Thursday: I got to school and get a call from the school secretary that my flat is flooded, as of yesterday, and that my landlord needs to go in and fix things. This was rather perplexing since I was home that morning and did not notice any standing water, nor did I leave my place in a state that I wanted people go around in.
Shortly after that, the guards at our school and Ayis (cleaning ladies) came into my classroom half way through the day and started taking my tables. Of course we could not communicate and they did not understand that I needed them only that I was waving my arms around and pointing to the desks. Turns out that they needed tables and were just going to take all of mine, despite me having to teach. I got some back before my 6th graders came in….
But the real kicker of the day was after work when I got on a bus to down town, then a metro to the expo site to get tickets. Now a little background of the last month I have been trying to get tickets going to all the places that are supposed to have tickets. None of which have them, they seem to be “sold out” even though expo is not attracting the numbers in the first month that were projected. Also it is continual event and there are no passes that are different from day to do, besides 2 or 3 holidays. I went up to the desk, asked on the way in if I could be day tickets “yes you can”. Get up to the desk, “we only have tickets for the evening”, I question and say this is ridiculous. I only get an “I am sorry” and a few giggles. I ask to see a manager to see if I can get tickets, he has food in his hands and continues walking after saying no tickets. They refer me to all the places I have already frequented several times. I ask for a number to call, they give China Mobile’s number, who is the major seller of ticket “No we do not have any tickets”.
The next bright idea they have is for me to call the expo help line, which does not sell tickets and refers me to China mobile!!!!!!!!! There were vending machines for tickets but that area was closed. So for the major event in Shanghai there is no place to buy tickets in advance, organization at it’s finest. This is just the cherry on top of the miss information on the websites, and such. I will be going next weekend, but really question the slogan of “Better City Better Life” and some signs even include “Deeper friendship”. I walked back to the metro and went into a Lawsons that had an Expo ticket sign, but was not surprised with the lack of tickets.
At least there is still Expo Taxi.
So was your flat really flooded? :-)
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