Macondo

Today we had a brief, planned blackout. They'd told us a week ago that this was going to happen and that we should check the bulletin board for more information, but the notice was written in Chinese so forget that. Much more fun to simply make stuff up and spread it around. So I was surprised to hear that stores and restaurants were open, since I'd been under the impression that there would be NO POWER anywhere in Beijing, and I was even more surprised when the lights came back on after lunch, having expected the blackout to last 24 hours. I was actually a little disappointed. You can't do homework when it's pitch black in the dorm, so I'd entertained thoughts of sitting around on the floor telling ghost stories. Miaolan, one of my classmates, had apparently been under a similar misapprehension, since she's purchased a small red lantern and candles. Oh well.

Last night my roommate and I were sitting around doing our homework when we became aware of a loud hissing, roaring noise that had probably been going on for some time. "What is that?" she said. "I don't know," I answered, and got up to take a look. The sound was coming from the water boiler down the hall. The entire hallway was full of steam. People started pouring into the hallway to look, and once one of the teachers had shut off the water heater and we were no longer concerned about the possibility of it exploding, everyone started jumping around and taking pictures. If I were at my own computer instead of the gym, I would post a picture of the steam, but unfortunately internet access in my room is sporadic at best.

Speaking of noises and things that are a little irritating about my new room, the new room has roaches. This is not a huge deal. I have actually only seen one roach since I moved. I wan't sure what to do. It was in the bathtub, not really moving. I was about to take a shower, and somehow the fact that I was not wearing shoes (or, you know, pants) made the situation seem much more difficult. Finally, I dropped a ceramic ashtray on it. This did not kill it, so I went and got a can of roach killing spray and sprayed it a bit, worrying as I did so about poisoning myself and the fact that I was about to bathe in the now foul smelling shower. Then I wasn't really sure what to do with the body- throw it in the garbage? Flush it down the toilet? I didn't want to touch it with my hands, god knows, and toilet paper seemed inadequate to the task. I went back into the other room to find a roach-moving implement (God only knows what I was looking for) and when I got back it was gone. Ew.

But anyway the connection to noises is that often when I'm in the room I'll hear a noise and my crazy brain will assume it's roaches. Any sort of noise. Roaches squeak, don't they? Or maybe kind of hiss? Yes, I'm sure that roaches hiss, and also rustle things around, and thank god we have power again because using the bathroom in the dark when it might be full of hissing roaches is really not as much fun as it sounds.

However, would I trade my new roach-infested, internetless room for my old room? Not in a million years.