Orientation at post has me scheduled tightly. I've even had some time on the fingerprinting line and working drop box cases. I feel a bit behind since some of my classmates at post were on the line almost immediately after arrival, but considering I'm the insecure type, I'm glad for the baby steps method.
To recap mealswise, my flight over on the US carrier was uneventful. I lucked out with no one next to me so spent most of the 14 hours curled up under a blanket, drugged out on dramamine. Good thing I packed a cookie, because the meal was "chicken and rice", about as delicious as three day old reheated Costco teriyaki bowl. I did save the milano cookies for my motorpool driver though.
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| Delicious....not. |
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| K, my sponsor treated me to a delicious salmon salad at a local restaurant downstairs. My first meal in China! |
This Saturday, I accomplished my goal of getting a cell phone sim card. There are two major companies here if you want to use a US GSM phone (think AT&T, T-Mobile, something you can insert a sim card into): China Mobile (bigger network, but uses a lower China specific bandwidth so no 3G unless you get a China phone) and China Unicom (faster speed, not as great reception in certain areas). I went into the Unicome store after an early morning Xiao Long Bao run at Jia Jia Tang Bao.
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| Omg, do you see all that crab and soup? |
My cell phone plan isn't bad. Since I made sure to unlock my iphone before I came (painless process of calling AT&T), I wanted the fasted speed since my primary use is data. My 2 year contract nationwide (China) plan was 300rmb up front, but 99rmb was credited to my account, which can go towards my bills. Each month afterwards is 69rmb ($11.25) after a discount for not getting a new phone is applied. This covers 300 talk minutes and 800mb data. Since I'm at work all day usually and there's wifi when I'm home, I'm hoping 800 is enough. If not, I might upgrade. It was pretty quick to set up, all I needed was my phone, passport, and moolah.
Since the great firewall is in place, VPN has been essential for me to access things like wikipedia, google (including google voice), youtube, and facebook. The company I use has very convenient apps for my iphone as well as ipad and with three concurrent connections allowed, I can be on the laptop at the same time. My VPN is $10 a month and has been pretty stable. If you're interested, shoot me an email.
The rest of the weekend was spent exploring and getting used to the city. There's a lot of roads and since my reading is kaput, I need to get to work.
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| Rain does not stop me from seeking out food...but the smell might. |
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| Check out those prices! RMB is generally 6 to 1 USD these days. |
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| BUNS BUNS BUNS |
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| Piggy puns :) |
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| Layered savory pancake with veggie, egg, and a too-pink sausage. Still good though. |
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| This is blurry, but check out creepy mannequin heads :/ |
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| I only lined up here because there was a long line out front... |
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| Apparently the milk tea with red glutinous rice makes for a more asiany taste- tasty! |
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| My coworker says it may be a knock off of Ayi Milk Tea though...I'll have to compare the two. |
Of course what is asia without claw machines. Just like basement food courts are a "thing", so is finding random arcades in the higher levels of department stores, complete with Guitar Freaks (how I've missed you, konami games) knock off DDR, ticket games, basketball, and of course different plushie winning opportunities like claw machines, string cutters, and even ones where you spin wheels of "chance" in hopes of adding or subtracting numbers to your prize. If you get past the total number of 7, you win things like this giant banana. (I admit it, I want it.)
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| Quack. |
No banana this time, but I did get this giant duck out of a claw machine. It's now decore in my master bathroom, heh.
Work food is pretty decent too, even if I'm sure it'll get old after a few months. Lunch in one of the food court stands runs about 30-ish rmb, just under $5. Not bad, even if you have to get your own drinks on the side.
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| Sour and spicy udon with a ball of ...fried...something |
Off to bed now. I ordered some rain boots off Amazon since they were the one item I needed, but never got around to buying in the States. Hopefully they'll fit... Here's a view from my room to bid you good night. Now someone find me a cheap but fabulous massage place.
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