Hot, hot, hot!

Not really. This is China.

Last week Dan and I had the week off. It started off in the best way possible. We had gorgeous blue skies from Friday until Wednesday. Dan and I took advantage of the weather and biked as much as possible. It was wonderful to have time together, as a family and as a couple. I think I can safely say that both of us feel better about life right now.

Positive attitudes aside for a moment, every now and then I am bombarded with reasons to leave this country. I don't because in spite of the inconveniences, which I love to elaborate on, we live a very comfortable life here, and it somehow manages to redeem itself right as I reach the brink of tolerance.

On Tuesday, Dan and my (and every other Bank of China customer's) bank cards stopped working. No cash, no debit, no banks open because of the national holiday. It wasn't fixed the next day or the day after that. We had to wait until Friday before our cards worked again. I would feel safe betting that they knew in advance that the cards wouldn't work and didn't feel the need to notify people. All I could think was imagine we had an emergency and they didn't take foreign cards! We would have been very, very sorry.

On Wednesday, the pollution kicked in again and we risked suffocating Olivia every time we wanted to go outside. It was absolutely disgusting. We could barely see a block in front of us. That lasted until the end of the holiday. And, on Monday morning I woke up to sparkling blue skies, and work.

The real kicker, though, is that on Friday, when our bank cards started working again, the hot water stopped! Of course there was no warning, because this is China. It's been five days now, and nobody has any idea when we will have hot water again. What really kills me is that someone had to have thought, "Hey, it's getting cold out. You know what would be a good idea? Let's fix the hot water pipes, now."

Yeah, let's.