Losing my mind!

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

So here’s my situation. For the last two months, they have been tearing down/re-building the house next door (which shares a wall with my house). Rather than bring in some heavy equipment, they’ve chosen to do this task by the ever-popular ONE MAN, AND A JACKHAMMER method. That’s right folks, for two bloody months, I’ve been woken up at 7:30 am every morning to the sound of that Jack and his expletive expletive hammer pounding away next door, often on our shared wall (do they have to strip ALL of the plaster off every inch of brick?).

Now I’m not exactly a party animal, but every once in a while I do like to have a good time- have people sleep over, stay out all night, even the occasional night in TAipei when I make it to my bed around 6:30 am. Jack, by the way, LOVES to work on Saturday and Sunday. He’s a hardy and hard-working guy. Aaaaand I work till 9pm, get home around 10ish, it takes me a while to wind down, and okay- I tend to get to sleep after 2 am at the best. I write articles for some magazines here in Taiwan, so when I finally stagger out of bed in the morning (using the term “morning” loosely), I head to the beach for a surf, and come home and write for the rest of the day until I head to work in the evening.

So basically, my head is vibrating in my skull from around 7:30 am, till 4pm. I’m sleep deprived, I’m angry, and I’m pre-menstral. It doesn’t help that I live in a tiny little town with no amenities- there are no air-conditioned coffee shops to hide out in, no place to sleep but my giant vibrating dildo of a house.

I was patient for a month- more than a month. about a month and a half. I even tried to alter my sleep schedule to conform to Jack’s Hammer’s. But this week, I snapped. I was up till 5 or so one night and when Jack started at 7:30, I threw on a summer dress and headed next door. I began to shout in English which wasn’t very useful so I tried to find the words in Chinese.

“Bu hao ting! Wo bu kuyee Shway Jiao!” then I gestured to the jackhammer and said “Wo yao (insert throwing motion here) zigguh dzai hi bien, dzai shway.”

My lovely beetlenutt chewing workmen just laughed and laughed. At this point, I was laughing too, but out of hysteria. I went home. Jack started up his hammer again. I thought maybe they just needed to understand that it was only the jackhammer that bothered me. Could they work on the other side of the house in the morning and my side in the afternoon? Could they lay off the jackhammer in the morning?

Not having the Chinese to express myself, and being the teacher that I am, I thought a visual or a sort of object lesson might be in order. I tried to find a pair of scissors, but my scissors were sadly missing that morning. So I grabbed myself a knife. A largish knife. The idea was that I would go over, all in good humor, lift the cord of the jackhammer and pretend to cut the cord. Then they would understand which machine was bothering me and perhaps could wait until noon to start that one up. I firmly grasped my knife and went over. I had their attention now! I went toward Jack and his hammer and…and…that $#!t was cordless. Gasoline powered perhaps? How nice to know my torturers are so technically advanced.

Okay, so picture me, xiao adoga, diminutive whyguoren girl, waving a knife like a maniac at a group of wide-eyed beetlenut chewing beer drinking workers. I tried to mime the whole thing as in 'oh hahahaha it’s cordless, I meant to, see, if there was a cord, and if I had had my scissors instead of this knife, this would look totally different, of course. Okay. Bye." Like any good teacher, I know when an object lesson is not getting across to my audience.

That was a couple of days ago. I fully meant to take them all a huge case of chilled beer to smooth things over but you know the best laid plans and all that.
Cut to today. Student gave me coffee in my night class tonight as part of a present for teachers day. I am not a coffee drinker, for the simple reason that caffeine makes me ten times more hyper-active than I usually am. Well, who can not drink a coffee brought in by a student on teachers day. I drank it, and I was up cleaning my house (quietly) until 4 am. three and a half hours later… yeah you guessed it. I flipped the ^#@#% out. I called friends. I got translators. They were not impressed. If I had any face to begin with (pre knife incident) then it’s gone now.

So here I am, writing this, my brain rattling in my skull, hoping they won’t break into my house, kill my dogs, and steal my very few valuable things when I go to work today.

I feel better, just having written this, shouting into the abyss. Thanks, Forumosa.

Now any ideas about how I can possibly protect my pets and personal property?

