January 6th, 2015

6:01am

I think I figured out the reason why yesterday and the day before the house keeping didn't fix up my room and deliver two new bottles of sweet, sweet water. I must have left the sign on the door flipped to "do not disturb" instead of "please make up room".

No, the sign isn't in Chinese, I'm just an idiot that forgot to check whether or not it was flipped right before leaving the premises.

Yesterday I heard back from Jordan that he sent me a moneygram, so all my problems were over!- is not entirely accurate.

I did get a message from Jordan, and he did send the much needed moneygram. He was told that, instead of being delivered to one of the specific addresses I anticipated, I could pick it up at any bank: CITIG, ICBC, BOC (Bank of China, that one was easy), CGB, or Bank of Communications. Hey, Bank of Communications is my new bank!

I walked over to the local Bank of Communications with Vicky to translate, but they had no idea what a "moneygram" was. Umm... wait no, the person that did that was on lunch break. Right.

We returned to Web where I met this older guy Chris. I was worried that I was saying hello to Tom but maybe he shaved or got new glasses or something such that I was saying hi to someone I already knew. Nope, I was unfamiliar with him because he was new. Good.

I went to lunch with Alona and Vicky at a sushi place in the basement level of the Roosevelt Center. I hadn't been down there yet, but there where plenty of places to eat, and it smelled, you know, like a food court, but good I mean.

Speaking of smells, I wanted to tell you for the last few days. Outside of my hotel, maybe starting a half block away if it shifts, but definitely by the time I walk under a Gardner like street there's a smell that I have identified as a cross between melon and gasoline. Just wanted to share that.

The sushi place was great, I thought for sure I was going to pop one into my mouth and get grossed out by something but everything I tried was the tops. There was some confusion on my part when I was asked whether or not I wanted hot water or tea, I just kept asking "what's the difference?" and they answered "what do you mean, what's the difference, one's hot water, one's tea" well, yeah, they were confused too, no getting around that, I definitely managed to confuse them. But come on, I get hot water, it's like, great, I've got hot water, oh, you know, maybe I'll throw in a tea bag now, oh, now I've got tea. Like, just pass the hot water and throw a tea bag at me and I'll figure out which of the two I want.

The different options travel next to you in covered plates over a conveyor belt, and your total number of plates gets tallied at the end, and that's how you get charged. The menu didn't seem to have any prices and... no where seemed to have any prices. So I just kept to a plate less than my companions (4 in this case) and waited to see what the damage was. Which was awkward because everytime I'd take a new plate I'd, you know, swallow the whole thing in one go, so the sequence would go like this:

Waiting to see if the others take a new plate. New plate is taken, that's a go on new plate. Look for something desirable to try on the conveyor belt- woah, that's coloured a radioactive red, gotta try that- takes off covering, chop sticks it, and gone. Chop sticks the companion piece if there was two. Gone. Repeat the process. Make small talk.

Afterwards, the two ladies told me not to worry about the bill, they covered it. Again, can't say I don't need it. But I didn't even find out how much I owed for future reference. They're foiling my intel gathering process.

Returning to the Bank of Communications with Vicky NOW they didn't know what the moneygram business was. Right. Vicky also didn't know, but she doesn't work in a bank, so it's forgiveable.

Okay, new plan. I get the addresses for all the moneygram locations I told Jordan about in my last e-mail to him, and go there. Create a map so I can get to the area, that's key.

First problem- the computers at Web decided today was the day that they needed to upgrade my internet browser to access my e-mail. Which is something that you can't do (as far as I can tell) with this under the radar-sketch browser that lets me check my e-mail and facebook and etc. etc. GOOGLE! You know, good web sites.

Oh, I could still access my e-mail, but in a sort of limited mode that didn't appear to let me check my sent messages i.e. the message I sent Jordan with the list of moneygram locations. Of course.

So, googling those fresh. Okay. Next problem, after finding their addresses, google maps couldn't figure it out... until it did? So I'd input the location, and the map would just be generic north america with a "can't find it message" so I scroll over manually to Dalian, zoom in to the city, zoom in to where I am, scroll over to where I need to be, and draw my own map from there. The easiest place I WAS able to find was the Bank of China (which it turns out, to jump ahead, was the best place to list)

Oh, and also my original conception of what is north-east-sout-west was correct, so I don't know what happened before.

Anyways, the path as written goes like this: Roosevelt Center is on the corner of Xi'an Road(Lu) and Huanghe Rd(Lu). Follow Huanghe until it stops at Changjiang Rd, which curves southward a bit but generally keeps going east. I needed to hop a street south via "Victory Square" which seemed like a good road to take if it was in english (spoiler: I never saw the words "Victory Square" anywhere) to another main east-west road Zhongshan Rd which goes all the way to Zhongshan Square. Hang a left just before Zhongshan Square at Tongxing St and there should be the glorious People's Bank of China. Easy as you'd like.

