Noise Complaint

I must say that living with Kamla has brought me a lot of rare experiences. *laughs* There are always those situations that leave you feeling embarrassed and slightly indignant to mask that sudden flush in the cheeks, and today was just one of them.

I am reminded of the large population in China, the limited living space, and oh yes, paper-thin walls, I kid you not. Today, as Kamla was practicing her erhu after dinner, she was a good 10-15 minutes in, when I suddenly I heard the doorbell. My hearing may not be as good as it used to, but I can still pick up things like that. Our neighbor, kind soul that she is, gently asked us to stop playing the erhu and to be more quiet in the hallway when we leave. I apologized, feeling embarrassed, but not before feeling highly indignant. I had never complained about all the noise that came from their side of the house, and for crying out loud, it was only 9:10 p.m.

Granted with more level-headed thinking, many thanks to Kamla, I came to realize that it probably wasn't her fault. I could understand that she has a young girl who has school tomorrow, so is probably trying to go to bed at 9:00. We found it comical after thinking about it, that her daughter likely complained about the awful noise coming through the walls. Although the other likely half is that her husband was too irritated, wanted to rest in peace and quiet after a long day's work, and told his wife to shut the weird American neighbors up. Granted she was nice, but I still felt somewhat indignant until calming down some from feeling riled up.

I mean, I never complained about hearing her husband's snoring through the walls for the past 5-6 months. It's not like I could say, "Hi neighbor, I know it may seem like a bother, but could you ask your husband to stop snoring? I can hear him through the walls, and I can't fall sleep at night." Granted, there were quite a few nights where my brain stayed wide awake due to the constant reminder that I couldn't fall asleep yet, but my neighbor already was. I haven't mentioned a thing when I hear, "Thump, thump, thump, I scored!" as she and her daughter played indoor soccer between their kitchen and their living room. I never said anything about the intense argument I heard that was sure to end in domestic violence or a divorce (much crying and yelling). So I guess I was mildly irked by the fact that they were the first to make a noise complaint when I have kept quiet. However, I think overall, there is only one thing that I have come to the conclusion of: China needs soundproof walls. ;p