2

Where do you live? In Taipei they have noise ordinances, and can’t jackhammer until 8:30am (still way too early). You could call the police.

In the meantime, invest in some earplugs.

3

There is probably nothing you can do. I once went off at a night market operator due to the amount of noise and how it was making it impossible to sleep (I wasn’t the only resident in the area who had complained, others had previously done so but they already knew that complaining would achieve nothing). Almost straight after the incident with the guy, my wife said that we needed to move because something bad was going to happen. It never did but we did end up moving because the noise didn’t stop. I doubt anything will happen to your property because it would make too much of a great news piece, but other than that I think you just need to put up with the shit or move out. I honestly think you did the right thing but it probably won’t change much. They’ll most likely start it up a few days later just to piss you off more. Best of luck.

4

which county do you live in? Sounds like you’re probably out of luck though, as many places allow construction from 6 am to 10 pm or something.

In that case, your only recourse seems like hitting the sack immediately upon getting home and praying for sleep.

5

I live in Yilan county, but thank god the new neighbors come from Taipei.
The construction workers and my landlords attitude was that i just need to suck it up and deal with it (like I’ve been doing for two months) but the new neighbors heard what was going on, came from taipei, offered to let me stay in their rental house nearby, promised the drilling wouldn’t start until after noon, and that it would be over in two more days.
I think there’s a big difference between people who live in the country and the city here- could be wrong, because I’ve never lived in the city in Taiwan, but it seems like people from the city have more of a clue as to how to deal with with…other people?
So what I ended up doing was calling the immigration hotline, who in turn called the police, the police came (I wasn’t there when this happened) the construction people called the new neighbors (who are building the new house) and they made the generous offer I mentioned above.
I like to be direct and deal with problems myself, never have liked this ‘go through the proper mediums, don’t talk directly to the person who is causing the problem’ cultural thing in Taiwan, but hell, here I am in a foreign country, might as well do what works, which in this case is tattling to the police.
I am SO stoked that after two months of crap, this will be finished in the next two days. And that if some other noisy thing starts up, I have a place to go stay nearby.

6

[quote=“NonTocareLeTete”]I think there’s a big difference between people who live in the country and the city here- could be wrong, because I’ve never lived in the city in Taiwan, but it seems like people from the city have more of a clue as to how to deal with with…other people?
[/quote]

Yes, huge difference between Taipei and the rest of the island. Part of it is the nature of the population, more mixed, more educated, and more mobile, but the main difference is that the law is relatively well enforced in Taipei and so citizens don’t have the passive attitude they do elsewhere. Everyone wants you to suck it up in Yilan because they believe there is little you can do.

You did the right thing going through as many channels as you could.

7

Thanks for the laugh.

I was getting ready to post about stupid stuff that we do when we get too stressed out / sleep deprived, but I thought I’d read your post first. Glad I did!

I can’t help you, but I can tell you how I stayed at school an hour late today—left a private student waiting for me elsewhere until they gave up—looking for my keys. I was absolutely distraught too, because I believed with my entire heart that I had had them this morning. In fact, I’d still SWEAR that.

But I couldn’t find them, so I dragged myself home to ask the door man to call the lock smith. This was crushingly embarrassing because it’s the third time since moving in here in July.

On top of that, the second time, I asked the guy to take my key and make a copy, which I left with the door man. Always before, the keys had been locked in my house, see, so I only needed the one to the outside door to get in.

Anyway, the doorman, first chance, told my son’s Chinese family that the key was there, so yesterday I took that key back and put it with the other one on my key chain, meaning to give it to a trusted friend later this week.

So, I’m devastated because I know I can get the guy to let me in tonight, but what about tomorrow? What about all the other keys and the elevator security thing?

So the guy runs right over—literally, he’s out running for exercise (and this man is beautifully made. Really. GREAT ass.)

Anyway, I stop thinking dirty thoughts about locking him IN my apartment once he has it open, and we step off the elevator—and there are my keys!! Hanging in the lock on the door!! I didn’t even bother to come upstairs to see if that might be where they were.

I SWEAR with all my heart that I had them this morning and have NO IDEA how they got in the door. But, BOY, don’t I look like an ass.