It did indeed look pretty far, and I was finishing up getting the map info I needed at about 2:18pm. I remembered the moneygram places said they closed at 4, so I grabbed my stuff and hopped to.

There aren't really sidewalks in China. There are streets, and then there are parking spots, and if you're lucky there'll be a row of empty parking spots. There was this one long stretch that must have been some kind of government building- they had some sort of mounted police patrolling there, they even had swords hanging off the side of their saddle, that was cool- anyways, there, perhaps, cars were discouraged from parking. But that's about it.

I listened to my music for the first little ways, but then I was getting worried about the time, and it was bugging me how the earbuds were sort of clinging to me as I needed a bit of freedom of movement to get around these cars. So I jammed the i-pod (the sight of which encouraged some guy to approach me and offer to sell me an iphone. Very sketchy, no english, I was gone) into my pocket and switched to a long distance running mode. Likely through a combination of restricted diet and lack of overall exercise lately, my calves down to my ankles felt like they were doing a lot more work then they usually have to do. But it was okay, I was surprised how okay it was. My left foot still has something wrong with it, it's been that way for some months now, but it's only an issue if I land on it wrong, which only happened a couple of times.

I found another branch of the Bank of Communications, which counters the information I thought I saw on the internet that suggested there was only the one location. Inside was a very nice woman who didn't know what a moneygram was, but told me there was a bank to the left (south) of here. She kept saying "left" like she was't sure if that was the correct word. And considering I didn't see any other bank that way... I actually wasn't going to go that way, I was going to stick to my map, but I didn't want her to see me ignore her advice, so I took the detour south and crossed my fingers for an earlier than expected arrival at Zhongshan Rd. Success. Down the block and through this sort of archway, there was Zhongshan Rd. And, yes, that motorcycle just drives straight onto the sidewalk and through the archway. Right, no sidewalks here, silly me, I keep forgetting.

I followed Zhongshan east, but I kept getting worried anytime it sort of curved- did that curve indicate I was at Zhongshan Square? If I go past Zhongshan Square I'm at "Here There Be Dragons" territory on my hand drawn map. Which would be bad.

A deep curve brought me to this crazy nice mall called the "Pavilion". There was a sign for an HSBC (I think that's it- some bank I've seen in Canada) and I decided to go find that- if it's an international bank, chances are better there's some English speakers there.

This mall is practically empty (post Christmas burn out? Unlikely, not as big a deal here..) but it's clearly a Yorkdale analogue. Wide open spaces, a cinema, at least 5 floors, and-no-map. I travelled clear on to the other side of the mall before I saw my first store directory, actually I saw the bank I was looking for before I saw the directory, but I couldn't get in that way, the doors were closed. Wrong door, or did my walk take longer than I thought, and the bank was closed? I motioned at a besuited supervisor of some sort to check the time on his watch- about 3:30, so it wasn't too late. I exited and came around the outside to the bank, where a friendly security guard opened both outer and inner door for me. I had to wait for a bit, but I got to sit in with a helpful employee that did speak english, no, they don't do moneygram here, but she had heard of it. I asked if she could give me a chinese word to explain moneygram to people that didn't know what that was, but it seems THAT question she didn't really understand.

Which is crazy.

She brought up a map and showed me where I was, basically still on Zhongshan. She said I was still about a 20 minute walk from my destination, and it was 3:40 now. I thanked her and got on my way. A 20 minute walk of course translates into a shorter run, so this was still possible. The crossways were becoming less forgiving(!) and now there were underpasses to go through. Under and up and on my way. I made it to Zhongshan square, which meant I'd missed the road I needed... it must have been before Pavilion that I took a turn that could have set me dangerously off course. I think somewhere I found a "Tonqing" st, and I thought I heard somewhere about Q's and X's getting used almost interchangeably here, so that could have been Tonxing street. Anyways, whenever that happened, it led to nothing but me going off the beaten path. Well, I was on the weather-beaten path, because those back streets are ROUGH.

Regardless, I made it to Zhongshan Square, whic is definitely Bay-street like with its banks all over the place, just in a circle around each other, with an ICBC beside me. I went inside, but they didn't do moneygram- the ICBC on the OTHER side of the Square was the main location, and they did moneygram. The woman at the front pointed the building out "1-2-3 to the left" okay. Underpass, cross, cross.

Yes, this bank does moneygram, please take a seat here at the, I don't what it's called anymore. Foreign person desk. Something.

So they do moneygram here. My reference number checks out. But they don't give cash, the Bank of China would do that (which was, of course, the place I was aimed at on my map) BUT my name in my passport doesn't match the name on the moneygram. The moneygram is addressed to "Isaac Aaron Andrew Mills", or rather, family name "Andrew Mills" first name "Isaac Aaron". You need to get who addressed it to change the name.

Ho ho ho, I was getting pretty mad. 

I tried the bank next door, it was another Bank of Communications. Once again, they had no idea what a moneygram was. I'm signed up with a real winner, I am.

