Shopping spree

Since I’m so behind on China adventures already, I figured I’ll fast forward a bit to right now and go back to things like my Bday a little later.  Well technically this blog will be a mixed bag.

When I first arrived, I was told I would get reimbursed for my travel in the next couple days. Well I just got reimbursed  Thursday.  It’s a good thing I brought a ton of RMB with me.

My first day here we tried to get my cell phone situated.  Went to china telecom and put my special code in that I got from At&t but then we had translation issues so we decided to go to china mobile .  Well, at this point the code was used and so I had to contact my mom to get a new code and another type of code.

It took a few days then went back to mobile and got a real basic plan.  I already had to put another 5 rmb because I was to data heavy, mostly because I didn’t realize they have bigger plans.  My phone only gets E reception, not 3g or 4g like they advertise.  That stinks, but wifi at the hospital.  Another issue is that the wifi is touch and go. Some days, like today, its working nicely, others it is so slow. Probably because of so many people on it.

Well, I went visit Yuxi and my contact there (the guy John Bo who recruited me).  After we ate a 20 rmb all you can eat buffet, we were handed a flyer from china telecom.   Which was perfect because I was just voicing this paragraph of slow internet to him.  The telecom plan is great.

Let me back up, because the hospital wifi is so finicky I decided I would get home wifi.  When I’m at the apartment my phone gets the wifi in the bathroom, and my computer gets it in my bedroom.   So, I’m like great then I should be able to do it in reverse and use my home wifi at the office.  BLAZING fast because it’ll only be me.

Back to John Bo, the plan is like 800 minutes and 1.5 gb of data, wifi, and cable tv all for 100 RMB per month plus a 1500 deposit (oh and you get a nice fancy android phone and a basic text only style phone).   The total for all that is about 35 a month and my roomie will pay about  4 bucks of it.  He thinks if I have the china based phone my internet stretch will be more like 3g.

What a hassle it was to get adapters too. I should have just got them in USA instead of listening to my china contact.  Luckily Mr Lee had a usb charger that fits asia plugs that I could use.  Life saver otherwise no phone for Justin at all.

I was going to write about the money comparison but I’ll wait.  More about the initial purchases.

They sleep on wood beds with minimal padding.  When I was at the store with the CEO and the Chiro Dept leader, I picked up a couple extra cotton pads ( only helps a little but still much improved, I’m sleeping fine..just used to my memory foam) , a iron, cleaning supplies, shampoo etc  I think they got a kick out of me having to buy this stuff. Thank you Ling for helping.

She even helped me negotiate a few things.  What was funny is this.  I had a, under my pants safety bag with my money and only a small amount in my wallet.  So they were noticing that my red 100’s were disappearing and said at least twice that if I need money I can borrow theirs and they will just take it out my salary.  Again, very glad I brought a lot of money because this is a cash society.  No place except the grocery store accepts a credit card and I don’t think they take VISA.

One more shopping story.  I WAY OVERPACKED for this trip.  Also because I’m not in Yuxi or near a lake, I am in a quite warm place. I mean I’m walking to eat and my nice shirts are just wet from my sweat. Not cool.

After a couple days of this, I notice that the doctors and staff all wear random stuff. Some wear pants, others shorts, polos, tshirts, sandals, etc. And they (as well as patients) might wear the same shirt 2 maybe 3 days in a row, not sure if they cleaned them, but I doubt it.  I’m like oh no, I’m not going to ruin my shirts with sweat and oil from the food, I’m going by shorts and polos locally.

I mean I didn’t even bring my cool shorts or polos. ( No worries, momma is mailing me a care package and throwing some shorts in them) (love you mom) . Ling again helped me negotiate two polos.  I’m like an XL to XXL in their culture.  A shirt or two I couldn’t get because wasn’t big enough.

When I tried on shorts, the store hung up a sheet at the corner and had me try them on like that. I just had to laugh.  Luckily I’m not to bashful.  But after that I was able to go on my day off and shop around till I found a shirt and a price I liked.  Paid around 8 bucks a piece on average.

If I would have known I could have hit up Ross and bought a new wardrobe for roughly same price.  I was content with spending a whole 43 bucks but when with John Bo, I found out maybe I could’ve gotten some for 25-30 RMB instead of 40-80.  Oh well, I’m going with my quality is better or something like that.

Either way, I’m set between my work out clothes (which I can wear to work..mostly because I wear a white coat) and the new stuff.  I can just throw them all away after if need be.

When I come home for a couple weeks next year, I will be packing that duffel bag OUT and hopefully that will be sufficient.  My guess is that I will be mailing a box with bunches of things in it and spending a small fortune to do it.  Kind of funny, I want to buy people souvenirs but then I’m like , geesh all this stuff is cheap but its also pretty poor quality too.  Might be able to find a token gift somewhere some how.  Maybe one of those gold cats with the arm that moves up and down.  “welcome, and give me your money”

LOL china fashion baby