I’m glad your shared your story. I’m glad to know I’m not the only crazy foreign woman out there.

*Edit: My son also swears I had my keys at schol–and this–I had the two door keys on my keychain, like I said, but now one of them is missing. SHIT.

8

Earplugs are a start to getting decent sleep in hostile environments. they also come in handy when traveling (esp in hostels) because you never know when you’re going to be sleeping next to a club or in a dorm with random loud people.

9

earplugs earplugs earplugs! I have literally forced two earplugs into each ear at a time (not recommended. Painful when they expand). That’s when I realized, it’s not so much the SOUND as the VIBRATION that’s killing me. maybe the earplugs help me stave off actual hearing damage, but it still sounds like there’s an incredibly powerful piece of machinery tearing down a house made of concrete which shares a wall with my house. Because that’s exactly what’s happening. You should hear when they hit a piece of re-bar. dear god. It would almost be impressive if it weren’t skull shattering.

And Mz. housecat, let’s celebrate our key problems together. I do pretty well now, but there was one ill-fated week in San Diego when I locked my keys in the car three times— three times. In one week. Thank god the kind souls who helped me get the keys out weren’t aware of the other incidents, because then it would have been less cute and more holy sh!t what the f#ck is wrong with your head woman (can I swear on here?) Anyways, the good news is I got two dates from good samaritans who helped me unlock my car that week. the bad news is I began questioning my sanity.

Ya know, I don’t worry about stuff like that much here. When people witness me doing something that makes me seem ditzy, clueless, or clearly insane, I just laugh it off these days. Maybe the language/culture barrier sort of puts a hazy cloud of unreality over everything. Or maybe my standards for my own behavior are just dropping like lead weights. Any thoughts on this phenomenon?

10

But I DID have my keys this morning–verified. And I’m now missing one of the two house keys that were on my chain. Someone entered my house before I did yesterday and now has a key to come back whenever they want. I wasn’t just stupid, the way it looks.

On topic, yes, I’d say you’re right about the hazy thing and that this kind of thing is less of an issue here, because everyone just thinks of you as a strange foreign person, anyway. At least as long as your Mandarine isn’t communicative.

11

[quote=“housecat”]But I DID have my keys this morning–verified. And I’m now missing one of the two house keys that were on my chain. Someone entered my house before I did yesterday and now has a key to come back whenever they want. I wasn’t just stupid, the way it looks.

On topic, yes, I’d say you’re right about the hazy thing and that this kind of thing is less of an issue here, because everyone just thinks of you as a strange foreign person, anyway. At least as long as your Mandarine isn’t communicative.[/quote]

That’s super creepy. Get your lock changed in the morning. Better safe than sorry. Also sounds like maybe you need to move if the security guard is compromising your privacy/personal safety by showing no discretion with that sort of information.

Does your building have a security camera? Does your school have cameras? Could you have dropped them on the way out, and someone just picked it up and tried every door? Or did someone lift them from your desk at work (which would be bizarre)?

Change the lock, even if it means taking an hour off work or something.

I think that the larger part of why you were unable to resolve this problem is due to how you approached it and not so much where your neighbors are originally from. You told the workers to stop, and they laughed at you and ignored you because they had a schedule to keep. Regardless of your feelings, they had no reason to start later in the day as they (I think) are legally allowed to work with machinery from 5 AM- 11PM. Your situation also did not affect your landlord directly. Construction is usually short term, so most tenants are probably not going to move out because of one month of noise due to the giant hassle of moving, losing their deposit, etc. Therefore, he felt no need to act on your behalf since it was just an added hassle for him, which could not be translated into direct financial gain.

So, even though you felt you were dealing with the problem directly by talking to the workers/your landlord, you weren’t really until you spoke with the actual neighbors moving in - the only people who had the power to solve your problem.

And you were lucky that they were so sympathetic to your problem. I live in Taipei, but I would not count on people acting in a manner as reasonable at that. Most of the time direct confrontation appears like a challenge to the other party, which prevents resolution, and people end up relying on guilt tripping, social pressure, police involvement, threatening to sue, etc. to actually make things happen.

