Day 4: SIM Cards and other fun stuff

So Day 4 was a Saturday, and we didn't have any meetings or anything planned, so it was a really relaxed day.

I got up around 9 and worked on my blog and some school stuff, and tried two of the buns that I had gotten the previous day for the first time. It simply tasted like a sweet roll that you would get anywhere in America. I also hung out with my two stuffed animals that I brought along, a red panda and a Totoro plushy (both of which are very appropriate for China).

My companions

Around 12:30, we went out to get brunch. All of us decided to bike down to the campus, which was pretty fun and entertaining, considering Dom's bike decides to scream every time he uses it, so people can hear us coming from a mile away. Lots of the students were very friendly when we greeted them, and I'm always astonished by how many bikes are on campus. Also, you don't have to lock in to a tree or a pole here. Just make sure you put a lock on the wheel so they can't ride it away, but apparently no one bothers to ride it off. And the trees are also a sight to see. They paint the bottoms of the trees with a special white chemical to make sure they stay warm in the winter and bug free.

Rows and rows of bicycles and trees

We went to the upper levels of the food court on Campus D, but a lot of the shops were closed until February for Chinese New Year, so we had to go back downstairs to where we were before.
We also walked into a back part of the food court I hadn't seen before. Prof Wong was showing us some of the options, when, I kid you not, I see a dog run out of the kitchen.

All the stereotypes about Asian meat run through my mind for a second while I absorb that in a silent type of horror. I turn to the others, asking them if they saw that. They confirmed it, but they had made up their mind to try to not let it bother them. I see one of the cooks go after the dog, and I pray a silent vigil for the doomed animal. As we were leaving though, I saw the guy feeding the dog, and the dog eagerly gobbling it up. I tell myself that he's only a pet to reassure myself, to which Jessica replies, "Oh, they're just fattening him up", which causes horrified laughter on my part, because that was exactly what I was trying to tell myself wasn't true.

DISCLAIMER: Although this story was true, I highly doubt that the dog was for food. One of the main reason I believe this is because the restaurants at the food court are required to give a sample of every meal they cook, and if they were to cook a forbidden thing (aka dog or cat meat), they would be shut down faster than you could shake a stick.

The first thing I tried was a breakfast pizza with thin sliced chicken on it. I also tried some of Jessica's breakfast pizza with ham and eggs on it. After that, I was still hungry, so I went up and got a sausage wrap, which was interesting, because both the bread and meat on all the things I had were very sweet. We had a very good discussion over lunch about cultural differences and Chinese pronunciation as well.

Chicken pizza and the breakfast pizza on left, and sausage wrap on the right

Then we went to get the SIM cards for our phones. We found out that the deal on the phones for students are the equivalent of $1.20 per month with 500 MB of data a day, or 15 GB of data a month! We were all shocked by that because a plan like that in America would be over $100 per month.
However, when me and Jessica tried to put new SIM cards into our phones, we found out the phones we thought were unlocked required a unlock code. That, coupled with the fact that our phones wouldn't work until the 3rd caused Greg and Will to decide to wait on getting our phones until then.

Phone store

Then we all pedaled over to the bike shop on campus.... although calling it a bike shop is a stretch, it was more like a do it yourself shop, with tools available, and a crabby guy who didn't help much. We fixed Dom's handlebars, which were completely out of whack, Nick got some air in his tires, and I got my seat lowered. To try to fix Dom's squeaky bike (as well as the squeaky hinges in Jessica's and my room), we went to get some WD-40.

We stopped by the first hardware store, only to find that they weren't much of a hardware store, more of a miscellaneous items store with everything from mops to umbrellas to kids' toys to nail polish.
A few doors down, we found what we needed, as well as better key rings. Outside, there were two children who tried to speak to us in Chinese. Realizing that we didn't speak Chinese, the little boy asked Jessica in English, "What's your name?". She answered and asked him "What's yours?", but he didn't understand and switched back to Chinese. Realizing that our level of Chinese was ridiculously low, so much so that we couldn't even understand a child was a true reality check and very humbling for me. We're pretty lucky that we get all this help here from bilinguals.

Jessica talking with the children in front of the hardware store

We got home, applied the WD-40, got a new shower curtain from Greg (our old one was very moldy), and relaxed for a few hours.

Then we went out for some New Year's Eve fun! We had to go grab the guys, stomping to get the noise sensitive lights to turn on, and shivering at the outdoor hallway on the way over.

We walked down to Sunny Block and looked around. On the way there, we walked by the officers with lights on their shoulders (no joke, red and blue lights like a cop car, but on their shoulders), and lots of three wheeled taxis, as well as an antiquated wheelbarrow I found interesting, and some amazing wall art. There is also a farmer's market at Sunny Block that I find really cool with fresh nuts and spices.

Cool antiquated wheelbarrow

Officers with lights on shoulders (not a great picture, but I couldn't be too obvious about it...)

Farmer's Market at Sunny Block

Neon advertisements on the side of skyscrapers

One of the past TAs, Joe, had given us a guidebook on where to go to eat, and one of his recommendations was the "Blue Light place", which had the neon sign in bright blue. Apparently, their entire menu was also in English, so we went in. At first, the hostess was confused, but she could speak a bit of English, so all was well quickly. There was a lazy susan (a rotating centerpiece to revolve food around) at the table, so we quickly realized this was a place for us all to share food. We ordered banana encrusted tilapia, a tofu dish, Chinese mashed potatoes, some sort of dish that tasted like sausage, spring rolls, and I had milk tea while the guys had beer.

There was also a call button that we were curious about at the end of the meal. Once it was pushed, there was an announcement over the intercom telling the servers to come to our table, which surprised us a lot. Jessica and I took home a lot of leftover tofu and mashed potatoes, which we were going to eat for breakfast the next day.

After that, we walked around Sunny Block for an hour, wandering into various shops, including a shoe store and winter clothing store, in which I almost bought a pair of shoes and a hat, respectively, but decided to think about it first. We also stopped into this bakery, where they had some slices of fancy cake for about $1.50, so I had to get a slice of chocolate cake. We also stopped by the Happy New Year sign and me and Jessica got a roommate pic.

Although the Chinese were excited, New Years Eve didn't seem like such a big deal in China. I realized it was because Chinese New Year was a much bigger deal here, due to the millennia old traditions. So people were partying, but not as much as in the US.

Tired, we headed home. We stopped by the grocery store, where I got off brand Pringles and some orange mango Oreos that looked interesting (still haven't tried them yet though...).  I took a shower, and skyped my best friend, and when the clock struck midnight in China (it was still 11 am the previous day in Cincy though), I was still talking to him.

All my snacks

I talked for another hour or so, and went to sleep, ready for 2017 to start!

-Zoe