this would be my first foray into the world of the p r o x y website (see how i spaced it there, lest the chinese government search and destroy). a lot's happened in the past few months. i took the liberty of copying and pasting from my myspace blog. i get to do that. just because. reverse chronological. from really good and confusing to really bad and confusing...
Thursday, June 18, 2009
more stuff
i met with the police 2 days ago. my school decided it would be a good public relations opportunity to have a 'thanks for doing your job' ceremony. i was wary of that, simply because it seemed a little bit like taking advantage of a crappy situation and had very little to actually do with me.
i was wrong.
went to the school and there were flowers for me to give to the chief of police and a plaque that expressed the gratitude of myself and the other foreigners for the police keeping us safe in our home away from home. so yes, i thought this was all a little strange and opportunistic.
then the police showed up. they ate some of the fruits nicely displayed on the table. and the first thing that happened was they dumped the contents of this police envelope onto the table--my camera, my vietnamese money, my chinese money.
what the fuck. they got my stuff back. that's crazy.
apparently, the migrant worker who had robbed me (25 years old, 184 cms, in case you wanted to know) had sold the camera and already spent some of the money. so the cops made him retrieve the camera and his family had to come up with the money. the vietnamese money he had tried to exchange, but when he realized how little it was actually worth, he just kept it. doesn't seem like a smart move.
there was a break in my case when he robbed another woman in jiaxing. he didn't hurt her, just took some money. but that's how they got him. he confessed to everything and said he'd been scoping out people who were fashionable or who looked like they had a lot of money. that was the creepy part, that homeboy had been watching me for a few days before he actually attacked me. but fuck. whatever. it's done. closure. all that.
the medical examiner was also present and was taking pictures of my scars and measuring my range of motion on my hand/fingers. that info will come into play for the sentencing part of all of this. initial word was that dude would get at least 10 years in prison.
that was two days ago. and i have absolutely nothing but love for the police of jiaxing, china. this is not to say i have nothing but love for china or chinese people. but these specific chinese people in china have impressed the hell out of me.
Friday, June 12, 2009
cool beans
police came by my school yesterday (gotta love unannounced work visits by the police) with another picture of a suspect (grand total of 4 at this point). he looked the most like the bad man (this is my graded down english teacher talk) out of any of them.
got the call this morning that the cops had arrested this dude. so it's been nearly two months.
so that's good news.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
i don't like surprises
i've been working on my right brain, sung to the tune of either gnr's "night train" or seger's "night moves". your choice.
things i am now able to do with my left hand (however shoddily):
type
use chopsticks (provided they're wooden)
cut/mangle paper as long as no real precision is required
write on a whiteboard (not on paper. it tends to move)
fasten a front-closure bra
open a beer
open a bottle of water (this is cheating since i use my teeth)
apply eyeliner
so yes, these are the things i've been working on. some context is probably required, as i didn't just take it upon myself to explore my right brain. small disclaimer: i'm not writing any of this to try to coerce random peeps or non-random peeps into expressions of sympathy. i tend to only feel human when i'm communicating, however directly or indirectly, what's going on in my life and my head. also, a great purge seems entirely necessary and the only thing i seem able to do with any real proificiency is type. so that's that.
jamie, why do you have a partial cast on your right hand and nasty looking fingers with the skin peeling off like flesh paint chips?
well, those are very good questions. i'll tell you why...
once upon a time (a little over one month ago) a fair maiden (me) lived in a beautiful palace (a police precinct/apartment complex) in a faraway land (jiaxing, china). i had been out drinking with a friend on a friday night. came home around midnight. opened the door to my dark dining room. i was reaching for the light and kicking the door closed behind me when i felt a hand over my mouth and a person holding me very tightly. my initial reaction was that it had to be jules or rory in my apartment trying to surprise me. then the person started speaking chinese in what i guess was a "menacing" tone. that's when i realized that this was a bad dude who probably intended me harm in some form or another. incredulity and terror merged for that single second of recognition. capable of summation with a single word: fuck!
so i screamed. i was able to get off one full-bodied howl while we were struggling against each other, then he got a firmer grip over my mouth so they were only partial screams. i continued to struggle until he sort of wrestled me to the floor. i was laying there with this dude on top of me in total darkness, but at least we weren't fighting anymore. that's when i felt blood dripping on my face, which i assumed was mine. i don't remember getting cut, but that's when i realized that this man had the power to hurt me. he continued to talk to me in this put-on tone, then i started speaking in broken chinese: i'm sorry, i don't understand. i kept repeating it. then his tone of voice changed. i don't think he fully understood that i was a foreigner. so then i said "chien" (money). and he said "ok ok." there was a brief moment of relief there because i was certain that i wasn't going to be a victim of an even worse violation. that was a very, very good moment of clarity.
so we stood up, i said "there." he sort of pushed me along into my bedroom, where i turned on the bedside lamp and got my first glimpse of my hand. lots of blood and a big hole on my knuckle that looked like it should have an eyeball popping out of it. anyhoo, i reached into a drawer of my computer desk and pulled out 4,700 rmb, which was my flight reimbursement from my school. approximately $685. awesome.
at this point i still hadn't seen him because it had been dark and he'd been behind me the whole time.
then he sort of sat me on my bed and proceeded to tie up my ankles, my wrists and tie a sock over my mouth. he did a pretty shitty job of this, i might add, because i was able to use my hands to move the sock to talk to him. this was also the first time i saw him. tall dude wearing sporty-ish clothes and pantyhose over his head. this was when i freaked out a little bit and started crying very loudly and shaking. he told me "shh" and showed me the knife again. then he laid me down and covered my face with my comforter.
he left and fiddled with the door for a while, then he came back and asked for my keys. so i was able to use my tied hands to reach into my pocket for my keys. i don't know why he thought he needed keys to leave. i waited about 5 minutes to be sure he was gone. untied myself. turned on all the lights. called jules and rory while pounding on my neighbor's door. they let me in and a very old woman and her granddaughter called the police. they also tended to my hand and gave me water.
my apartment supervisor showed up, along with cops and jules and rory and a local teacher to translate everything. the cops drove me to the emergency room. minor hand surgery ensued. and when i was finished there was a whole waiting room full of people to see me (and a can of coke). in a bizarre turn for understatement, seeing those people was pretty amazing.
long story short, i've moved in with jules and rory. on vacation now, which i think has helped tremendously. gone back to work (that would be the frustrating part, but i'll save the emotions for another blog). the cops turned my apartment into csi but never caught the guy. he also stole my camera and my change. and i had already bought that camera twice.
so that's that. i feel slightly better, full disclosure and all that. my cast is sposed to come off today, but i'm away from my doctor. i wonder if i can just take it off myself....
