Ever had one of those days? You know the kind that just won’t stop flinging garbage at you like a monkey throws his own poop around at the zoo? The kind of day that really makes you question why you moved here in the first place. I had one of those days today where just nothing was going right. To save some time I’ll just tell you only one of the three things that happened to me today.
So first off, I wake up to see my phone is updating on its own.
That’s cool iPhone. Go about your business. Uh oh…error…okay…don’t panic…it’s only my whole life on there! Okay, update. Thank you Apple for being so user friendly. Oh, download all my apps all over? It’s cool. I have Wi-Fi.
Three Hours Later...
Why is my phone not working? Fine! Off to China Unicom. Oh, no one speaks English? Like, zero people that work here speak a single word of English? What follows is a solo act of broken English and wild sign language and ends by dragging in my driver to help. Finally an explanation, but what do you mean I used all of my data just this morning?
Back at Home...
If you stuck with me through that you understand that in one single morning I managed to use all 500mb of my phone plan data, leaving my account with zero cash in it after being topped up only a week ago purely because this morning my home’s Wi-Fi decided to give up on life. Then, my hard drive with all the pictures of my kids on it also died. *facepalm*
I’ve always been one of those people who could brush off just about anything – that is until I started living in a foreign country. Sometimes those normal little life stresses become so much more amplified living here. Like the simple task of going to find out what happened to your cellphone or going shopping. Back home when a friend asks if there is anything really hard to do in Shanghai I always say: shopping! Why do we have to go to six different stores to either get all the items you want or to get them all at decent prices? #expatproblems
So, what do we do? I mean, let’s face it, you and I both are going to have this kind of day every once in a while. And with all the day-to-day stuff going on we can’t give up! Shanghai has so many exciting things to see, do and experience; we can’t just let one bad day ruin it for us, right?
So, that being said here is my quick guide to help you get over or through a very frustrating day in China:
1) Find wine
2) Drink wine
3) Repeat
That’s about it. Oh, and just in case you’re not a drinker, yoga will make you feel just as euphoric if you hold a downward dog long enough.
xo
Niki
// Nicole Chia is Urban Family's new mom blogger. Check out her insight into family life in Shanghai every week on www.urban-family.com. Read her previous post here.
