weekend fun Dec 1-3

Friday evening and Saturday morning, I helped one of the American girls move from one apartment to another. This is always quite an experience. Normally, you walk out to the street and look for guys with empty flatbed tricycles and hire a few of them, and we all take loads of stuff in various taxis until all the stuff is moved. This time, another American girl had scored a business card of a moving company...sort of. Basically, it’s a couple guys to move the stuff and another guy who owns a big truck. These guys were especially helpful since all but one of our foreign male friends were out of town this particular weekend. (Convenient for them, huh?) Anyway, these moving guys were AMAZING. One guy carried the refrigerator on his back up three flights of stairs alone. And these are not big guys. They would just tie all sorts of suitcases and stuff together with rope, throw it over their shoulders and go. None of us had ever seen anything like it. Someone took pictures, but I don’t have any.

Saturday night some of the foreign ladies came over to my house to have a slumber party. I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow having fun staying up late, giggling, and just hanging out with girl friends. All of us are 20 or 30 something and I think we all had a good time. There are pictures from this event, but you can’t go posting those on the world wide web.

So here’s a story about preparing for said slumber party: I have one double bed and one couch in my apartment. The couch is large and L-shaped, so two people can sleep there. That still left 3 people with no place to sleep. Something I had wanted to get for awhile is a big piece of foam I could put on the floor to sleep on for events such as this or for when guests are here.

I know these pieces of foam exist, because my old apartment had one, and since mattresses aren’t very common (most beds are just a piece of foam on top of wooden slats placed across the bed frame), I see them often. But, I never see them in stores and therefore, didn’t know where to buy them. So, on Saturday morning I called one of my best local friends, Helen, to ask her where I could buy one. (Later, I would somewhat regret this decision).

We often talk about how occasionally, our local friends “over-help.” This was one of those cases. Helen tells me not to buy one, that her dad’s friend owns a foam factory and she can just have one delivered to my house for free. I really just want her to tell me where I can one, because I don't want the "Over-help" nor do I want to trouble her. But free is good so, “This could be a sweet deal,” I think to myself. She said she would call me back if she could find a guy to deliver it (see aforementioned guys with tricycles). She calls back to say the factory doesn’t have anyone who can deliver it today (Saturday) but they will delver it tomorrow (Sunday) at noon. I need the foam for Saturday night, but now I feel bad that she has gone to a lot of trouble to help me so I can’t bear to tell her that I don’t need it. This means I’m still going to have to go out and buy something to use for the party and then have an extra one delivered on Sunday.

It’s a good thing I did, because what was delivered to my house on Sunday was 3 twin-bed-size pieces of STYROFOAM!

I’m not sure where our communication breakdown occurred because I know I said “foam” in both Chinese and English and said that I wanted it for a bed. So, if anyone needs any styrofoam, I know who can hook you up.

Now I am facing the problem of storage. I called my mom to tell her this story and she suggested maybe I could insulate something with them. My mom is great! So, I cut one of them and put in my bedroom window to block some of the cold wind. The other two are currently behind my couch just hanging out until I think of a way to use them.