When we first got to China, we spent a week in Beijing with all the other foreign teachers from China Horizons. During that week we toured sites and participated in training for teaching as well as dealing with culture shock. One thing we went over was the fact that you were going to have to go through hard things, but it sounds so much cooler if you add "in China" to the end of your sentence. It's all about embracing the experience and having a good attitude. For example, instead of saying " crap, I'm lost" you can say to yourself "crap, I'm lost IN CHINA" how much cooler does that sound?? So the inside joke between all the foreign teachers is to add "in china" to the end of our misfortunes.
With that being prefaced, I'd like to let you all know, the reason behind our inconsistent postings and lack of video this week, is because our electricity got shut off and our bathroom pipes busted IN CHINA!
Something we were unaware of until recently, is that we are allotted a certain amount of electricity, and if we exceed that amount, our electricity will shut off. Well, we being wasteful Americans, learned this the hard way one morning while trying to turn on lights and make breakfast, only to be stranded in the dark. It was especially unfortunate because we had noticed a few days before our water pressure had been getting worse, and that morning we lost our water all together. Suddenly we had no electricity OR water and weren't totally sure what to do. We cleaned up as best as we could and spent the day out of the house. We met with someone from our school to tell them about the power and water situation and got things in place to be resolved, but it was still going to take some time. Good thing our family loves camping, because we really felt and smelled like that's what was going on! It was so hot in our apartment because We couldn't use the AC and I was afraid to open the windows because we were under a warning for our air quality, so we just suffered and sweat.
Luckily we were able to get our electricity back quickly (and were warned about extra payments in the future if we over do it again) and a couple days later someone came to fix the water. So we're finally back to being a little more comfortable and a lot less stinky!
Although, not in the moment, I appreciate those little reminders of how good we have it. I'd been complaining a lot lately about how uncomfortable I'd been feeling in our apartment and how it doesn't feel like home, but you take away water and electricity and things get a lot worse real fast. Sometimes it's good to be reminded of the things you do have.
Drew and I have been trying to explain that lesson to Ellie lately, because with the adjustments, she's been less grateful and flexible, and more demanding. It hit me though, that I haven't been the best example of that. I'm working harder to be grateful for what I do have and find the positive in our experience.
Ps-Don't judge our stinky, showerless selfie too harshly 😉 it had been a rough couple of days... "in China"!