Adventures from Today....

Yesterday while in the taxi heading home, I thought, hmm...I should find out when does the largest holiday of the year actually start? I knew that it started sometime before we leave for down south but wasn't sure when. Oh well found it that it was tomorrow. My brain quickly went to the fact that we still had three bills left to pay. I knew we needed to do it soon. I asked our driver and she told us that we would have plenty of time to pay them today, just make sure we do it today. So, after a good breakfast of french toast (Clark says that they were my best mind you!) We bundled up and headed out in search of the place to pay our bills! We knew that it has to be close and we wanted to find the place that was right near our house so that we could pay them there every month. My first thought was to ask the guard at our gate. He should be the one with all of this knowledge! So, I showed him the previous bills that our landlord gave us and asked him where we could pay our power, gas and water. He told us that we would need to go to south gate (we were at the west gate) and it would be right there on the right. I thought, okay, not so hard. So, Clark, Sadie and I head in that direction. With a stop at our apartment to get an extra scarf for Sadie, it was quite cold! The high today was 17 degrees! So, we headed that way, stopping to ask the guy at the south gate where we could pay our bills. He didn't know and so he called the guy at our gate to ask him. We finally walked off realizing they were no help! So, we found the bank that I thought might work. Umm..no, didn't work! He told us to go back outside, walk for about 10 minutes and we would find both places. (The power is in one place and water/gas is in another) So, we walked but stopped first at this small shop just to see if they had diet coke ahem, Coke Light as they call it here. And nope, none there! We kept walking, and walking and walking. We walked for oh a good 30 minutes and didn't find a thing!!! All the while, Sadie was taking a nap on me. We at least got some good exercise. So, I decided at this point, we needed to get in a taxi and find this place! So, finally after hailing a taxi, he decided to take us into town. Now, the funny part is he already had someone in the front seat and just picked us up to make an extra buck! So, we finally found the place (you see, I knew how to say it in English but I didn't know the Chinese to tell him, I will never forget now!) and so, we finally made it there, paid our driver and got out. I let out a sigh of relief, we had found the place!! We walk inside and all the doors are locked and everyone has gone home! WHAT??? How had this happened. We went outside and looked across the street, there was the headquarters. Let's just walk in there to see if we can pay our bill. After talking to the guards they told us that they were already on holiday and we couldn't pay our bill. We thought, well okay, let's just see if we can find the bank to pay our water/gas. So, we started walking (again!) and on our way, we stopped at a baby store (because I always like to look for things for Sadie!). We go in and lo and behold this was the exact store that my friend and I were looking for the other day. We went in about 5 different stores looking for THIS one and couldn't find it. After describing to the lady that I wanted a business card so that I could always find this store, we left. (That alone took 10 minutes to describe, I forgot the word for card!). After leaving, I realized where we were. A block away from all those other baby stores that we searched! We continued on in search of this bank, we just knew it has to be close!! We FINALLY found it and went in. The lines were long but we were willing to wait. I thought, hmm..I should ask if we could pay our bill today, because I knew myself and I knew I would lose it if I waited in this really long line only to get up there and not be able to pay it. So, I asked the nicest that I could if we could pay our bill. He looked at me and told me the answer that I didn't want to hear, no, the holiday is tomorrow, gotta wait until after the holiday!! I couldn't believe it, after this long search, we have 2 bills that we couldn't pay! And then we walked outside and I looked to my left and saw this shop that I wanted to go into. They had the cutest pair of flats that were crocs, super comfy that I bought the other day for 2 1/2 bucks!!! And I wanted to buy a pair for my mom and another pair for me. I mean, who couldn't pass that up?? We went in, bought them so very easily and headed back home to eat grilled cheese and drink a sprite. Whew....what a day!! The moral of this story....listen to your husband when he says that you should pay the bills early, second, hey, at least I got a cute pair of shoes out of it!! :)