A Break-In

Not really, but yesterday evening I was playing Wii when my doorbell rang. Because I wasn't expecting anybody, I assumed it was another wrong delivery, like what happened last time. But no, it was three people: a middle-aged man and woman and an older woman. Immediately the three of them started yammering away (in Chinese, of course) at 100 mph. I, being a) a lao wai and b) perplexed by having three strangers show up at my front door, stared at them blankly until my brain revved into gear enough to understand what they were saying. Apparently the guy's co-worker was coming in from somewhere, Britain I think, after having spent some time in HK, and he was going to be working in the Lujiazui district in Shanghai. This threesome were scouting apartments in the area (the woman in the lead was the agent, I think) and were looking at a place on the 22nd floor of my building. However the person wasn't there, so they came to my place to see if they could see how the apartments are laid out.

Not feeling very threatened by this trio, I let them in and they began sniffing around my place (and imparting the above information to me). They were pretty efficient about it but seemed surprised that my place only had one bathroom (I guess the place on the 22nd floor has, or is supposed to have, two).

Anyway it was funny, mainly because it was completely unexpected and they were all talking at warp speed while puttering around my apartment. But the best part was when I was seeing them to the door, the agent scolded me for walking around my apartment barefoot. She said I would get sick. I just thought that was funny, being mothered by a Chinese leasing agent :-)

For those of you who haven't seen my Huangshan pics, I highly suggest you do so now. There are some pretty dang memorable shots in there, if I do say so myself. (And, not being able to say it any other way -- that's how I'm going to say it.) You also may be interested in the Hong Kong and Macau sets.

I'm planning more travel soon, so stay tuned!