I'm Safe

After getting my butt kicked in class on Thursday I decided I needed to start getting serious about studying. I signed up for a language partner, studied all night and, having an 8am class on Friday, went to bed relatively early so my mind would be fresh for the next day. I was in the middle of a good slumber when all of a sudden my dreams were interrupted with a very loud and steady beeping that sounded more like a high pitched chirp. Waking up suddenly I realized this probably was my alarm. Now, I don't scare easily but waking up to your alarm system, especially in a foreign country, is never a pleasant experience. After lying i

n bed and determining I didn't hear any movement (i.e. looters coming to steal all my luxury goods in my luxury apartment) I got up and slowly crept out of my room. Of course there was nothing there. Just me and my loud alarm system. 

Going back a couple weeks, when I was first showed to my apartment Ouxin made a very big deal about how safe the place was b/c of the security. He said he was outside my patio fence and tried to stick his hand through to test the system and from what I understood he said the guards came right away to see what he was doing. Nice. He also showed me a red emergency button (far

right) that he said I can push ANY TIME and the guards will come. 

So back to my night. I saw that it was now 1:15am and I had been awake for about 15-20 mins and who knows how long the alarm was actually going off. Besides the obvious concern of what actually set off the alarm I was also worried about waking up my neighbors. I had no idea how to turn this thing off! I began pushing buttons and when I pushed the * key it stopped! YAY...for all of 3 seconds. 

I stood there for about 10 minutes thinking about how I could tape something hard to keep the button pushed down. But lacking tape, this was not an option. Then came the image you always on TV of people smashing the fire alarm to turn it off but this is China...they take their property seriously and I was not about to risk jail time for this alarm. I stood there for anot

her 10 minutes holding down the button trying not to cry and contemplating whether I should push the almighty RED BUTTON. Normally this probably wouldn't have been a difficult decision to make but as I imagined it I would push the button and mulitple guards would come running to my rescue, burst through the door and do a thorough investigation of my apartment to make sure I was safe. Again, normally this would be fine but it just so happens that I had done laundry this night and lacking a dryer and clothes rack INSIDE the apartment,

my clothes were strewn about the whole place, most notably the 2 1/2 weeks worth of undies hanging from several hangers high on my curtain rods in my room. Don't believe me? I took a picture b/c I wouldn't believe me either --->

(In the interest of discretion, I didn't take a picture of my other laundry)

I couldn't handle it any more and took the plunge and pushed the RED BUTTON then took off running trying to take down my half-dry laundry. Bracing for the mass envoy about to barge in I went back to hold the * button to stop the beeping. Waiting....waiting....waiting....I'm sure they're going to come any minute...waiting. It is now 11am on SATURDAY and no one has come to make sure I am still alive. Awesome. Not knowing what else to do, I did what any young woman in this situation would do: I called my Dad. Knowing I was ok, he first had a little chuckle about the situation and asked, "If I tell you what to do will I get to be in the blog"? DAD!!! He eventually guided me to take off the panel face and get to the wires, of which there were 12. His advice? Just start pulling. After only 2 the awful beeping stopped. Ahhhhh. That's what Dads are for. And this is what remains of my alarm system.