on neighbors

I got home around 7:30 last night after a so-so day. I'd had a lot of weird dreams and night-migraines the previous night so was just dragging a bit at school and was happy to be home and relax.

*Cue drilling and hammering noises coming from somewhere above my bedroom.

Um, no. The incessant construction around here really gets to me sometimes, but it's one thing during business hours. At 8 in the evening? I think not.

Maybe they're just hanging a few pictures on the wall, I thought. But it kept going. Before I could check myself, I was flying up the staircase and knocking on the door of the apartment directly above mine. A woman came to the door.

"Excuse me, what are you doing?" I asked in Chinese.

"Sorry, shrrchung jeeshaoyaobushrr rchishichirjeeeshrr chungjeeshaoyao bushrrrchishichir jeeeshrrchungjees haoyaobushrrrc hishichirjeee," she said. (No, that's not Chinese, just what it sounds like to me and I didn't understand anything she said. Mostly I'm like Charlie Brown when his teacher or other adults are talking.

"You can't do this, it's 8:00. How many minutes?" I asked in Chinese. But she went off again in Charlie Brown's Teacherese, and I caught nothing that I knew to be a length of time. "My baby is sleeping!" I made a cradling gesture with my arms and frowned.

"Ahhh, ahhh, 20 minutes, okay?" She said. I said okay, thanked her and ran back downstairs. I'm a little embarrassed now. Being one of the only foreigners in this building she's probably seen me before even though I don't recognize her... and she's definitely never seen me with a baby!

*I do, however, have a sweet little cat who was definitely annoyed with the drilling noises interfering with her precious naps. So there.