Wallace's Wonderful Adventure: Another One of Those Days

Took Cameron to school and then the 3 of us went for a walk. Back home we lounged a little bit and then began to get ready. We were going to go to Tianjin but the air conditioning repairmen were suppose to come between 11 and 12. We also had our agent and another worker coming at 10 to fix both the showers. The things that hold the shower heads on fell of the walls...again. 3rd time for each but who is counting? While our agent was here she called the repairmen to check what time they would be here. Again they said between 11 and 12. At 12 there were no repairmen in sight. I contacted our agent again. She messaged me back and said they were so sorry but they hit traffic. They will arrive at 3. WHAT???? Are you kidding me? I was ticked. I sent her back a message saying how we wasted our morning and she had just told me they would be here. UGH! What a wasted day so far. I felt bad for mom and Aunt Sharon. They read and said it was no big deal but I still felt bad.

I had told my driver we would need him between 12 and 1. At 12:25, when we realized the repairmen weren't coming, I called him and asked him to come. He said 1:00. I said "No, now." He said he was eating. I'm pretty sure I had steam coming out my ears at this point. He had been off since 8:00 so I think he had plenty of time to do what he needed to before 12:25. Our Chinglish conversation went on a few more minutes and he said he was coming. He arrived about 5 minutes later.

Mr. Xue was on my nerves. I have to get over it.

We got in the car and he took us to Forest Park. It is a huge park. We walked around there for an hour and then got back in the van and headed back to our apartment at 2:20.

Forest Park.

The view of the water.

Cute garbage cans.

Mom and I taking a break.

I thought these benches were neat.

Driving to and from the park we saw some interesting living conditions for some Chinese people. Aunt Sharon and Mom have a hard time understanding how people can live this way. It is all they know so they don't think it is bad.

Places where people live.

Things get stacked up all over the place.

Someone lives and works here.

A neighborhood.

I dropped mom and Aunt Sharon off so I could go get Cameron. While I was gone the repairmen showed up. Of course they needed to borrow a flashlight because what repairmen brings their own tools? Cameron and I got home and after about 10 minutes the one guy rattled something off to me which I had no clue. He got on his phone and I was thinking he was calling someone to tell me what he was saying. Nope, he got off the phone and both men walked out my apartment door. I tried to tell them to stop so I could call my agent but they were gone. I got on the phone. Our agent said they needed parts and they would be back a little later. I told her no because we were heading to Tianjin for dinner. She said they would come back tomorrow. I told her that is fine but we were leaving at 11 to go to Beijing on the train. She said ok. Then she called me back and said they were working until 10:00 tonight and they would come over once we were back from Tianjin. Ok. I get another message saying that they have to get many parts and they will be back tomorrow at 1:30. WHAT???? I just said we were leaving at 11. She finally said we needed to call her when we were back from Beijing. I went ahead and sent Todd a message. He was in Harbin. Of course he contacted her and I'm pretty sure he wasn't very nice about the situation.

So now my blood is boiling again. I had calmed down after this mornings issues just to get all wound up again. I told my driver we were leaving at 4:00 so he should have been at the apartment. We went outside...no driver. Are you kidding me? I felt like I was on candid camera or something. I called him and he told me he was eating? Again, really that is his excuse? I told him to come now. Again the Chinglish conversation went on for a few minutes and he said "ok". 3 minutes later he sent me a text saying he was getting gas. I sent him a message back saying he knew we were leaving at 4 and why didn't he get gas the 5 hours he was doing nothing this morning. He came 3 minutes later. I think my blood may have been boiling at this point.

We drove to Tianjin and he did a much better job at getting us to our destinations. He even used main roads tonight. Our first stop was Culture Street again. We needed to pick a few things up that we decided we needed after being there the other day. After that we went to Jin Wan Plaza. Ileana told me about this place and how nice it is. It is on the river and the buildings are pretty. We almost forgot we were in China. Mom said the buildings reminded her of things you would see walking down the streets at Disney. We took pictures and checked everything out. We found a German Restaurant. We sat outside, ordered drinks and pretzels while we looked at the menu. We talked about how our friends the Love's would really like this restaurant. We ordered our meals and enjoyed the wonderful scenery. It was a gorgeous night to be outside. Our meals were great. By this time it was dark out and everything was lit up so pretty. We took some more pictures and headed towards the car.

Every time I see this in Tianjin I think it is cool.

Jin Wan Plaza.

Flowers look beautiful but they are all fake.

Should this be boy and girl or bar and grill? Hmmmm.

This bridge is neat.

It's beginning to get dark and the lights are coming on.

1309 German Restaurant. Pretzel rolls are awesome.

Cheers.

All the trees are lit up.

Pretty.

The River Front looks pretty at night.

The buildings are so pretty at night.

Cameron was being goofy.

Of course someone wanted their picture with my cute son.

On our way to the van we heard a familiar voice so we turned around. It was Alfredo. They were just getting there for dinner. We stood around and talked to them for a few minutes and then headed back to TEDA.