Quick Update
February 1, 2010 § 3 Comments
I’ve been to Shenzhen [mainland China] twice this past week, and I’ll post on them when I have more time to write. For now, I’ll make a quick list of advantages & disadvantages.
Pros:
+People speak Mandarin! I feel useful!
+Signs are in simplified Chinese instead of traditional. My reading abilities are still limited though.
+Food is almost unbelievably cheap.
+In fact, almost everything is cheaper. Transportation, services, shoes…
+The Metra system is similar to that of HK and is easy to use.
+Activities there don’t seem as cliché as HK because exchange students rarely go to Shenzhen.
+I have a multiple entry visa, which means I can go as often as I like [I think].
+Cars drive on the right side of the road.
+It has that familiar smell of the motherland.
Cons:
-English is no longer ubiquitous on signs.
-It’s not as clean as Hong Kong. People on the mainland allow their babies to run around with their butts hanging out…I’ve seen it in more than one city.
-SQUAT TOILETS :(
-The exchange rate from USD is not as advantageous as changing to HKD.
-The border closes at midnight, with the last train leaving at 11PM.
-It takes over an hour to get to the border & another 30 minutes to cross over.
-People say that pickpockets are common, though thankfully nobody I know has lost anything.
-Traffic is much less organized than in HK, and pedestrians are basically moving targets.
-The smell of the motherland is mostly pollution mixed with sewage, garbage and cigarette smoke.
-Some are still unused to foreigners and might ask to take pictures with white people if given the chance.
LOL WHAT IS THIS IDEK
January 25, 2010 § 7 Comments
My Facebook feed sometimes shows me the most unwanted things:
“Larry likes this”?!
This, of course, led to some nostalgia [and more creeping, naturally]. My brother is in 8th grade while Lisa, whose older sister I’ve known since middle school, is in 9th grade. That was around the age when a younger boy developed a serious crush on me…that had better not be what’s happening here! But if it occurs over Facebook, I’ll be here to witness it all [muahaha]!
Anyway, I have no idea what’s happening here:
I think I need to go to sleep…
[Related: his religion used to be listed as “Christian.” Now it is no longer there…]
Showering At HKU
January 18, 2010 § Leave a comment
The morning after I arrived in Hong Kong, I took a shower to scrub off the grime of traveling. I’ve never had communal floor showers before, but the stalls looked relatively clean, so I thought I’d give it a go. I entered the stall and turned on the water, but it sprayed harder than I expected and left a puddle outside the shower curtain.
I hopped into the next shower and turned it on, but it wouldn’t warm up, even on the hottest setting. The water felt tolerable on my arm, so I stuck my whole head under it. This turned out to be a bad decision, because the water was freezing. I tried to get minimally wet while washing my hair as I took the one of the shortest showers of my life. Teeth chattering, I wrapped myself in my towel and hurried back to my room, which was just as cold.
Rosaline was still sleeping, but Nadia was awake, and I asked her if the hot water turned on or off at a certain time of day, since I remembered that would be the case sometimes in mainland China due to water shortages.
“You have to turn on the hot water separately,” Rosaline mutter from underneath the covers.
“What??” I asked, thinking back to if I’d seen another lever in the shower stall.
“The switches are by the door, next to the light switch.”
“Ohh…”
The next morning, I was determined to have a pleasant bathing experience. Armed with my towel and shampoo, I marched to the shower room and flipped the switch for stall #4, closest to the windows [opaque ones, don’t worry]. Even though I turned on the hot water, it only got lukewarm at best. Disappointed, I cleaned myself quickly and jumped out. I usually shower at night, but since I had been staying out at night until 4AM, I could only shower in the mornings.
My next experience was only slightly better — the water was scalding in the beginning, so I tried to turn it down a little bit. I had a hot shower for two minutes before it turned ass-freezingly cold again. Nadia said that the water seemed to stay warm when she showered in the evening, so I tried that the next time. It was my first enjoyable shower of the week. I haven’t completely figured out the system yet, but I hope that consistently hot showers won’t be a luxury of the past while I’m here.
ATM
January 17, 2010 § Leave a comment
Not amused.
On Wednesday, I went to the ATM on campus to withdraw some cash. Although it was not an ATM affiliated with my bank [Bank of America/China Construction Bank], I didn’t feel like traveling a mile to get to my actual ATM. Everything went hunky-dory until an error message popped up on the screen.
“Your card has been retained. Please take the receipt and inquire within the bank.”
What?
I took the slip of paper offered by the machine and entered the bank, worried that it might spit my card back out at the next person in line. After looking at the receipt, the teller told me that my card had been reported lost, and I would have to return the next day to retrieve it because they only empty out the machines at night
What a pain! I still had around $300HKD left, which I figured would last me until Thursday, so I went home only slightly frustrated.
The next day, I missed my morning class, so I took a trip to campus specifically to recover my debit card. Once I got into line, I realized that I had forgotten my passport in my room, so I offered the teller [a different person this time] my driver’s license instead.
She was reluctant to accept it, but after I explained my problem, she told me that because my card had been reported lost, they CANCELED IT, and I wouldn’t ever be able to get it back.
WHAT!
GG.
Thankfully, it was only a temporary debit card — I had just opened a new account with Bank of America, and my permanent debit card was supposed to be coming in the mail. I was perturbed and frustrated but not too worried about my situation, although it did mean that I wouldn’t be able to do any shopping for a few days.
auradis 