Conventional Wisdom

There is actually no such thing as conventional wisdom in China.  i sometimes wonder if this is a form of population control.  a few lessons in little things like, "don't poke the bear" would be very helpful, i think.

last night the construction site across the alley (i.e. next to my window - i.e. means "that is" as in "that is to say"...i feel the need to explain everything today, you'll see why in a bit) decided that it would be far easier to blow things up when there were less people around.  so, yes, at 12:30 am, BOOM!!!!  at 2:45 am, BOOM!!!!  at 4:00 am, BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!  it was truly good times, and caused me to sleep very well.  i got a grand total of 3 hours, and the most impressive headache that i can remember.  i haven't slept well for a while, since they have decided that it's more important to get this building up, and to ignore the laws restricting construction late at night.  so, after school today, i came home and crashed, the contrustion noises are less at 2 pm than they are at 2 am, i suspect this is because the safety board is in bed across town.  (actually i know this is the case, they are far more productive when there is zero oversight.) 

i have given my girlfriend a key to my apartment as it is far easier than getting up at 6 am so that she can fix me breakfast - i know it sounds like i'm spoiled, i am, but i pay for it in other ways.  but, apparently, the lock when you lock from the inside with the deadbolt is different than the one you use with the key from inside the door.  she wanted to come in and cook me dinner, and got me a treat for being a good boy, which apparently is made from raw egg and blueberries and looks like a tart, but clearly isn't.  she then starts yelling, "I CALLED YOU 8 TIMES, I RANG YOUR DOORBELL 10 TIMES WHY DIDN'T YOU ANSWER THE DOOR????  WERE YOU SLEEPING??? AM I INTERRUPTING???", and on it goes.  i let her in so that she can start cooking, and that's when my cleaner whom i fired this morning through my teacher decides that it's a good time to call. 

i can't for the life of me understand why she feels the need to call my phone.  she only speaks chinese.  i don't speak or understand enough chinese to understand her.  she speaks zero english.  the first time she called, i had a one sided conversation, lost interest and hung up.  when i fired her this morning (for showing up late and being lazy), i told her that if she left things at that, that she could keeep the money, i just never wanted to hear from her again.  so, because i couldn't understand her, she called back again on my phone to talk louder, because this is obviously an effective method of communicating.  i thought, "how is the best way for me to deal with tis?  ah yes.....a sledgehammer to drive in a finishing nail is always the best answer!".  so, i handed my phone to my girlfriend and said, "would you like to talk to whoever this is?".  Mei looked puzzled, and then really got into it.  she started yelling, calling her lazy, incompetent, late, and a thief.  she should give me my money back, she owes me 400 RMB because she could only be said to have been barely successful for the first half of the month, so, we'll write that off, but now we need the 400 rmb.  the cleaner hung up on her, then called me back, i passed the phone to Mei who by this time was truly upset, it was beyond just random chinese yelling now, there was cash involved!!!!  Peng hung up on her, and now Mei was ready for blood.  i said, "do you realize i have her cell phone number?", i could see Mei start to salivate, and i hit dial, and handed the phone back to her.  Mei screamed and yelled for another 10 minutes, before Peng hung up.  i then called Peng again, and handed Mei the phone.  this went on for a good half hour before i lost interest in the whole thing.

so, 2 questions come to mind.  what did peng hope to accomplish when she called me, she knows we can't communicate?  and 2, why do people keep answering the phone here, why don't they ignore calls and conversations that they don't really want to have?  i think that there's a common sense element missing, and it all stems from the fact that the general population should be sent into a bears den with a stick to see where the phrase, "don't poke the bear" comes from.

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Note:
incidentally, the bbc news is on.  President Xi Jinpeng, pronounced "she  Jinpeng", just sound out Jinpeng and you'll have it.  the x makes a sh sound, the q makes a ch sound, c makes a ts sound.  please adjust your pronunciation accordingly.
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i tried writing last night, i'm hoping and praying that i deleted it and didn't send it off.  when i briefly looked at it this morning, it looked like "Stream of Consciousness Bitching", aka tired babbling about things that don't actually matter that were bothering me after multiple early morning explosions.  i'm sure that there were some words of wisdom buried in the crap, but i'll have to go through it to find out, and i think that that will be later, not until tomorrow, anyway.

well, it's time to go play badminton, i realize that it's dark out, Mei realizes that it's harder to play in the dark (you can't see the birdie), but it's apparently important, so, we've gotta go take care of that badminton need.  have a great day, eh!