a small door that I never would have found on my own. I turned to him, said thank you, and walked into my very next nightmare.
As I stood in the open doorway, there was barely any light at all, so I felt as if I was looking into a dark cavern. I could briefly hear a dripping noise, and while trying to find the light switch by the meager light let in from the outdoors, I also tried to distinguish where the noise was coming from. I figured it was an employees restroom as it seemed so dank and musky. Fortunately, there were no lingering odors to have to suffer through. Finally, I could see a chain hanging from the ceiling, but it was just out of reach from my spot by the door. I assumed that I would have to pull the chain and the light would brighten up the gloom I felt looking into the room. However, having a distinct aversion to darkness, even to this day, I didn’t want to leave the comforting light spilling from the doorway to walk into a virtually unknown area in hopes of reaching a chain before the door closed and cut off the light completely.
I leaned toward the chain, using my back foot to hold the door open, so as to keep the light coming into the room. I stretched out my arm as far as I possibly could, and still fell about 4 feet short of the chain. It seemed like an insurmountable distance. It was dangling there, right in front of me, and I just couldn’t reach it. I tried multiple different stances, taking multiple different approaches, using all of the gymnastics and martial arts training techniques I had ever learned, but I kept falling just short. I tried calculating how long it would take if I pushed the door as far open as possible and then left as quickly as possible to grab the chain. Would I have enough time to get to it and have the light turn on before the door closed? What if it took a while for the light itself to warm up? What if I gathered too much momentum, and missed the chain, or grabbed it, but then couldn’t stop myself? What if there was water on the floor? It was a bathroom after all.
I have been known to become disoriented, as most people are, when plunged into complete darkness. And what if I couldn’t find the chain with the absence of light? Then I might stumble into who knows what, and not be able to find the door again. Again, my overactive imagination seemed to be getting the better of me. I was imagining that as I left the door to grab the chain, the light wouldn’t go on, or I wouldn’t reach the chain, and actually there was someone waiting there in the darkness for me. And as soon as I was in the complete darkness, that person, or thing would reach up and grab me before I could get away or call out for help.
This unreasonable fear of something unknown lurking in the darkness is also what was keeping me from closing the door and letting my eyes adjust to the gloom, with a hand on the door to the outside of course, and then trying to find the chain. Who knows what could be silently, stealthily sneaking up on me while I was letting my eyes become accustomed to the darkness. Having been lying in wait for their victim, they would be able to see me perfectly while I was standing there. Given that fact, they could probably see me outlined against the light now, but the fact that escape to the outside was still an option, they were biding their time, waiting until the opportune moment to strike. Ahhh, the troubles an active imagination brings.
Fortunately for me, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it. My stomach chose that moment to take the choice away from me. I had to go to the bathroom, right that instant, or else I would embarrass myself completely, and not just because I couldn’t speak the language. The thought of the long walk back to the hotel room in soiled clothing is what tipped me past my irrational fear of what was hiding in the darkness. After all, if I were attacked, then I would have a reason for soiling my under garments anyway.
I fixed my eye on the chain that I hoped worked the light, stepped away from the door, again, doing my strange gymnastic/martial arts balance to hold it open as long as possible, then gave a mighty push to the door so it would swing open, and reached for the chain. About one step away from reaching the chain, the door shut, and I was plunged into complete darkness. The sound of the door closing jolted me a little bit, but I had the position of the chain fixed firmly in my mind. In the instant between the door closing and me making my final reach for the chain, nothing came out and grabbed me, nobody sprung out with a knife to disembowel me, and no aliens jumped out of the shadows to abduct me. I did hold my breath involuntarily though. I threw my hands out in front of me, half in an attempt to reach for the chain, half in an attempt to ward off whatever was coming to get me in the darkness. I don’t know how much my hands were out in front of me to defend myself. I think it was more to feel if anything was coming so that if I felt anything strange, I could turn around and run the other way as fast as possible. Luckily, the only thing I felt brushing against my outstretched hand was the chain for the light. It took me only the briefest of moments to realize what it was, and as soon as I did, I grabbed the thing like it was a lifeline and pulled with all of my might.
Happily, the light was attached quite firmly to the ceiling, and so I didn’t pull it or the ceiling down on top of my head when I yanked on it. Unhappily, pulling on the chain didn’t instantaneously bring the light I had wanted it to. There was a flicker of light, and then a humming noise. Then slowly, a weak, gloomy light came on. It turned out that the chain did work, but it didn’t lead up to a dangling light bulb like you would expect from that sort of chain hanging down. It connected to a florescent light; one in bad need of a new light bulb. Only one of the two worked, and it was dim at that, but it gave enough light to see the full extent of the room.
