Sorry about the delay in posting, but we have been in the process of moving from China back to the US and there are a bunch of things involved with moving halfway across the world. There are a couple of stories that I want to catch you all up on before getting current so some of this might seem outdated, but I still think it is interesting.
One of the things we had been working on before leaving China was a party to say good-bye to some of our friends here in Shanghai. We decided it would be fun to use the grills in our apartment complex while the weather is nice here in Shanghai (at least we are hoping the weather is nice on Saturday). The only problem is that in a complex that has thousands of residents, they only have one grilling area, which translates into there being heavy demand for the grill. As a result, I decided to go and sit outside the management office for 1 hour before it opened to ensure that I would be the first person there to reserve the grill (you can only reserve the grill 1 week in advance, so I had to go the Saturday before we were having the party to wait). As I was sitting there waiting, a guard came by and opened the door to the management office, but did not turn on the lights, it was before opening hours so I assumed it was not open. After about another 20 minutes another resident comes by and opens up the door to go in. As she opened the door, I jumped up and went in with her and approached the desk (I walked a little faster to get in front of her). This lady also wanted to reserve the grill for the same time as me and tried to explain that she was the first one to open the door…too bad I was there an hour before she was.
To make a long story short, I tried to be nice to her and was thinking about sharing the grilling area (fits probably about 50 people, we have about 60 people coming), but she started to get disgruntled with me, so I explained to the worker, in my broken Chinese, I was the first person, so I get first priority on reserving the grill. The worker didn’t want to start a fight, but after I said that he recognized that, indeed, I was the first person, so I go the grill.
Basically it took more effort to reserve the grill then it would to buy Superbowl Tickets...now if the weather can cooperate it should be great time.
One of the things we had been working on before leaving China was a party to say good-bye to some of our friends here in Shanghai. We decided it would be fun to use the grills in our apartment complex while the weather is nice here in Shanghai (at least we are hoping the weather is nice on Saturday). The only problem is that in a complex that has thousands of residents, they only have one grilling area, which translates into there being heavy demand for the grill. As a result, I decided to go and sit outside the management office for 1 hour before it opened to ensure that I would be the first person there to reserve the grill (you can only reserve the grill 1 week in advance, so I had to go the Saturday before we were having the party to wait). As I was sitting there waiting, a guard came by and opened the door to the management office, but did not turn on the lights, it was before opening hours so I assumed it was not open. After about another 20 minutes another resident comes by and opens up the door to go in. As she opened the door, I jumped up and went in with her and approached the desk (I walked a little faster to get in front of her). This lady also wanted to reserve the grill for the same time as me and tried to explain that she was the first one to open the door…too bad I was there an hour before she was.
To make a long story short, I tried to be nice to her and was thinking about sharing the grilling area (fits probably about 50 people, we have about 60 people coming), but she started to get disgruntled with me, so I explained to the worker, in my broken Chinese, I was the first person, so I get first priority on reserving the grill. The worker didn’t want to start a fight, but after I said that he recognized that, indeed, I was the first person, so I go the grill.
Basically it took more effort to reserve the grill then it would to buy Superbowl Tickets...now if the weather can cooperate it should be great time.
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