Wal-Mart

As I was unpacking my suitcases I kept thinking, "Why do I have so much stuff?" There isn't room for all of it in my tiny new hotel room. Problem solver that I am, I decided a set of plastic drawers under the bathroom sink would be an efficient use of space and that way I wouldn't have to keep my stuff in a suitecase. I measured the height of the sink very scientifically by checking where the bottom of the counter hit my hand while I was brushing my teeth one evening.
On the way back from dinner with friends in Wujin a couple days later I stopped at Wal-Mart. Changzhou has grown by leaps and bounds in the year I have been here. I was wary of Wal-Mart in China since I don't like going to Wal-Mart in America, but it was 9:00 pm, and there was hardly any one in there. I mozied around getting batteries for my bedside clock, chapstick, scissors, and toilet paper packets before finding the plastic drawers in the back corner. I pulled the drawers off the shelf and measured them in the same very scientific manner I had measured the counter. Fully satisfied they would fit under my sink, I put the drawers in my cart and headed for the check-out counter.
The cashier was flumouxed because my drawers did not have a barcode and sent an identically dressed Wal-Mart girl to find the number. Other customers pushed through the line while I waited. When Barcode Girl got back they shuttled me and my drawers over to a new cashier. Unfortuately, Barcode Girl had the wrong barcode. I told them it was wrong and how much the drawers should cost. To help out I told her there was one other set of drawers with a blue top. Barcode Girl went hunting again and I had enough time to notice that all of the employees, men and women, were not only wearing the same jeans, but had the belts tucked behind the labels. Barcode Girl returned with the the blue topped drawers because apparently I had said I wanted to buy both, but I didn't. With much apologizing, I got out of Wal-Mart with one set of drawers.
I put my purse, work-out clothes, and other Wal-Mart purchases in the drawers and proceeded to walk back to my room in my high heels. I didn't take a taxi because my hotel is only six blocks from Wal-Mart. Six large city blocks may not seem that far, but when you are a laowai in high heels carrying plastic drawers down a main street at 9:30 at night, it can be pretty far. I was walking in the street against traffic since the sidewalk was closed and after walking past a staring bus stop and skillfully weaving through traffic I made it back to my room.
But the drawers were too tall. During my very scientific measuring the first time I had been wearing my slippers. When I went to Wal-Mart I was wearing high heels. Frustrated, I opened my other bags to find that the batteries were the wrong size and they hadn't put my chapstick in the bag. So now the drawers are sitting in my room, taking up space I don't have until I get a chance to carry them back.