I'm Not in China.

Now things feel different here.
I couldn’t quite figure out how to communicate this without the aid of pictures. So I attempted to doodle a few for your viewing pleasure.  As mentioned, Becca is visiting me in Shanghai for two weeks because she has a break from McGill where she is finishing up a 5-year mechanical engineering program. Which means in a few month’s time, my dear friend Becca will graduate with a degree in the highly-complicated, technical, and impressive field of mechanical engineering. Let’s just remember this later. While she visits I still need to be a big girl and go to work during the day (I mean those panda suits aren’t going to buy themselves). On Monday I told her to take it easy since she’ll be super jet lagged, and if she was up for it she could meet me and a few friends for lunch.  She was a champ and was up and ready to go by the time noon rolled around. I swung by my apartment to pick her up, and then discovered the following had happened: I will now refer to the doodles in order. 1. I asked her how she was feeling with the time difference and such. “Oh, I’m actually not that bad. Forcing myself to stay up last night was key, and I managed to get up and get ready for the day and I’m feeling great!” she answered. “Oh, by the way. Is there a trick to get the water in your shower hot?” 2. “Oh, you turn the nob to the left,” I replied. “Yeah, I tried that but it didn’t seem to get that hot.” As we’re walking over to the bathroom for me to test the shower to see if we have the same heat scale I was mentioning how recently it feels like it takes longer to heat up and doesn’t get as hot. I swing the door open to the shower and point to the international red dot for hot. 3. She freezes with a bit of a smirk. 4. She scrunches her face up and launches into a full-fledged laugh attack. So this is what happened earlier that morning while I was at work: 5. Becca woke up and was feeling like starting the day! “WOO I’M IN CHINA! LET’S DO THIS!” 6. She walks into my bathroom. Please take a moment to study the schematic above. My apartment is relatively small (you know, built for one person), and my bathroom, while decently sized, is very straightforward and western. I mean, IT’S A NORMAL BATHROOM. No bells, no whistles. Moving on. 7. She turns her head to the right and surveys the situation. 8. She sees a bathtub with one of those retractable shower heads (I don’t think that is the right word but hopefully you know what I’m referring to—they’re very common) at about knee height… 9. …and figures that hell, this is China, things are just different here and I was told not to ask questions. So she turns the water on and waits a moment for it to heat up. And then it doesn’t. Because…well the bath water never gets warm (I should talk to the management about that but when’s the last time anyone took a bath? AHEM, JAY?) 10. So she proceeds to grab a washcloth, dampen it with the cold bathwater, and wash her body off.  And come June she will have a degree in Mechanical Engineering from a prestigious university. I’m just giving her a hard time, it could have happened to anyone (except not really because you walk in and the shower is right in front of you). 

I couldn’t quite figure out how to communicate this without the aid of pictures. So I attempted to doodle a few for your viewing pleasure. 

As mentioned, Becca is visiting me in Shanghai for two weeks because she has a break from McGill where she is finishing up a 5-year mechanical engineering program. Which means in a few month’s time, my dear friend Becca will graduate with a degree in the highly-complicated, technical, and impressive field of mechanical engineering. Let’s just remember this later.

While she visits I still need to be a big girl and go to work during the day (I mean those panda suits aren’t going to buy themselves). On Monday I told her to take it easy since she’ll be super jet lagged, and if she was up for it she could meet me and a few friends for lunch. 

She was a champ and was up and ready to go by the time noon rolled around. I swung by my apartment to pick her up, and then discovered the following had happened:

I will now refer to the doodles in order.

1. I asked her how she was feeling with the time difference and such. “Oh, I’m actually not that bad. Forcing myself to stay up last night was key, and I managed to get up and get ready for the day and I’m feeling great!” she answered. “Oh, by the way. Is there a trick to get the water in your shower hot?”

2. “Oh, you turn the nob to the left,” I replied. “Yeah, I tried that but it didn’t seem to get that hot.” As we’re walking over to the bathroom for me to test the shower to see if we have the same heat scale I was mentioning how recently it feels like it takes longer to heat up and doesn’t get as hot. I swing the door open to the shower and point to the international red dot for hot.

3. She freezes with a bit of a smirk.

4. She scrunches her face up and launches into a full-fledged laugh attack.

So this is what happened earlier that morning while I was at work:

5. Becca woke up and was feeling like starting the day! “WOO I’M IN CHINA! LET’S DO THIS!”

6. She walks into my bathroom. Please take a moment to study the schematic above. My apartment is relatively small (you know, built for one person), and my bathroom, while decently sized, is very straightforward and western. I mean, IT’S A NORMAL BATHROOM. No bells, no whistles. Moving on.

7. She turns her head to the right and surveys the situation.

8. She sees a bathtub with one of those retractable shower heads (I don’t think that is the right word but hopefully you know what I’m referring to—they’re very common) at about knee height…

9. …and figures that hell, this is China, things are just different here and I was told not to ask questions. So she turns the water on and waits a moment for it to heat up. And then it doesn’t. Because…well the bath water never gets warm (I should talk to the management about that but when’s the last time anyone took a bath? AHEM, JAY?)

10. So she proceeds to grab a washcloth, dampen it with the cold bathwater, and wash her body off. 

And come June she will have a degree in Mechanical Engineering from a prestigious university. I’m just giving her a hard time, it could have happened to anyone (except not really because you walk in and the shower is right in front of you).