Matt's Shanghai

China = Does not like me today

I have been very nice to China today, but it wasn't very nice to me. Bad days in a place where you live by yourself are twice as bad.

Today I show up for work and sit down at my desk, newly assigned just two or three days ago, and yet again about five minutes after I start working I'm told I need to move again. So I moved back to the desk I was at before this one, stuck off in the corner of the room away from everyone else. Now this doesn't seem like a big deal, but taking everything you have off of your desk and inside of your desk out and moving it is a pain. Doing it for the third time in a row in the period of two weeks is a little much. I can't wait for my own office, but the reality of that promise is pretty slim. Our new building looks finished, but many speculate it will be months till our big move.

I needed to get money exchanged today at the bank. I went to the Agricultural Bank of China on campus, a fairly large branch that I thought would do exchanges. I asked the guard when I went in if they did exchanges and he seemed to think they would do it. I then stood in line, a small line of only 3 people in front of me. At US banks during the lunch hour, a line with just 3 people is pure luck. There is so much paperwork involved here in just making a deposit or withdrawal that is took 25 minutes for the three people in front of me to get done with their business.... 25 minutes. And they're making deposits and withdrawals... you would think in that time they're getting a loan on a new home or something. Finally it's my turn. I have my passport, my pen and cash ready to go and the teller will not exchange it. Why... I have no clue. I couldn't understand her. They had a huge board behind them that displayed all of the exchange rates, but for some reason, today she could not exchange my money. Defeated again, I had to go back to the unairconditioned office to work for four more hours.

After work I decide I'm going to bike just outside of campus and find the nearest Bank of China branch that is sure to make exchanges, so I could waste my lunch hour tomorrow standing in line again. I finally found one close to campus. As I was biking back, I'm in the bike lane and this man tried to pass me on the left. Now on my left is about 6 inches of road and then a 9 inch curb. As he's passing me in this six inches, he hits my handle bars and I loose my balance and fall into this huge row of bushes that are separating the bike lane from the rest of traffic. I scratched up the top of my foot pretty good since I was wearing sandals, but thank God the bushes were there so I didn't fall into traffic. The guy never even turned around and I'm certain he never knew anything happened.

I'm 6'1" and I'm pretty hard to miss in China. Especially in line at the cafeteria. Evidently, I'm invisible to most in China when it comes to lines, as most just like to walk right in front of me... I'm going to find some good words in Chinese to tell them to back off, just haven't had the time. I usually just give up if the food doesn't look good and head to a different area where I can actually get what I want without being trampled over.

I've promised myself that tomorrow will be better. I'm going to make it better.

posted by Matt Dull @ 6:43 PM