Tuesday 12/3 – Wednesday 12/4            Moving Out, Ladies Night

Tuesday Mike and Avani came to visit me at work.  I was getting nothing done this week anyway, what with apartment phone calls, making reservations and emails about plans for Avani--dinners, KTV, a spa—and visiting Agong, who had been released from the hospital last week but re-admitted.  Good thing he was in NTU at least so I could visit him in the same building.  ZuenHong and Agong’s nephew had hired a 24-hour Taiwanese nurse, Dad chipped in.  She bathed, fed, and turned him regularly, wheeled him around, and was mucho expensivo.  He didn’t recognize me yesterday, but after a long time he finally said my name today.  But just when I thought he was coherent, he called me his daughter; then the nurse asked him who she was and he said she was his daughter too.

We headed to the ShauLongBau eatery next to CKS to meet the others for dinner.  I had to eat and run to go visit Ama, who’s been home all alone since Agong’s been in the hospital and who I hadn’t visited in a while.  The others said they would take Avani to a night market.

Next I had to run home to assess the ongoing apartment leak.  When I opened the door, I caught sight of SEVERAL huge cockroaches among the rafters in the hole scampering away when I turned on the light.  I’d been leaving the Raid on the floor nearby to attack occasional creatures that ventured out. 

I was fed up.  I’d told Mr. Ho I could leave him the key with the doorman so he could come in during the day, but Juling had told me not to do that, since she wasn’t comfortable with leaving my key that way, and said she’d have another repair guy come and would tell Mr. Ho not to come.  Well, NO ONE come and done a damn thing again today, surprise!  For the last time I called Mr. Ho, and instead he was pissed at ME because he’d come and tried to get in and I never left the key.  Juling had never gotten in touch with him; she said she’d tried and couldn’t get through.  I tried calmly explaining this to him, but he was pissed about waiting for me and basically told me it wasn’t his responsibility in the first place, he was doing this as a favor to us, and he was busy with other things and didn’t have time.  Mom and Dad and the doorpeople had told me maybe it was about money, and that money up front carries more weight.  So I asked him if this was about money, and if so, I’d pay him right away, I just wanted this done as soon as possible.  He got even MORE angry and loud at me, like I offended him, and I then asked if he could please just refer me to another repairmen, if he really didn’t have the time himself.  He yelled for me to go settle it with Juling. 

Mafia JieFu and BiauJie had been calling me concerned and wanting to send in their own guys to do it.  I called BiauJie to explain and couldn’t help but break down crying.  Juling had finally come in the morning to look after I begged her so many times and had sent over her in-laws’ maid to clean some of the mess.  She told me her in-laws invited us to stay until this was fixed, and that the maid would make us three meals a day, do our laundry, etc.  Avani didn’t sound thrilled about moving.  Jon and Ginger brought her back and stayed as we packed, to offer sympathies and moral support.  Juling’s brothers-in-law came to carry our bags and we followed them around the block to a lane off Fuhsing S. Rd.  It was late and they were big and unkempt-looking, so I said, “Jonathan, I’m glad you’re with us.”

Their apartment building had no elevator so we had to walk four steep flights, and the place had the musty old-people smell and feel.  We were exhausted, I hadn’t done any Chinese homework or studying, Avani’s feet were sore and swollen from the day. 

I stayed up late trying to study every night this week but always konked out in my book.  I had to get up early every morning to get the bathroom free, the mushy soft mattress was giving me back problems; I was completely sleep-deprived all week.  I got a 78 on the week’s test, my lowest ever after straight scores in the 90’s.  Teacher noticed and asked me what was going on recently—really busy with my job?  I paused, debating whether to even try summarizing everything in a couple of pronounceable Chinese sentences, and just shrugged and nodded.  Yes, it’s my job.

In the morning the maid Mary made us eggs, toast and ham with OJ, then asked if we had any laundry.  Avani immediately got over her qualms about moving and said we should stay.  Mafia JieFu had offered to find us a hotel instead; BiauJie must’ve told him how upset I got and he was riled up.  He sent over his own repair guys to look at the leak and they said it could be fixed in a day or two, they just needed to get into the 9th Floor apartment (surprise!).  When I told Juling, she asked me not to send his guys in because she’d convinced Mr. Ho AGAIN to come fix it, and didn’t want to ruin their business relationship.  Not wanting to step on the toes on the other side of the family, BiauJie told me they wouldn’t send in their guys, but Juling said we could later if Mr. Ho’s people didn’t “fix it well”.

            That night we got massages at Debola spa near NanXing station.  It was my first ever and so great.  They gave us our own room and I told Avani how to say “too light” and “too hard”.  She said she’d probably need to say “too light” more often, but I was dubious and warned her that Asian massages aren’t like American ones.  Sure enough she was yelping every few seconds, and kept asking me “How do you say too hard again?!”  Once she got mixed up and kept saying “[too light]” and wondered why the girl kept pushing harder.  The girls found her very amusing.  The pressure felt just right to me so I hardly ever told my girl anything.

            They were really nice since they were supposed to close at 9 but let us take our time and we didn’t leave until almost 10.  After the massage they sat us down for tea and showed us their products.  Avani said of the tea, “This is yummy,” and a girl nearby said, “[What, she knows Taiwanese?!]”  Apparently they thought she said, “Je shi shemme?”  (“What is this?” in Taiwanese)

            We were so relaxed it was tempting to go to bed, but it was Wednesday, ladies night.  So we made ourselves change to clubbing gear, picked up Ginger and met Stella and Christina at Plush, which was again…dead!  The tables were all empty, the dance floor had a small crowd, the music was eh, and we missed the free champagne that ended at 11.  The bartenders weren’t getting drinks right—Avani asked for a kamikaze shot, they looked confused, saying kamikazes don’t come in a shot, and brought out a huge frozen drink in a tumbler. 

            We moved to Room 18 which explained why Plush was so dead—this was where everyone was.  They were playing Eminem’s “Let’s get down to business, I don’t got no time to play around what is this…” and the crowd was good; Avani fell in love with it right away and Stella got us several free lychee shots from her favorite bartender. 

            All through the night and the next couple of days was Avani’s constant reminder of howwww much she looooved Room 18 and how we must go back there and get a private table.  I tried to explain my friends don’t get private tables—I mean we’ll join one if we’re invited but prefer to dance and get drinks at the bar.  But she wanted to so bad, so now on top of everything I started stressing about how I was going to reserve one and get together enough people in two days to chip in for it.  The next day I started asking the “cool” people I knew with the Room 18 “connections”.