Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Bed

Sam and I woke up at a little after 4 am on Friday morning (January 2, 2009) to get ready and catch our flight for China. Since I have been pregnant I've been kinda sick, so I was really concerned about our 15 hour flight to Hong Kong (airplane bathrooms are kind of small, especially if one is trying to face the toilet instead of sit on it). The flight turned out to be not too bad in the end (I only threw up in the morning and then the the last couple hours of the flight). Once we reached Hong Kong and made it through customs, we immediately hit the road for Shenzhen - another hour and a half north east of Hong Kong in a car. Once we arrived in Shenzhen and got to our living complex, we were taken to our apartment. I was SO ready to just hit the sack! At that point we had been up for over 28 hours and my pregnant, tired, and hungry body was pretty spent. Upon entering our apartment, however, I was faced with a few shocks. First, it was freezing cold (what happened to the whole "tropical climate" thing?!) Second, the whole place was really dirty -- but that is okay, we can clean. Our "two room" apartment turned out to be one room and an entry (I guess the entry is the other room?). No problem. We can handle that. The next room we saw was the kitchen (I had thought it was a laundry closet). The kitchen consisted of a cold narrow tiled room with a small opaque window up high in the wall, a tile counter, and a small square sink with only one faucet (cold water only, of course). Okay. Next door: Balcony - we will do our laundry out there. Next door: bathroom... sort of... there is no bath of course. And the shower consists of a shower head sticking out of a pipe that just sprays into the middle of the small room. No shower curtain or door or divider - the water just sprays all over the room. (At this point I wasn't sure if I didn't want to just get back on the plane...) The only faucet in the bathroom is of course cold water only, but at least we have a western toilet! (I think a hole in the ground would have send me into labor, at only 15 weeks along!) Anyway, the last room we saw was our bedroom. And, THERE WAS A BED!!! Oh, I was so excited! It had pillows and sheets and a comforter and a bed!! All I wanted to do was lay down, get warm and sleep forever! That bed was the whole apartment's saving grace! So without delay, that's what I did. I got my tired, hungry, shivering body into the bed. It was the whole reason I did not lose it right there. It was even okay that the bed was as hard as asphalt -- it was a bed at least! I snuggled into the covers trying not to think about where we were living. "At least we have a bed!" I thought to myself. It didn't matter that we had no hot water, or oven, or stove top, or shower curtain, or heat -- at least we had a bed! So as Sam got in the bed too, I was practically asleep already trying to think about only the bed. We snuggled together trying to get warm, when it happened -- our bed broke.

10 comments:

Jessica said...

Oh my gosh that is so sad! I'm so sorry! Have you gotten it all figured out now? You'll be there for a year won't you?

Jessica McKay said...

Oh my! I'm glad you are alive, but I'm sorry that things are so crazy. Take care and keep us posted.
love you

Anonymous said...

Wow. Sounds like quite the adventure!! I am SO glad that you started a blog so that we can hear all about it. I'm sorry. I hope that the magic apartment fairy shows up soon and remakes the whole place into a tropical paradise (hey - we can always dream... right??). Good luck!! We will be thinking of you!

StephyJ said...

I am so glad you started this blog. However, I am sorry that things aren't quite going according to plan so far. I hope things get situated for you. Think of it as a second mission, just not in New York City. What was Sam's place in Taiwan like? What you described sounds like my old neighbor Zach's description of his place in Brazil, but they had a bucket for a toilet. So, it could be worse. Good luck!

Sarah said...

(this is sarah baggaley, by the way.) oh my! i kinda laughed at your story, but only cause the bed thing really is not fair. sounds like you guys are in for an adventure. how far along are you? i have a blog too. It's bigpirateship.blogspot.com. you should check it out. i am excited to read about your experiences in china!

Jared & Shannon said...

Oh, Amy! I'm sorry things were such a blow when you arrived. Hopefully with your new life starting with such bad first impressions, things can now only get better. I love you and miss you my pregnant no-longer-nursing-student friend!

Stephanie said...

OH my I am so sorry. I hope that you get everything figured out soon. Congrats on your baby. You will be a great mom

Jonathan said...

Knee how ma! So pretty lousy digs, eh capitano? Sounds disheartening and rather macabre. You'll turn that hole into something wonderful. Maybe you should bring up full disclosure issues with Build Your Dreams. We pray for you and all other "sick, afflicted, and pregnant people."

Aubrey Harris said...

Amy, I'm sorry! That's about the most classically awful story I've heard! One for the kids and grandkids no doubt! Take care!

Unknown said...

yikes! and I thought we had it rough when we moved.

and i have only met you amy once...but i know sam from italy :) and i hope everything is all worked out...