Prison Break!!!

I did, for a short while, enjoy the first series of the American series 'Prison Break'. I started watching the second series, but my DVD was a bit dodgy and somehow it fell by the wayside. Maybe I'll try again some time. Anyway, it's hugely popular in China and my students in Kunming always used to tell me how handsome they thought the main character was.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch... We were taking the two new foreign teachers our for dinner last night. We've been trying to show them some of the restaurants we like and helping them a bit as they have virtually no Chinese. We went to get them from their apartment at about 6.15pm or so. Where we live there's a wall and a gate which we have to go through to get out. Apart from scaling the wall, there's no other way to get out of the 'compound'. There's an oldish guy who acts as 'gatekeeper' and keeps an eye on the place. He also stops students and other people he doesn't know from coming in. He's had his orders, and he's sticking to them. Fair enough, I suppose. He also locks the gate at night and sometimes during the day when he goes out.

We got back from our motorbike trip to find that a new padlock had been put on the gate [can you see where this is going yet?] We asked for a key, but none has been forthcoming as yet.

As we tried to leave last night, we found that the gatekeeper had gone out, locking the gate behind him. Yes, we were locked in!!! Lovely. I tried to phone a number of people who might have been able to get us out, but the only one who answered my call was my co-teacher who was in Changsha. Ha. Eventually I wondered if the gate could be lifted off its hinges and indeed it could. Freedom at last.

The two new teachers were a little worried that we'd lifted the gate off its hinges and that someone would be annoyed with us when we got back. In fact, the gate keeper apologised for not giving us a key, but said it wasn't his fault [which was really the point!] and one of the young Chinese teachers helped to explain to him that it was us and not burglars who had left the gate like that. We fixed it again, of course.

So now there's talk of getting a new padlock, even getting a new gate. I don't really care as long as I can get in and out in the way you would expect to be able to...

PS - we have to go for our medicals today. As far as I understand it, anyone who stays in China for six months or more has to have one. We had one this time last year and despite not having left the country since, now have to go for another one. It's because we're dirty foreigners, you see...