strangers

Obviously, China was not going to bend to my will and start acting the way I wanted it to. What with thousands of years of history, a billion+ people, and a hunk of geography on the other side of the world, it has a habit of doing its own thing. My frustrations don’t even register.

And my newest frustration with China? The realization that I’ve started to act the way it wants me to.

I’m not sure when it started, but I do have an illustrative fact. This fact makes me seem irresponsible. Or crazy. But at the time it seemed normal and it still does. And for that I blame this country.

Here's the thing: I handed my car over to a total stranger. And then I let that stranger leave my car keys with another stranger.

See, the first stranger, a neighbor whose true apartment location is still unbeknownst to us, is the guy who hit our car and then reported it to the second stranger, our doorman. The neighbor’s car didn't even have plates. He's driving around in a Porsche with no license plates and he comes forward to admit that he did something wrong. Seemed like an upstanding guy.

When he offered to take Shi-wen and our car to the mechanic to get it fixed we let him. But then the car wasn’t ready in time and Shi-wen had to travel halfway across China for a week. I was left to take care of Xiao Guaiguai and the house and the car. With all of this going on I couldn’t pick up the car when it was ready.

(We had also realized somewhere along the way that we had nothing to show for our car being at the mechanic's – recommended by said stranger – other than the stranger's cell number.)

In all honesty, the biggest inconvenience, even taking the denting of the car into consideration, was when the doorman insisted he didn't have my keys after the stranger brought them back.

After a moment of initial panic when I tried to pick them up, “What car keys?,” we realized that the keys were in the doorman's desk. They had the neighbor’s name written on them instead of mine because I can just roll up as a foreigner and they know who I am immediately whereas the other guy has to write down something identifying him as the neighbor with the grey Porsche and no plates.

So when did I start letting strangers drive my car and leave my keys with other strangers?

When I moved to China.