Story of My Journey: Fire Drills

I live in a pretty nice building with all the other foreign teachers on campus. Honestly, I miss living in the same neighborhood as my fellow teachers and Chinese colleagues as I did in my old school. This building I live in now is less than two years old and is equipped with an elevator (!), hot water, large rooms, television, a heater and air conditioner, big comfy chairs, and a fantastic view. Who needs to cook when there's a little restaurant downstairs? Trust me- I've got it made here. I'm not going to lie to you about that. I feel rather guilty, actually. Aren't I supposed to be eking out a living in attempts to reach the Chinese people by sacrificing all that is important to me (or at least be willing to)? Poor, poor Michelle making the ultimate sacrifice by living with bare necessitiese and venturing out for lost souls? No, I would hardly classify my condition as such. But since this is what I've been given I want to best use my space for His purposes. So, I take the five talents He's given me and be faithful with that.

But, that's all a different topic of discussion. A subject for another day.

Here I want to talk about something really exciting! The other day the building manager gave me a key to the fire escape!! This building also has a fire escape! I live on the sixth floor, so that would come in handy if there were ever, indeed, a fire. The other day I heard what I thought were sirens and I immediately thought, "Oooh! It's a fire drill! We're going to practice!" I went to get my key to the fire escape at the end of my hall, peeked out my room, but nobody was racing to the escape door. Then I realized it was just the menacing sound of my water pipes. And I suddenly got the giggles-- did I really think China would have fire drills!?! I'm always on the "always be prepared" side and safety precautions so prevalent in our American society, that I just figured it would fit everywhere. Yet, in China, things just happen. I don't wear seatbelts here, nor do we "practice" for fire drills. If there were a fire in my building would we even know what to do? I bet you a bunch of money that my Korean neighbors next door haven't even thought about it for a second. Besides, I'm always losing my keys anyway, so then where would we be? When I told this to my teammate he said, "don't worry, Michelle, if you lose your fire escape key, you just come on downstairs to the third floor and we'll let you out!" Whew! Good to know, thanks Jonny!

I am reminded of one of my first years in China when my apartment building caught on fire. We were out of town, but the neighbors didn't know this. Outside the door of my apartment was a large electrical box in the stairwell leading to the outside. Apparently there was something akin to tornado weather that day and the electrical box sparked and then...well, it blew up. The stairwell erupted into flames and the poor neighbors kept banging on my door making sure I'd get out. I wasn't home. But if I had been... No, I will not think of that. I got home that weekend and saw that while the stairwell was absolutely charred my actual apartment was okay- there was soot everywhere. I mean, everywhere! I had no electricity for several days, so I camped out in my teammates' apartment down the street for the next week. :)

It was fine, it was dealt with, the soot eventually (many weeks and many scrubbings later) went away. We were okay. Hee hee- fire drills! Who needs fire drills? :)