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In Chicago
Saturday, Nov 17, 2007 2:34PM / Standard Entry
Hello everyone from Chicago. This is just a message to all of you out there to let you know I got here safely. It's been really busy. I can't ever remember being this tired. But it's good to see my husband again. I'm going to keep this short and sweet.
First of all, thank you to all of you for your well wishes. It warmed my heart to see all of your comments. Secondly, it's awesome seeing my husband again. I suppose in some ways I didn't realize how much I missed him til I saw him again. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder. Thirdly, remind me to never run a tournament. I'm not even in charge here and I'm already tired to the bone. And finally, as you can probably tell, I haven't had a spare moment to myself since I've gotten here. Tomorrow is the competition, so hopefully once at least day one of it has passed, things will be better. But it doesn't look good at this point.
I'm signing off now. I'll try to take some pictures or something tomorrow to put up, but my camera has very little battery left, so we'll see. That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have something more substantial for you all tomorrow. Take care!
TTFN...
~Cyn...
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Time to go!
Friday, Nov 16, 2007 6:15AM / Standard Entry
So I'm at work, I have about 15 minutes left before I go to the airport. Then I'll have like 3 hours there to wait, but that's the only time I could get a ride, so you know how that goes. I'm going to try to write some stuff for you guys while I'm waiting, but my laptop battery only lasts so long.
I'm excited and nervous,and I've been working like a crazy person today trying to get everything set for me to be away from work for a couple of days. I just about finished up. Yay! I'm posting this just in case something happens and I can't get online tonight. Thank you everyone for your well wishes for my trip, and for being so understanding about me being gone. :)
Hopefully I'll be in touch soon!
~Cyn...
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Sorry everyone!
Thursday, Nov 15, 2007 3:03PM / Standard Entry
I'll be going out of town tomorrow. Finally get to see my husband after 6 weeks! I'll be in Chicago until next Monday. So with the preparations to go (laundry, house cleaning, finding winter weather clothes), I haven't had time to write an entry for today. I'm not even sure if I'll be able to blog while I'm there, but I'm going to try. Hopefully, this won't be a problem. But, we'll see. I'm planning on writing at the airport tomorrow and on the plane if possible... but I don't know how I'll post them. *Sigh* Why are all of these things getting in my way of my plan?
But, the good news is that I'm SUPER excited to be going tomorrow. I am so looking forward to seeing my husband again. I'm afraid I'll start crying when he picks me up and embarrass the both of us. heh Cuz not only is my husband coming, but also his boss, and quite possibly Wu Bin as they've been working together so much lately. Though I suppose that they've all been there and might even think it's cute hehehe.
The reason why I'm going, other than to see my husband is that there is a Wushu tournament this weekend. "US Open 2000 International Wushu-Kungfu Championship" It's being done by Young Champions with Master Wu Bin as their consultant/advisor. There's going to be wushu athletes from a number of countries, and it's a 2 day tournament, so it should be very interesting. I think I'm going to have to be helping out and judging as time keeper etc, so we'll see how much of the tournament I can actually watch. I'll try to keep you all updated... or I'll write more of my story. We'll see how things pan out.
Anyways, sorry about not blogging about the story tonight, and maybe for the days to come, but I'll do my best. :)
TTFN!
~Cyn...
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Ahhh Paradise?
Wednesday, Nov 14, 2007 2:39PM / Standard Entry / Life Journey
When I stepped outside, I looked around in wonder. The night before, when we had arrived, it was still dark, and I was so exhausted, I paid very little attention to anything else other than the fact that there were no crowds and that we were close to a bathroom and a bed. Now that I was out during the day time after some sleep, I paid a lot more attention to my surroundings. It was beautiful. Now granted, I have never been to
We were on an island in the middle of some lake somewhere. You could see the mountains surrounding us, but they were a ways away. So there was water all around you and plenty of lush foliage. The entire place had this newly finished look about it. The sidewalks were hardly worn, and the grass to either side had no signs of wear. In fact, I doubted anybody had ever set foot on it before. The sun was shining brightly, and to my still tired eyes, was a little hard to take, but other than that, it was like paradise.
We followed the walkway to Grace’s parent’s bungalow, and knocked on the door. They too had just gotten up, but were feeling hungry and ready to go eat something. We walked along the pathway, heading toward the one 3 storey building on the property. As we were walking, my boss’s wife asked us what we thought of the place. Both Tina and I thought it was absolutely beautiful. My boss’s wife went on to tell us that one of the others guests up on what I now think of as “
“Grace, stay on the walkway, don’t touch the plants.” I said and grabbed her hand to walk with her while waiting for my boss’s wife to continue.
“It’s not really open yet except to a select few, as they’re working on fixing some bungalows up in terms of plumbing and furniture. But we’re lucky to have two of the last bungalows that are pretty much ready to be rented out.” She went on to explain. I nodded, understanding now why our toilet wasn’t working, and everything had that newly finished feel to it. “We’re going to have lunch with him now, so I’m sure he’ll want to hear that everything is to our satisfaction.”