12

housecat, change the lock on your front door pronto.

someone wants to do something bad to you and yours.

maybe someone you know…

13

A very strange turn of events. As mentioned by others, get the lock changed and secure that perimeter. And get a chain to attach your keys to your purse or something, if misplacing them or losing them is a recurring occurrence. I used to attach mine to my attache case, and made multiple copies placed in very tactical spots.

14

Yup, agreed - get that lock changed! THEN tell the landlord what happened once it’s been changed.

If you think you’re going to forget to pick up one of those chain thingies, PM me your address. I’ve got 500 here that I never use, and I live right next to a post office so I don’t mind sending a few down to you. They’re pretty useful if Keys are on your forget list (I never forget keys, but I lost a single key from a keychain quite frequently)

15

Housecat you might also want to consider making sure that any security cameras available are actually in use. If someone has the key and attempts to use it (unsuccessfully assuming you’ve been able to get the lock changed) then they’ll be caught on camera.
If you had the keys at school, then it’s got to be someone who knew where you worked and lived. Are you 100% sure? How could they get past this doorman? Isn’t that the whole point of having a doorman? Assuming that he understands his job it would therefore make sense that it was someone both you and the doorman know, for example your ex’s family member.

Is it possible to check recordings from yesterday? Did you ask the doorman if anyone he knows to be related to you (or associated with you) came by yesterday? I know you might not be too down with letting on to the doorman that you have a problem, because he clearly blabs to non-residents, however you need these answers.

Do you pay a building management fee? I’d be contacting your landlord ASAP to express the seriousness of the doorman’s indiscretion with your information. It is utterly unacceptable that someone paid to look after your security gives out that information. Would he have handed the spare over to them too on request? How did you discover they knew?

Then I’d let the landlord handle the trickier issues involved with talking to the building management committee about the standard of security. Don’t forget to pile on the ‘unprotected female and child in an apartment’ angle. Sure it’s annoying, but it turns it from a moan/complaint to a subtle shift of a matter of responsibility for ‘protecting’ you. Which is what the bloody doorman is being paid to do quite frankly.

I’m sorry you’ve had this happen to you. It really really sucks. I had all sorts of problems last year with my neighbours trying to make me feel unsafe in my home because they had a problem with the landlord, so I can appreciate how disconcerting it is to realise someone might be deliberately screwing with you. Although it was a bit easier to establish I hadn’t merely misplaced my doors, as opposed to your case of the keys. The police still thought I was mistaken/loopy till they actually saw for themselves. Stick to your guns. If you’re sure that those keys left the building with you, then you need to be creating a mighty stink right now to make sure the doormen start taking their job seriously. Because if what you think happened, happened, then someone is at the very least trying to freak you out.

I hope everything works out. And yeah ‘lanyarding’ your keys to you like the ginger man suggests is a great idea. But it doesn’t resolve the security/doorman issues.

If it is tied to the ex’s family what could they hope to gain? I’d be squirreling Housekitten’s documents away somewhere on the offchance that this is all tied in. Not trying to freak you out or anything, but if he has Taiwan ID then just taking that could cause you lots of hassle which might force you to have to get help from the aunty to resolve, which puts you in her debt, and it seems like she’d like you there right now. Seriously hope there’s a more pedestrian explanation. And good luck.

16

Personally I have found doorman to be useless at my building. I think they would do something if they saw someone they didn’t know moving everything I owned out of the building but I don’t think they would stop anyone from entering.

17

Housecat, you should keep a spare key hidden at your workplace, never with the doorman.

18

Thanks all. Locks changed this morning–very secure variety. Feeling much better about that much, at least.

Yes, I’m totall sure the keys were with me yesterday morning, but the school says there’s no record of anything they can trace, or even figure out. The doorman says no family came by. People keep shrugging off the missing key, keys mysteriously at home before me, thing. Oh well, I know what I know. Nothing more to do though, for now. Thanks for listening and for believing. It’s gets so old people just thinking that your nutts. Well, when you actually AREN’T for once.

19

What is it with construction noises? I mean, some guys are hammering on the first floor, and on the 5th floor it sounds like it came from the next room, or the floor right above! What kind of trick is this?

20

The ghost of construction past?