One of Those Days :-)

So, yesterday was one of those days. You know those days where nothing goes your way? And then add to that a foreign country......so it was REALLY one of those days. Robbie got his first experience in what I'm sure will be a lifetime of learning, that sometimes girls just cry. In the morning I had to take a taxi 40 minutes across town to the tailors district to pick up my dress for this summer. It's quite the adventure with two little kids, but fortunately I went with a friend so I figured no big deal. But of course when we got there, the tailor told me (in Chinese) that it wasn't done yet and couldn't I just come back tomorrow? I reminded her of the two small children I had with me and exactly how easy it would be for me to come again tomorrow. So, she told me that she would have it delivered to my house the next day, if I paid her today. My Chinese skills and my brain tend to stop working when I am flustered in public so I said yes. I'm actually still waiting for the delivery, and it's 9pm the next day now :-)

From there I proceeded to a "nice quiet resteraunt" to have lunch with my friends and the kids. 30 minutes later, we still hadn't even gotten water. And, when we hadn't gotten any food by about 1 hour later and my two kids were actually crying because they were so hungry, I went up to complain, only to have everyone look at me like I was crazy because no one understood English and no one seemed to care. Have you ever been really angry, but completely unable to do anything about it? That makes me cry, so of course I got all frustrated and weepy, we eventually got food, but not until my kids had made a complete and total meltdown.

So, feeling pretty drained, we got in a taxi to go to my Chinese teachers house. Before we even left the parking lot, the taxi driver SLAMMED on the breaks and Robbie went flying head first into the middle plastic divider on the taxi. He completely freaked out and so did I, so we sat in the taxi sobbing, while the taxi driver made massive gestures and said a whole bunch of things I Chinese I will never understand.

We finally arrived at my Chinese teachers house where Rob met us and went to put the kids down for a nap so we could get some studying done, only to realize I forgot Maddie's pacifier and she totally can't sleep without it. So, we went home in total defeat, having accomplished absolutely nothing.

Fortunately I have a wonderful husband who got us all down for naps, ordered pizza for dinner, and downloaded Toy Story 1 to entertain the kids for the night. This of course made everyone happy so the day ended much better than it began.

We love living here, and wouldn't trade our experience for the world, but there are a few things I am not going to miss during our summer in the states; Not being understood or understanding most of what is said, using public transportation, walking to the grocery store ever other day, and not being able to ask for help when I need it. I'm sure after 2 months of traveling we will be totally ready to come home again in the fall, but for a while, it will be so nice to enter a world of English speaking convenience :-)

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