Confirmed to be blocked
Well blog readers, it turns out that China is blocking blogspot. I'm currently looking for a way to get around it but until then, I won't be able to see any of your comments. I also won't be able to see if the blog entry looks ok.
I'm not going to bother with a new blog until I get this worked out.
Anyways, just to give a quick update, I'm now moved into a place just east of the Beijing Culture and Language University. It's a student residence but off-campus. The size of the room is typical size dorm room (I think...haven't lived in a school dorm in over 10 years). Part of me wishes that I found an actual apartment but I just wanted to get settled in quickly. The room is costing me 60RMB which is roughly $10CDN/night. It comes with cable TV, air con, and heat. I can ask to get my room cleaned any time I want. There is a laundry machine in the common area which I'm allowed to use for free and a kitchen further down the hall if I ever feel like cooking something. Downstairs has a small store where I can get snacks and drinks. I'm reading this paper right now and it says I can order from a Korean or Japanese restaurant. Funny how there's no Chinese since we're in China. I guess it's pointless though since you can just walk the street and get Chinese food. I think there's a lot of Koreans living in the dorm.
Supposedly there's a lady at the front desk that speaks English but I haven't encountered her yet. Oh well, more practice for me I guess. It's been quite tough for me to get things. Yesterday, I had to buy a sim card for my cell phone. That went well but when it was time to buy minutes for the phone, all talks came to a halt....I think the salesperson and I starred at each other for like 10 mins trying to figure out each other. I threw out all these attempts to explain what I want but no go. I even showed him my phone and how it wasn't working, said I wanted to buy minutes "mai fen" which probably makes absolutely no sense in Chinese....
Finally, after about 20 mins, he realized what I wanted but the phone still didn't work. He started waving the phone (no idea why) around for like 10 mins but no luck. Then another guy shows up and takes over...he starts waving the phone for like 10 mins. I think he was just about to hand me the phone to say it doesn't work but bam, the service begins to work. We all smiled and I went on my way.....I wanted to ask him why he was waving the phone around but I knew there was no way I was going to understand the answer. Plus, I couldn't remember how to say "what in the world are you doing".
Anyways, I'll leave it at that. Stay tuned for more...
I'm not going to bother with a new blog until I get this worked out.
Anyways, just to give a quick update, I'm now moved into a place just east of the Beijing Culture and Language University. It's a student residence but off-campus. The size of the room is typical size dorm room (I think...haven't lived in a school dorm in over 10 years). Part of me wishes that I found an actual apartment but I just wanted to get settled in quickly. The room is costing me 60RMB which is roughly $10CDN/night. It comes with cable TV, air con, and heat. I can ask to get my room cleaned any time I want. There is a laundry machine in the common area which I'm allowed to use for free and a kitchen further down the hall if I ever feel like cooking something. Downstairs has a small store where I can get snacks and drinks. I'm reading this paper right now and it says I can order from a Korean or Japanese restaurant. Funny how there's no Chinese since we're in China. I guess it's pointless though since you can just walk the street and get Chinese food. I think there's a lot of Koreans living in the dorm.
Supposedly there's a lady at the front desk that speaks English but I haven't encountered her yet. Oh well, more practice for me I guess. It's been quite tough for me to get things. Yesterday, I had to buy a sim card for my cell phone. That went well but when it was time to buy minutes for the phone, all talks came to a halt....I think the salesperson and I starred at each other for like 10 mins trying to figure out each other. I threw out all these attempts to explain what I want but no go. I even showed him my phone and how it wasn't working, said I wanted to buy minutes "mai fen" which probably makes absolutely no sense in Chinese....
Finally, after about 20 mins, he realized what I wanted but the phone still didn't work. He started waving the phone (no idea why) around for like 10 mins but no luck. Then another guy shows up and takes over...he starts waving the phone for like 10 mins. I think he was just about to hand me the phone to say it doesn't work but bam, the service begins to work. We all smiled and I went on my way.....I wanted to ask him why he was waving the phone around but I knew there was no way I was going to understand the answer. Plus, I couldn't remember how to say "what in the world are you doing".
Anyways, I'll leave it at that. Stay tuned for more...
posted by Jeff at
4:59 a.m.
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1 comments
