An Auspicious Day

Okay, so yesterday I went to sign my contract for my new place. For the most part, no major problems in signing it except for the unusual and surprising overblown ego of the wuye, or servicewoman, who I originally found and with whom I've been dealing for the past two weeks on relatively good terms considering she's a beijinger. Well, she was seriously boasting, taking credit--coming as a big surprise to me--for making the deal between my landlord and me, all of this in front of my landlord (I told her I would do it myself but she insisted from the outset on doing simple things. She wouldn't even give me his phone number). Well, I figured out why later. She was expecting a kickback from the landlord for being the middlewoman. Now everything makes sense. Is it me or does it just seem that anybody with even a little power just wants to abuse the shit out of it? Crazy. China.

I brought a baomu, or housemaid, down there with me (usually eight kuai ($1) an hour but I paid her ten and for her traveling time) since the landlord hadn't rented the place out for at the very least a year and the whole place was covered with a thick winter coat of dust. China has this backward policy that whoever rents cleans. So I can be as dirty and putrid as I want and as long as I don't break anything I can leave the place in a fetid disorder and coated with dirt while the next renter is responible for cleaning it. Terrible. Anyhow, AT LEAST it was just dust this time. So the housemaid spent six hours doing heavy-duty dusting while I went back home to bring all my stuff. I am officially moved down but of course, nothing ever goes perfectly on the mainland. China wouldn't be China if it did. So, currently I have no phone, no internet, no TV, no heating, and no hot water. The good news is, this isn't really that bad. Really!

What makes the day auspicious is that I got my LSAT score back and did better than I expected! So when I read the e-mail I screamed for joy, kicked my slipper off, and instead of going out, it went up and hit my light causing one of the glass frames around the bulb to fall and shatter! Speaking to a friend later, her mom (a Philipina) swears that broken glass is good luck. Well, let's hope she's right! Anyhow, my score at least makes me eligible to apply and have a good chance of being admitted to a school of law like UCLA, and doesn't cut out the possibility of Boalt, though unlikely. So it was a good day.