Waving and Wondering

I had my internet set up at my flat. The company sent a technician who arrived on time. He did not speak English and my Mandarin is limited to “Right”, “left”, “please stop here”, “I do not know”. First we had to find the socket in the flat for the ethernet. We ended up moving all the furniture in the flat and then found it in the bedroom. After that task was complete he asked me something, which I asked him to repeat it (not really sure why but perhaps I could gain some clues from his gestures), I did not understand him the second time oddly enough. So he started to outline a rectangle box with his hands. I figured we were looking for a rectangle on the wall. Again, we moved all the furniture and searched the rooms, I was the winner and found the rectangle in the storage closest. We rejoiced by giving a little cheer and then he went about his work.

The technician then needed to see my computer, he was not familiar with Mac’s but tried anyway. He connected everything, however, we could not get my computer to accept the passwords. This is when the questions started. He would ask long questions while looking for things on the computer. I would stare at him trying to come up with context clues and give and answer to the question I thought he asked, which normally came in the form of a question. He would stare at me, then we would just laugh, harder and harder with each question and misunderstanding. I showed him what I thought he was asking for then would point at words on the screen hoping that he had some key words for his trade like I had for the taxi. No such luck. He started navigating and we ended up in iTunes. It was his turn to point at Chinese characters and then would slowly write them out for me to ease me into understanding. I tried but well designed boxes with lines do not translate into words for me yet. He did ask in English if I had a Chinese friend. So we called an HR person from the school. I did not get to talk to the HR person the first time, so that really did not help with translation.
Since we could not figure out the ethernet I decided to ask if he could set up my wireless. I said “wireless” while waving my arms in the air to signify the internet going through the air to my computer. He just stared. I tried again pointing to the cord out of the wall then following up with my internet gesture. Another stare, this time with a questioning expression topped off by saying something in Chinese. Then I brought out my router and modem to him. He helped with that, but I did not remember the passwords and I did not expect him to figure out what the German password to a router would be.
The whole experience ended in laughter and a phone call to the HR person and a visit to the iStore at the end of my block.