I need some ear plugs.

Usually, I should be at Chinese lessons right now. However, I lost the battle with a sickness that I have been trying to fight off for a week. I woke up late this morning, and Adam had already left for his own language lessons. Soon after I woke up, Aiyi arrived and started cleaning our apartment. It was quiet and nice, and becoming cleaner by the minute.

About five minutes ago, the door bell rang and in walked the miracle maintenance crew from our school. Seriously, these guys can fix anything! They were here to remove the last of the horrible children's furniture in our spare bedroom. Last week, I couldn't stand it anymore and told the Land Lord that if he didn't remove the furniture we had no intention of paying for the space--because really, we were not using it at all. Actually, our company pays the Land Lord, so my ultimatum was not entirely factual, but I don't want our company to be wasting money either.

Apparently the only way that these guys can get the furniture out of our place is by sawing it into pieces. So, I'm holed up in my bedroom, hoping that no one will come in here because I'm sick and tired--listening to some pretty frantic Chinese as these guys figure out what their plan is. The worst part about what is happening on the other side of the wall is that I can hear the noise of the saw cutting the furniture apart. I hated that furniture, but I can't help but feel a bit guilty about it being destroyed. I'm having some severe internal conflict right now.

Why do they have to cut the furniture apart? This spare room is located in a place where the hallway turns. This makes it hard to move large pieces of furniture in or out. It seems like there should be an easier, less destructive way to get the job done...I mean, how did the Land Lord move the furniture into the room originally?

Back to the internal conflict...My mind is tortured by the SAWING of destruction--it makes a small part of me regret redoing that spare room this summer. My mind is racing about all the alternative plans that I could have chosen in order to spare the ugly furniture. What have I done! Just because the furniture was ugly and unusable doesn't mean that its existence was worthless...maybe.

The good news is (and there is very good news) is that we will probably be able to get the wall paper removed and walls painted (white--at the Land Lord's request) before we leave for the US. Adam and I will buy some furniture, new curtains, and a rug for the room. Which means that we will finally be able to use all of the rooms in our apartment!

When it is finished, it will probably be something close to a study/small living room. I will post pictures when it is finished. This is the very awful "before" shot. The bed is already gone, hopefully the desk is gone now too. Maybe even the wardrobe...? Soon the curtains and wallpaper will be gone too.


Poor Aiyi. She's probably washing the dishes and wondering why I didn't tell her that these guys were coming to wreak havoc on the children furniture. Honestly, I had no idea!


In other news, I had a terrifying dream about the first day of the next school year. The only good part about it was that my classroom had tripled in size--but everything else was haywire.

~Julie