Just for fun, I noticed today's dictionary.com word of the day is aesopian. For those of you who aren't sure what that means, now is a good time to find out (so click on the link). Now that we're all in the little club and know what aesopian means, we can go on. This week could've turned out better (that's me being aesopian). On one hand, my new motorcycle is still not ready; on the other, I got my electricity back. At the time, I wasn't sure which one I wanted more but in retrospect, getting the electricity (and therefore the air conditioning) was the better choice.

Mr. Ren and I left work on Tuesday to stop by the motorcycle shop to pick up my new bike on our way home. I had done my prep work, so I had a bag of clothes in the car, my stack of cash, and my receipt (with the Chinese stamps all over it). I ALSO had every intention of feeling the clean Beijing breeze blowing through my hair as I rode my new prize back home that evening.

When we arrived, I entered the shop and walked through the showroom looking for my bike. I saw a really cool black motorcycle that had the front disc brake like I requested, but I couldn't find my bike. The shop manager greeted us warmly in Chinese (he doesn't speak English) and sure enough, walked me over to the black bike. Sigh. China strikes again.

When he saw I was upset, the shop manager was clearly confused and called Bill (who is the owner, and does speak English, AND the guy I personally ordered my bike from). Bill was very confused as well. That made three confused guys... and Mr. Ren who had no idea what color of bike I ordered or what the problem was. After explaining that no, I had indeed ordered an army green motorcycle, we agreed to pick it up after they re-painted it and we left. The ready date for the bike is now August 16 – 20. For those keeping track at home, this is a full month after it was supposed to be ready. No amount of negotiating and looking stern would get the shop manager to agree to an actual ready day. I knew he wouldn't but i had to try anyway. And it wouldn't have mattered even if he did commit to a date because he could and would change it later. That's what makes doing business in China so damn interesting (aesopian, again)!

BUT, I have a full-proof plan to get my bike. That's right, Mr. Ren. He's going to talk to the shop manager every few days and inform me of the progress. As I mentioned to a good friend of mine today, I'm at the point in my life where I'm outsourcing all the routine stuff. In this case, Mr. Ren is my number two. I'll keep you posted as he keeps me posted.

Since I know you were all eagerly waiting for some cool shots of my new motorcycle, and after all this time not posting them is bound to be a letdown, I'll instead post two pictures of a beautiful BMW motorcycle that I saw outside of our local Jenny Wang's grocery store.

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Do you see the pin-striping on the seat? Now that's German craftsmanship at its finest!

As an interesting side note, the lack of electricity and dealing with workers and facility people that only speak Chinese has re-energized my desire to learn Chinese. If you can't yell at people in their native language, what kind of a Pointy Hair are you?

Actually, I don't yell at people. But it is incredibly frustrating to be unable to communicate with people. So, in an effort to enhance my delegation AND Chinese skills, I sent Xiao Guo the following SMS today:

Qing ni wancan zhu ji rou, hao ma?

Which roughly translates to: Please cook chicken for dinner, okay?

I asked a colleague to check it for correctness and to make sure I wasn't sending her some sort of lewd text and, after receiving confirmation, I hit SEND, feeling relatively confident in my abilities.

That's why I was so excited when I got home. No chicken.

(and yes, that was me being aesopian)

08-12-2011 Update: Actually, she did make me chicken for dinner that night. She put it in a Tupperware container that got shoved to the back of the fridge. I never should have doubted her ...