I tried the Bank of China. They had a form I could fill out and everything, these guys were all over moneygram. I sat down and waited for them to see the naming issue. They were awkward in telling me that the name wasn't correct. I didn't offer any information beforehand, one, because I wanted to see whether they'd let the name thing slide , and two, because I was frustrated and didn't plan on making things easy on anyone.

These guys wouldn't hand over the money either, which I get, but they wouldn't even tell me in what way the name was wrong, which I also get, just saying that it was "really wrong". In that sense, I'm grateful to ICBC for, perhaps making the mistake of, telling me how the name was wrong, so I could specifically tell Jordan what needed to change on his end.

In a perfect world I'd have a functioning phone to text Jordan this bad bit of news immediately. Instead I'd have to return to the Roosevelt center and hop into one of those computers that didn't always feel like going to western sites.

I followed Zhongshan Rd back. Once I got to the archway that had been my original gateway to Zhongshan I decided to travel a bit longer on Zhongshan to see if it would take me all the way to Xi'an. Huge mistake. I eventually thought better of it, and turned left to go north and look for Huanghe, but Zhongshan veers south after a while (I re-checked the map later) so it took much longer to find Huanghe that it originally took to get off of it and onto Zhongshan. It was dark by this point, so that was worrisome, too. Not to any great extent, but it wasn't a plus. I was getting a little unsure of my directions, but past history has shown me that it isn't when you start to feel unsure of your directions that you get into trouble, it's when you start actually deviating from your course in search of that sure feeling. THAT is when you lose your barings for real. 

I kept doing the north-west thing and finally found Huanghe again. From there it was an easy straight line to the Roosevelt Center and familiar stomping grounds.

I, exhausted, dropped into the chair and sent Jordan the requisite message about my name over facebook. I checked on the map how far exactly I had walked- assuming I hadn't taken any detours (which I did) the one way trip was 5.5 km. 

That's a lot.

Vicky had left for the day, so I got set to e-mail her to advise about my situation, only remebering I could call her with a landline at Web. Shelley pointedout Vicky's number on the board, and then dialed for me- which I'm not sure was entirely necessary, but on the other hand maybe it was- and I think their "it's ringing" noise sounds a lot like the "no dial tone" noise. Fortunately I stuck on the phone long enough for Vicky to pick up (what, you thought I was going somewhere?)

I told her I'd make the trip the next day to get the money I needed, and when were we meeting the next day to go get all the last apartment stuff in order.

10am.

And when do the banks open?

8am.

Okay, do-able.

I hung up, realizing too late that I'd need to get a new reference number from Jordan, which meant a trip back to Web in the morning, a place that doesn't open until 9am.

I e-mailed Vicky that I'd be heading to Web in the morning to get this reference number, then taxiing over to Zhongshan Square (for those following my detailed excursion above with baited breath, had I actually gotten lost a taxi rescue was always on the table. Eating into my ever precious food budget.) then returning for 10am. All still do-able. 

I guess I'll leave my luggage at Web when I check for the refence number? Check out at the hotel is today, so... you know... "you don't have to bring it with you, but it ain't staying here."

That's... not a real quote from anything, I was sort of playing with "Closing Time"- "you don't have to go home, but you can't-stay-heeeeere."

If there's any justice in this world, when I check for the reference number there will also be an e-mail from Vicky saying "oh, don't worry, you can get it tomorrow after you've left your luggage at your new place, no worries".

But that isn't going to happen.

You know, I'm sure I'll have some definite advice for everyone about preparation for life in China when this is all said and done, but I think I've got some really good ideas right now. Would you like to here them?

I think, for anyone coming to live in China, it would be a good idea to have a device that translates the language.

And a map.

And a phone. 

And a watch. (perhaps a device that is all in one?)

And I really can't recommend being restricted to $300 Canadian at the outset. For the purposes of living and getting a place to live I'd say about $3000-4000 would do very nicely.

Well, let's hope that Wal-Mart up the street has a debit machine that will accept my foreign cards, yes? That'd be super.

8:01am. I'd better get all my things packed up. I really liked this hotel room, it's too bad I can't just stay here. The mattress is very firm, which I'm a big fan of. My mattress at home, she's a not-a so firm. If I hurt my lower back at all it just stays hurt forever on that thing.

I had some interesting dreams last night, but after two hours of writing about my yesterday, I've mostly forgotten them. If I want to do any dream journaling it seems I should do that right away instead of writing about my real day. I am really pleased with the amount of time I've invested in writing so far on my trip. I'm looking forward to transitioning that energy into creative writing. I think I said that yesterday.

From 8:01 to now has been six minutes. That's incredible, isn't it? I think Hemingway said if you could get a solid page of writing done in a day, you were doing well.

I'm not promising a solid page has been written, but it's a reassuring time scale.

Okay, I have a lot to do today, plus my days off are over, I have classes to teach again! Yay!

Wish me luck, have a good day