Day 5 - David goes shopping back to the 18th

We didn't realize just how dependent we were on internet access. We really missed the casual communication with family (were not missing communication with work!). I do. So i thought i would just run out and get a Chinese sim card for my phone while Melanie went to opening ceremonies.

Crossing the street in China ca be a real adventure. A red light seems to be more of a suggestion than a rule and the little green figure that lights up to indicate you can walk really means your odds are better now than if you wait till it turns red. Actually many lights are also accompanied with a countdown clock which i thought was a really good idea till i realized that with an intersection with 5 lanes going each way (yes i mean 40 queues of cars) you have now idea what it is counting down to. It may mean that people from some lines will turn left or maybe center lane will go straight - its an adventure. The rule when crossing the street is to get close to a cluster of Chinese and move only when they do. Do not dawdle. Cars will continue to move through the clusters of people. They do often have underpasses at major intersection which are really subterranean malls. The streets as well were lined with carts and booths. But this was clearly not a tourist city as no one called out to me to buy as happened every where else we went. This made it much more comfortable to look at things without being harassed.

Anyway, back to the simm card. No English in any of the windows. Except for words like SAMSUNG. Found a shop with a bunch of phones in the window. When I had determined that no one spoke English, I pulled the battery and pointed to the SIMM card and one woman smiled and be bekoned me to follow. Into the back down the stairs to another set of counters where she handed me off to three young women behind a counter. They smiled and pulled out a printout of phone numbers for me to chose from. The luckier the numbers, the more expensive the card. I picked one with lots of 4's because the number 4 is unlucky, hence cheaper and then said "data? Internet?" Their response was a big smile and they pointed with a chart for megabyte packages. We did the deal and i sat down and installed the new card. Phone worked great. Don't know about Text's as i had long ago removed all languages but English from the phone to save space. But when I tried to browse or use internet i got a message that my package did not allow it and I had to contact provider. So back up to the counter and through sign language and google translate we worked on the phone. The conclusion was that they said card was fine but my phone was too old. Would I like to buy a new phone? I smiled, we all laughed and i left the store.

After getting back to the hotel i logged onto AT&T and just bought a larger international package for my current phone. A fun, if not productive experience. It did appear that they used a different system for cellular data in Harbin. The ipad could use it by my old SIMM card could get emails but had no luck browsing either.

Later I was picked up by Yu Ling's husband and one of her grad students for a tour of Harbin. Minimal English again but we had a good time. After a drive through one of the newer sections they took me to a giant mall built as a replica of the Hutong.

We had lunch

Bread soda really non alcoholic beer

And finally a walk through the old harbin music park where the week before a chorus of10,000

Yesterday i went to eat cooked carrot with a fork. I've only been using chopsticks. I couldn't spear it although I tried and tried. Then I picked it right up with the chopstick. Something weird is happening to me.

Also wanted to mention that for the opening ceremonies i was told to sit on the dais. There were speeches that totaled an hour, all in Chinese. And I sat there able to sit still without checking my iPad or iPhone or grading papers. If i can do that I can sit through any faculty meeting.

I'm sitting here with a cup of chrysanthemum and Lilly tea. Life couldn't be better.

Off to visit a gorge.

 

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