Moving day
We anticipated that today would be stressful and painful, though even then we were surprised. We had booked a local moving company to handle the transportation of our belongings, with their arrival slated for morning. As the morning became late morning, I was told when I called that it would be another hour. Then it was sometime just after noon. Then it was not too much longer.
Finally just after 2:00 they arrived, two bosses I had previously met when they came to give the estimate, and about five youngish men (one of whom was still in pajamas). A friend of mine from church had happened to stop by, and she heard them start to tell me all the reasons that the move was supposed to cost more than the estimate, even though some of their extras were alredy in writing as included. She had been on her way out, but suddenly came to our rescue. She began to argue with them, at one point telling them that they should be ashamed of themselves, thinking they could take advantage of the foreigners. She gave them an earful about how Chinese people treat foreigners, especially interesting to me because so often I only think of us expats as the exploiting class here. She got them to back down on the extra costs, and they loaded up their truck.
In fact, even getting the truck to our building was a bit of an adventure, too. They parked at our closest gate until I could get a permit to drive up to our building. In order to get that someone in the building management "customer service" center had to contact our landlord to get permission for us to move. Of course, he gave it, and once the truck was in front of our door, they made quick work of loading it.
Would this be the last I see of my stuff?
Finally just after 2:00 they arrived, two bosses I had previously met when they came to give the estimate, and about five youngish men (one of whom was still in pajamas). A friend of mine from church had happened to stop by, and she heard them start to tell me all the reasons that the move was supposed to cost more than the estimate, even though some of their extras were alredy in writing as included. She had been on her way out, but suddenly came to our rescue. She began to argue with them, at one point telling them that they should be ashamed of themselves, thinking they could take advantage of the foreigners. She gave them an earful about how Chinese people treat foreigners, especially interesting to me because so often I only think of us expats as the exploiting class here. She got them to back down on the extra costs, and they loaded up their truck.
In fact, even getting the truck to our building was a bit of an adventure, too. They parked at our closest gate until I could get a permit to drive up to our building. In order to get that someone in the building management "customer service" center had to contact our landlord to get permission for us to move. Of course, he gave it, and once the truck was in front of our door, they made quick work of loading it.
Would this be the last I see of my stuff?
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