Aimless Minded

I am all over the place right now - not physically but MENTALLY.
I have been trying to figure out what I am doing with myself and where I am going? “Where are you going?” Sorry, a little Dave Matthews moment.
This is one of the down sides of the expat wife-life, the constant state of aimlessness. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it is nice not being bombarded with the chaos of my typical day in the US and I uncomfortable complaining because the reality is, my life is easy; easy and indulgent.
I don’t work. I have a cleaning lady three days a week. I workout three mornings a week with a professionally trained coach; I go out to lunch with “the ladies” twice a week, more than that most weeks. I get a foot/shoulder massage once a week and every other week a full manicure and pedicure. I go to the hair salon every 8 weeks for a cut and color.
All of these indulgences are something that I never did when we were stateside. I never had a massage before moving here, who can afford it? Mani/pedi’s were a new treat that I had just recently discovered but rarely indulged due to the price and time consumption. Working out, yeah right, no time, no energy and no money – and trust me, I have to pay someone to keep me in line with the whole exercise portion of my week. Hair treatments…..hahaha, please refer to my pictures from Pre-China and Early China Days. Does it look like I spent a lot of time and money getting my wild woman mane pampered? I was just moments away from getting it all locked. (Which if I could of found someone I trusted, it would have been done.) I MISS my hair, love the short do but still miss my wild hair.
So why am I so unsatisfied with my cushy universe?
I know part of the problem…I am bored, I am bored and oh, I am bored. Doesn’t that sound like I am suffering from the princess complex?
I am now a little more empathetic to Miss Britney Spears, if you can do most anything you want and you do….well, you get bored. You skirt with disaster till you either snap out of it and grow up or you become a train wreck and the universe watches you implode. Am I in danger of going Britney on you? No, but I did cut off all my hair…hmmmmm? No really, nothing so dramatic. However, I did hear tell of a fellow expat throwing a bag of coffee towards a security guard at the IKEA last week. She didn’t throw it at him just in his space. I must admit I laughed since it has crossed all of our minds here at one point or another. Another friend was trying to exchange a defective iron at a local home store and it took everything she had (and the thought of Chinese prison conditions) not to throw the iron through the plate glass window. A lot of this anxiety is due to the language barriers.
I do well most days and I am also aware that I am in THEIR country. I am the interloper in their world so I need to be more flexible. I get that. I also know that the Chinese idea of customer service is nowhere near as developed as well, anywhere in the world. This culture is growing so fast that they cannot wrap their minds around the changes. You have to think that WWII they were invaded by the Japanese and decimated, particularly Nanjing. Horrific experience. The Empire (horrific times for the non royals, hell, the royals were killing each other off too) ruled up till communism and then you had Chairman Mao who basically kept the country in a submissive third world state. I am not read enough on the timelines or history to speak authoritatively but this is what I do know.
The people in the developed city of Nanjing still poo in a trough. Many of the residences do not have bathrooms and they use a public loo. Many of these loos are troughs, okay, do you understand…they have to poo in a little trench where the matter is washed out by either rains or cleaning personnel. I question the cleaning personnel because you have NO IDEA what these loo’s smell like….imagine the house with 8 million cats and one kitty litter box that is cleaned once a month. Got me?
If you figure they government is still a supporter of public loo’s instead of proper plumbing, can you imagine their take on customer service?
YOU ASK WHAT THIS HAS TO DO WITH ME AND MY PRINCESS COMPLEX – HOW?
Doesn’t - I said I was just all over the place. My mind goes from one subject to another without even a blinker to warn you… Princess – Britney – Train wreck – Customer Service – Poo…makes perfect sense to me.
You should see me when I am out in public. It really is like….”Oh, Shiny things.” Off I go to aimlessly wander among the shiny things of life.