Both Tina and I nodded at this, and I started teaching Grace how to say thank you to the nice man who was letting us stay here. I then realized that it would probably be better for her to say thank you in Chinese, and suggested to her mom that she teach her what to say, as children expressing thanks, especially children as cute as Grace seemed to be a big hit in
Along the way, we met up with the woman who we had just gone to see up on the mountain. She too had fled down the mountain to continue her meetings with my boss. I found it strange that she didn’t seem very apologetic about what had happened. I figured that she had probably apologized to my boss and his wife in the course of the night, but even so, I know had it been my house at which all of that had happened, I would feel some degree of responsibility, and be deeply apologetic, if not mortified. But perhaps as there was such a language barrier between us, she felt that any attempt to be contrite would be wasted. But also perhaps she saw Tina and I as only my boss’s employees, and therefore saying sorry to us was unnecessary. Either way, I would have done it differently, so I can’t say I wasn’t a bit offended by her and her presence there. Due to the fact that this woman was, however, powerful in her own right as we had traveled all this way to see her, I figured that it wasn’t worth getting too hurt about it, and definitely not to show it as it might weaken the business ties that my boss had with her. After all, business is business. So when she joined up with our party, I shrunk a bit into the background and just walked with Grace, and listened to her practicing what to say to the resort owner.
We arrived at the large building and were escorted in by a hostess and shown to our seats. The spread of food on the table was amazing. There were plenty of cold dishes, or what is the Chinese equivalent of appetizers: cold cucumbers in some sort of vinegar and sugar concoction, some jellyfish salad, peanuts, and some other pickled vegetables like carrots and celery. We all sat down, and shortly after, the resort owner arrived with a few other guests and introduced everyone, including me and Tina I might add, and they all sat down with us to eat lunch. We were sitting around chatting and eating the appetizers when Grace’s mom nodded to me, and I leaned over and asked Grace if she remembered what to say.
Her head snapped up and she stopped playing with her peanuts that she had been lining up and then eating one by one, “Of course!” she said, indignantly, and almost started to say it out loud. I stopped her just in time and told her not to say it to me, but to say it to the man across the table. She got out of her chair, and was about to say something, but realized she could just barely see over the table, and nobody was paying any attention to her. Now, because I am a firm advocate of letting children figure out how to solve their own problems, I sat there and watched Grace’s mind working out what to do, watching the wheels turn, so to speak. She knew better than to stand on the chair, as it was dangerous, and she also knew that she was never going to get anyone’s attention barely peeking over the tabletop. After a no more than half a minute, she had it all figured out. She got back on her chair on her knees and straightened up and cleared her throat. I think the adult gesture got people’s attention much more quickly than the kneeling on her chair, but the combination definitely worked wonders.
Grace then said in a very loud voice the phrase that she had been practicing all the way there, and when she was finished, looked like the cat that swallowed the canary. Everyone broke out into applause, and Grace took it as exactly her due, smiled one last time, and sat down in her chair. The resort owner said that she was very welcome, and oohed and aahed over how smart she was. I very highly doubt that Grace understood any of what he said, but she always had had no problem with gauging the reactions of people and knowing what sort of moods they were in. So seeing everyone talking about her and smiling very broadly, including her mom and dad, she knew she had done a good job.
There was a bit of a pattern in Grace’s behavīor that I had noticed, and still held true at this point. Usually, if she had gotten in trouble, or done something that she knew was wrong, she would argue that she was right, and if that didn’t work, she would pout and threaten to go and get her mommy. If her parents had said that she had done something wrong, she would turn into this remorseful and repentant young thing saying that she was so, so sorry and she would never do it again, ever, and she didn’t mean to do it. She just didn’t know any better. This was probably one of the smartest tacks she could ever take, as it then would be partially my fault or Tina’s fault for not teaching her better. This worked a couple of times, and she got out of any harsh punishment, just got off with a warning and told if she did it again, a greater punishment was in store for her.
If, on the other side of the spectrum, she had done something that made her parents particularly proud, or pleased with her, she would then go on and act like an angel the entire time. It was almost as if she wanted to out do her own previous accomplishment that made them proud. Like she was saying, “You think that’s good, you should watch this!” Fortunately for everyone involved after the previous long night, Grace was definitely trying to show herself up at this meal. She sat with her hands folded when she wasn’t eating, and she didn’t play with her food, or wiggle around in her chair. Every time someone would look at her, she would smile politely and chew with her mouth closed, and would not talk with her mouth full. I could tell her parents were very proud of her as well, as at the table next to us was a young boy who was rowdy and temperamental, and definitely loud. But after Grace had done her kneeling deal, and given her little speech, both of her parents were beaming at her.
