The Return

Blogspot, I have discovered, is blocked in China for the moment. As a result my mother will be posting my bloggings for me. I have taken pictures to document my journey so far, but I will not be able to post them until later. The room I'm staying in does not have internet access, so I am using a computer at the local web cafe. Once I get internet I will be able to email pictures from my own computer, and then my mother will have to figure out how to use technology to upload pictures for me.

The plane ride was glorious. I had no waiting time in Newark, as soon as I got to the gate I saw that the plane was already boarding for Shanghai. There was no one to either side of me on the plane, and I got to lay down and sleep for most of the ride over.

Once I got off the plane, however, an epic fiasco began. I had thought my preparations were thorough, and that by giving ATT extra money for international service they would provide said service. I was wrong to assume that things worked the way they should. I discovered that my phone did not have service. I didn't panic yet, as I figured my contact would be waiting to pick me up with a "Chris Marco " sign just outside the gate. I was wrong about that, too. I began to panic, and went to figure out the public phones. I bought an IC Card required to use the phones, but that didn't seem to work either. On closer inspection of the back of the card, the card told you (after you paid for it) that it could only dial other local Shanghai numbers. My contact's numbers were all Hangzhou cell phones. I went to the information desk and bought a SIM Card (expensive) to put in my cell phone. I called my contact, but I couldn't hear what he was saying and he couldn't hear me. I called a friend, and asked her to find my contact and let him know that I was here.

After her playing middle man for a bit and doing some research, she tracked down my contact and he called me. He told me not to move, and 20 minutes later found me at the information desk. He apparently had gotten lost in the airport, and for some reason went to the gate where the flight from Los Angeles was coming in. We took the bus back to Hangzhou, and the troubles only deepened.

I had asked David, my contact, many times if he would get me a reservation or if I should reserve a place for myself. He assured me not to worry, and that he would get a place for me. As it turns out, he hadn't made a reservation, just gotten the prices of several places. Every place we went to, as a result, had of course filled all the cheap rooms, and only the expensive ones were left. We went to the dorms I had stayed before, and after 30 minutes of David yelling in the local dialect and walking back in forth between 2 administrative buildings to talk with different people we finally got me a dorm room. It turned out to be pretty inexpensive, and it is pretty fun being back in the place I stayed last summer, but the process of getting there was quite a headache.

The other problems I've run into involve Wells Fargo conspiring to try and keep me from getting money. I advise anyone thinking of coming to China to not use Wells Fargo. They are dumb.

Problems aside, it has been pretty awesome being back. I've kept a positive attitude, and the difficult experiences are nothing compared to the awesome ones.

I opened my first Chinese bank account, got swarmed by people in Auchan who were impressed by my Chinese and wanted to tell me all about the house appliances I was looking at, and learned that a Papa John's had been put in next to my gym. I found my old roommate and celebrated his birthday with him, met up with my old best friend, and had countless reunions with people I don't remember in the cafeteria. It seems like every other time I walk around campus people I don't know come up to me knowing my name, it is a rather interesting phenomenon.

I got my gym card and went to my first workout, and the people at the gym are all excited to have me back. The entire trip so far has felt like some sort of an odd homecoming. The food has been great as well. I have already experienced a lot of my old favorites, but I will spare you the food stories until I can upload pictures.

There have been changes as well, but nothing too drastic. The Papa John's was a nice change, on the other hand the random guy sitting outside this internet cafe with cages full of frogs for sale is not quite as welcome. I'm already falling into the rhythm of "this is China" and not even thinking twice about weird things I see on the street. The insanity has begun.

I think today, right now in fact, I am going to explore B and Q. If I recall correctly it is an Ikea competitor, and I am going to go jump around on the beds until someone yells at me to stop.

CHINA