Shanghai Tech Writer

I’m not a morning person. Never have been and never will. I set the alarm on my cell phone to go off at 8:00. On my Nokia phone, there’s this feature where I can set the alarm as a human voice. When the alarm goes off, the phone will say “It is xxx o’clock. Get up!” except in Chinese.

起床时间到了! 现在是八点! 起床时间到了!现在是八点!

Every morning, my usual response to the alarm is to pick up the phone, look for the snooze button, and go back to sleep. Ten minutes later, the alarm would go off again.

起床时间到了! 现在是八点十分! 起床时间到了!现在是八点十分!

I’d go through the same ritual four times until 8:30am. Then I’d drag myself out of bed, wash up, run downstairs, put on layers, then bike to work. The biking commute that used to be 8 minutes is now 15 minutes due to my hibernating winter muscles. The alternative would be either to walk 30 minutes or take the taxi.

This morning, the alarm went off exactly at 8:00.

起床时间到了! 现在是八点! 起床时间到了!现在是八点!

I fumbled for my phone and thought I pressed the snooze button, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The next thing I knew, it was 8:50! I shot out of bed, washed up, ran downstairs, put on layers, then off to work. (Imagine fast forwarding a DVD at 32x.) I made it to work at 9:05!!

I wish I could say I biked that fast, but no. I cheated today. I took the taxi to work.

I don’t know how I ever survived six years of teaching at a school that started at 7:45 every morning!

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