Sunday, December 23, 2007

Today

I don't lose things on a normal basis. I did not lose my bank card once while I lived in Nashville. However, since coming to China I have lost my Chinese bank card twice. I have no idea how I accomplish this feat: I leave the card in my pants' pocket and only take it out to withdrawal money or put it in another pair of pants. I find the process pretty full-proof. So when I can't find the card in any of my jeans, well I have no idea where to look.

I had special night planned for myself. Around six, I would take myself out to a nice western restaurant (the only one in the city, but still pretty nice), buy myself a nice steak dinner, and return to my apartment to write Food Blog Post Number 2 on Chinese western food. By going out alone, I would enjoy life by myself; I wouldn't succumb to the tempation of changing into my pj's at 6:30 and vegging until bedtime at 12. Well, I woke up from my three hour nap at 5:30 and discovered, sadly, I had lost my bankcard. In the span of two minutes I went from steak dinner to wondering how I am going to live off fifty yuan for the next week (it's actually pretty easy).

Of course, I've already tore my apartment to pieces looking for the cotton-picking thing. I've looked in almost every nook and cranny I have in this apartment. I've looked in pants I haven't worn in weeks (although I last used it on Wednesday). I've even looked in rooms I hadn't been in since Laura died (movie allusion, nobody named Laura has ever died in my life). Just how could I lose that thing? The last time I lost it, I found it in the most inconceivable place: lounging around the stand-up air conditioner in the most isolated corner of my apartment. Why I found it there will go down as one of the mysteries of my life. Just how does a bank card end up behind a stand-up air conditioner? Really? Was I standing beside the air conditioner and decided for some weird reason that I would put my bank card on top of it? Did I wake up in the middle of the night, take it out of my pants, fling it across the living room and then go back to bed without remembering? Really, how does a bank card end up there? Well, as you can imagine, if I found my bank card there last time, I have no clue where to look now.

It takes full eight days to get a new one, and I'm too stubborn to go back to the bank and ask for a new one a second time. I have one choice: find it. Well, I guess I have something to do tomorrow.

Today I went out my students to a park near the city. I don't understand somethings about living here. In America people waste time, I know this, but the time-wasting is usually something that happens without forethought. Here, my students plan days in advance to waste time. When I say time-wasting I mean walking around for three or four hours and staring at trees. I might find this tree-watching fun if I were doing this with friends, but when I'm doing with five or six people who are conversing with me in broken English every minute of three hours, it's exhausting. After walking around with my students for three hours--and I had to insist on leaving early--I came back to my apartment and took a 3 1/2 hour nap. I slept 9 1/2 hours last night. At least I'm well rested.

"I'll see you in the morning if nothing happens."

1 comment:

Unknown said...

did you check your coat/jackets?
That's where my sunglasses were that I had been searching for two weeks were . . .