K: Adventures in 4th Floor Living

In China buildings are tall. In China tall buildings do not include elevators until they are more than six stories high. We currently live on the fourth floor of a six-story building. We have lived as high as the fifth floor during our residence in China and we have never minded the height. It’s quieter up here; we get more light through the windows up here; the drains in the bathrooms smell less up here. On Friday, I minded the height.

We have an amazing and wonderful stroller. It’s a BOB. For those of you who don’t speak stroller, the BOB is the Cadillac of jogging strollers. It was a very generous gift to us. The BOB can take any bump in the road (or off the road) and keep baby sleeping… well, like a baby. It can turn on a dime. It has shields for rain or shine and an ample undercarriage for storage. We LOVE the BOB. On Friday, I didn’t love the BOB.

On Friday, S and I had to be at the university to meet N for the 2009 academic year opening ceremony at 3:00pm. So at 2:30, with plenty of time to walk to the campus on the beautiful day that Friday was, I left S (safely) upstairs while I carried the BOB downstairs; I can’t carry both baby and BOB simultaneously. I went back up to get S and our stuff and back down to load up the BOB. Having gotten it loaded with baby and stuff, we were almost to the gate of our complex when I realized we had a flat in the front wheel. Not just an I’ll-push-it-to-the-corner-and-get-the-nice-bike-repair-man-to-pump-it-up flat, but a rubber-flopping, rim-bending flat. So we turned around and I took S back upstairs where I left him (safely) while I went back down to get the BOB. BOB and I went back upstairs where I retrieved S, who hates to be left alone and was thoroughly confused by this series of comings and goings.

We were back down and out in the warm sunshine before I realized I had not a fen on my person. (Note: a fen is the smallest unit of Chinese currency and is so small it is usually neglected when making change; clerks round to the mao, the next smallest denomination). Back up we went where I collected bus fare. Then, at 2:45 with neither time nor breath to spare, we descended for what I earnestly prayed would be the last time and caught the bus just outside our front gate.

S loves to ride the bus; he waves and points and smiles and he is loved in return. On Friday, he was loved so well that the bus attendant gave us a free ride.