The Diaries

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March 2, 2009

Welcome to China

Posted by Kelly

I arrived safely to Dalian with little to no problems! I was a little nervous on the trip over here. I flew from Chicago to Shanghai and then took another flight to Dalian. However my bags were only checked from Cedar Rapids to Shanghai. With only a short layover I had to go through customs, pick up my luggage and recheck-in to get my next plane ticket. I can easily say that I got my workout in! I lugged around my two over-weight suitcases around the airport practically running to make sure I got there in time. I did get a little lost and had to backtrack, but I eventually made it. And I was early! I ended up waiting for over an hour to board the plane so I was a little disappointed I missed out on some of the shopping.

I was pretty surprised with the airport smoking. There are rooms were people can smoke in the airport, but they leave the doors wide open. So if you are in a 100 foot radius you will smell the smoke. It seemed a little counterproductive?

Two of my co-workers and a driver were there to greet me at the airport. They helped me get settled into my home for the next six months. It’s not bad! I would even call it kind of cute! Small, but perfect size for my stay! I have small kitchen area complete with a single burner, microwave, toaster oven, and water heater. I have a bathroom with a water heater, and two larger windows in which I get a pretty good view! The only things I really dislike are the bed and the temperature. Literally it has a base of plywood and a mattress on top of that. Now when I say mattress I mean another piece of plywood that has been covered with fabric. I asked Evian, my coworker, about this hard bed and she mentioned that they used to have more plush mattresses, but 10 to 15 years ago they decided that it isn’t good for your back and spine to have such plushy mattresses, so they brought in the hard mattresses aka plywood. After having slept on the new “mattress” for a few days I am certain that this is not good for my back or comfortable! Hopefully I can find a blowup mattress this weekend. The heater of my apartment is a water heater that reminds me of Lawther Hall at UNI. It’s not noisy by any means, but it’s only slightly warm to the touch. With two large windows that let in a lot of air and lots of tile on the walls, my apartment is very cold! I would guess it’s probably around 50-60 degrees. I’m usually wearing two pairs of socks, a few layers of sweatshirts and sweatpants to bed. Evian mentioned that the government turns off the heat around March 15 and then people really have to bundle up until spring comes. However, I don’t think it’ll make too much of a difference to me-I think I’m already used to it!

The next morning, Evian met me at my apartment to help me accomplish a few tasks. We went out for lunch, got my VISA and paperwork in order at the police station, and brought a few necessities for my apartment. When I was getting ready in the morning I ran into a few minor problems. I wanted to plug in a few of my electronics. I brought my laptop and an external hard drive which both need outlets. I have one outlet by my desk, and since I brought an American power cord I figured I could just use my adapter to plug the power cord into the wall. Before I attempted any of this I had to sort of talk myself into it. Before I came here my dad gave me a lesson in which adapter/voltage converter I may need and the order I need to place them in. However he did warn/scare me about getting shocked. Ever since then I’ve had this fear that I will be shocked and something awful would happen like my heart would stop beating, etc. So Thanks dad for making my scared to death to plug in anything! Well, after I worked up some confidence I plugged my American power cord into the converter into the wall. I did not get shocked, but I heard a big bang and smelled something burning coming from the power cord. So, the power cord is no more and my electricity went out. Needless to say I hadn’t taken a shower yet, and since my electricity went out I had no hot water. Luckily the sink still had hot water so I was able to at least wash my hair to make myself somewhat presentable. I did find a fuse box in my room, written in Chinese of course. There were two or three switches turned opposite of the others, so I flipped those. Nothing happened. I later found out there’s a bigger fuse box outside in the hallway. I let someone else flip those switches.

After my whole electricity fiasco, I stepped into a very large puddle of water by the sink. My hot water was leaking. When Evian came over she had the maintenance person tighten that up. He also used some tape on the pipes. I almost offered him the duck tape I brought with me, but he looked like he had plenty of his own. So no more leaks for now!

To get groceries and some things like a blanket we went to TESCO which reminded me of a WalMart. It just opened last weekend and it was extremely busy, especially for a Monday afternoon. I got a few food items for breakfast and dinner, but I think I’ll just buy a few things at a time so I can try out lots of different foods. So far I have been OK with the food. (knock on wood) I look forward to trying out new things. Evian warned me that the food at the company isn’t very good. She mentioned that they previous intern, Cody, lost weight eating that food. Hopefully it’s not as terrible as she mentioned! I’ll have to report back on that.