After all the excitement of the first day here, all of us were pretty content to just relax and not do too much. The boys went to the supermarket on campus whilst Makenzi and I hung out in her room.
Since I had made plans to meet up with Herb for her bike, I tried calling her, but the phone message said that I did not have any more money on my card. It confused me since it was the first day I had gotten it. So I called up Fish and Cassandra and they took me to the phone place again. Turns out that the wireless I used was a GPRS, which is 1 yuan per 1MB (expensive). The plan I had paid for was for WLAN, which turned out to also be a process to get access to. Eventually, I did get it to work but it took a long time. After that, I just had to wait for Herb and the bike, so Matt, Jeremy, Michael, Cassandra, Fish, and I all stayed in Matt's apartment, talking about different things.
Finally Herb brought her bike and I paid the 80 yuan. It is a really nice bike. It is a small bike, with small radius wheels, but it is blue and clean.
After saying thank you and goodbye to the three Chinese girls, I decided to take the bike out for a ride. Man, it felt so nice to be on a bike, riding around and enjoying some time outside the apartment. I decided to go outside the campus, so I went through one of the gates and onto a big road. It was a nice ride and I saw lots of street vendors selling fruits and vegetables. After a while I turned around and came back, but I got confused about which gate to go back through. The gate from which I came out had a track field next to it, so on the way back, I saw a gate with a track field and presumed it was the right one. Wrong. Turns out that that was the entry for the freshmen dorms. I went through the whole area trying to find a way back to the rest of campus, but to no avail. I ended up going back out of the same gate, but the gatekeeper tried to stop me and say something in Chinese. I pointed to myself and said "American," and he let me through. After a while I found the right gate to the university and returned to the apartments.
The night ended with Jeremy, Matt, and I watching "Get Him to the Greek."
Overall, a troublesome morning, a fun afternoon, and a peaceful evening.
Since I had made plans to meet up with Herb for her bike, I tried calling her, but the phone message said that I did not have any more money on my card. It confused me since it was the first day I had gotten it. So I called up Fish and Cassandra and they took me to the phone place again. Turns out that the wireless I used was a GPRS, which is 1 yuan per 1MB (expensive). The plan I had paid for was for WLAN, which turned out to also be a process to get access to. Eventually, I did get it to work but it took a long time. After that, I just had to wait for Herb and the bike, so Matt, Jeremy, Michael, Cassandra, Fish, and I all stayed in Matt's apartment, talking about different things.
Finally Herb brought her bike and I paid the 80 yuan. It is a really nice bike. It is a small bike, with small radius wheels, but it is blue and clean.
After saying thank you and goodbye to the three Chinese girls, I decided to take the bike out for a ride. Man, it felt so nice to be on a bike, riding around and enjoying some time outside the apartment. I decided to go outside the campus, so I went through one of the gates and onto a big road. It was a nice ride and I saw lots of street vendors selling fruits and vegetables. After a while I turned around and came back, but I got confused about which gate to go back through. The gate from which I came out had a track field next to it, so on the way back, I saw a gate with a track field and presumed it was the right one. Wrong. Turns out that that was the entry for the freshmen dorms. I went through the whole area trying to find a way back to the rest of campus, but to no avail. I ended up going back out of the same gate, but the gatekeeper tried to stop me and say something in Chinese. I pointed to myself and said "American," and he let me through. After a while I found the right gate to the university and returned to the apartments.
The night ended with Jeremy, Matt, and I watching "Get Him to the Greek."
Overall, a troublesome morning, a fun afternoon, and a peaceful evening.