Water

It's fall now in Tianjin.  And I also realize, over 2 months since I wrote a blog post.  And this post is about neither of those things.  This is about some day-to-day life things that you may not know about living in China.

Today I called to have a water tong delivered. A tong is a 5? gallon jug of drinkable water.  We don't drink the water here from the tap unless it's boiled or filtered.  I set up ordering the tongs about a month and a half ago, but haven't needed to order a new one yet. I have avoided doing this as long as possible because I fear business/transaction related things in any language, but especially Chinese. But I felt that I couldn't put it off any longer because my second tong will probably run out this week, and I don't want to have to boil all my drinking water. The call went smoothly, and I felt good about myself, so I began making cookies while awaiting the delivery man.  I had just put shortening on the stove to melt when I heard a knock at the door. Here’s what transpired (In Chinese):

Me (Opening the door): “Hello”
Man: “Hello. I’m here to deliver water.”
Me (handing him the empty water tong): “Yes.  Here you go”
Man: “Where do you want this?”
Me: “Here’s fine”
Man: “Oh…the ticket?”
Me: “Huh?”
Man: “The ticket”
Me: “Ohhh…so sorry. Here it is.”

I handed him one of 9 remaining tickets for the water tongs I had already purchased, bid him goodbye, and shut the door.

I triumphantly returned to the kitchen to begin measuring out more ingredients. I was just thinking “See, Erin, what were you afraid of?  That went great. Only a minor mistake on your part," when I heard another knock on the door.  Wondering who it could be, I opened the door.  It was the water delivery man again.

Man: “The ticket’s wrong.”
Me: “Huh??”
Man (showing me the ticket): “The ticket’s wrong..”
Me (hearing my tiny pot of shortening fall off the gas burner in the kitchen) “Hold on.”

I rescued my shortening, turned off my music, and returned to the delivery man.

Me: “Sorry.  I had something on the stove. What’s wrong?"
Man: “The ticket’s wrong. It’s not the same brand of water”

I then realized the brand of water he brought was not the same as what was on my ticket, and therefore not the kind of water I had ordered. So the water brought to me was wrong.  I managed somehow out of politeness to not point this out.

Man (showing me a slip of paper with an address on it): “This is you, right?”
Me: “Yes, and these tickets are what you guys gave me.”
Man: “Do you want to change the water?”
Me: “Is that what we should do? I’m okay with this kind for today.”
Man: “Is it okay? Pay the difference?”
Me: “I have to pay?”
Man: “No. I pay you.”
Me: “Oh. This brand is cheaper than my brand?”
Man: “Yes, yes. This one is 12. Your brand is 16. I’ll pay you 4.”
Me: “That’s fine.”
Man: “Okay.”

He pulls out 4 kuai to give to me.

Man (noticing my water dispenser and other tong of water): “But you still have water.”
Me: “Yes. But I’ll probably run out this week, which is why I wanted another tong.”
Man: “But there’s still water there.  I can’t put this one on.”
Me: “That’s fine.  You don’t need to put it on there.  I can do it myself.”
Man: “But I need to take it with me.”
Me: “What?”
Man: “I need to take this.”
Me: “Why? I just gave you one right now.”
Man: “Oh. really?”

I walk into the hallway to show him the empty tong I gave him not 5 minutes before.

Man: “Ohh. Okay.  So, do you want the brand on the tickets after this instead of this brand.”
Me: “Yes.” (What I was really thinking was “that is what I ordered…”)
Man: “Okay.  Goodbye.”
Me: “Bye”

This, my friends, is why I avoid business as much as possible.
I find that however simple the business I’m trying to transact should be, it always ends up being much more complicated when I’m involved.

But at least I have water to drink.  And I spoke Chinese. 

And now I have cookies to go eat.