Today has been a bit of a sucky day. One of those days when everything seems to be getting on my nerves. I've been here a little over a month. I've been in my apartment for about 2 weeks. The noise has been continuous and varied. I'm not getting a ton of sleep which is not helping matters any.
This morning I spent 2 hours booking the flights to Beijing. I received CONFIRMATION that the flights were booked. Now, (8 hours later) I just received a call from the booking agent saying that there was a problem with the credit card so they cancelled the booking and now the flight is full. Please rebook.
Why?? So the same thing can happen again?? Why bother sending me a confirmation if it is not a confirmation?? Why not maybe call me before the flight is full and ask me to pay another way? By Paypal perhaps as was offered on the site? SO FREAKING ANNOYING!
This used to happen when we tried to book with Turkish Airways online from Saudi Arabia. The credit card company would refuse it thinking it was fraud, but at least they never said we had a confirmed reservation and then called us 8 hours later saying that they cancelled it. They simply said we had to call in which we did and everything was booked.
It's just that nothing is ever easy here. Simple day to day things can be a bit of a struggle. Just going to the grocery store is a mile walk to get there. Then you have to figure out what things are when you can't read the labels and then wait in line forever to pay. Follow that up with another mile walk to get back carrying whatever it is that you bought and it is just a pain in the ass. Yes I said ASS!
The other day I went out to buy a rice cooker. How hard can that be? This is China right? So I went to Lotus. I hate Lotus but they have tons of appliances and stuff and if I want something, I pretty much have to go there. The thing about Lotus is that they have tons of people standing around that work there. 95% of them speak only Chinese.
The first thing I bought when I got here was a hair straightening iron at the Lotus. We looked around and didn't see any and then Matt asked a girl, and I made straightening motions on my hair and she produced a very small Phillips brand travel size straightening iron. It was 249 RMB ($40 US). I bought it and was pretty much a piece of crap. It was so tiny that it took forever to use and it didn't get all that hot but it was better than nothing.
Later, on another trip to Lotus, I saw a bigger straightening iron. I also saw that it had temperature control and went up to 220 C. It was 200 RMB ($33 US). Now it is very difficult to just look at something in Lotus. As soon as I show an interest in something, someone either comes up to me and stares at me or starts talking to me in Chinese. If I am just looking, I either say nothing and hope they go away, or I go away and hope they aren't there the next time I come into the store so I can get a better look and decide if I want to buy it. This time, I didn't need to decide, I wanted that hair straightener. So, I turned to the lady following me around and I pointed to the hair straightener. She shook her head no and started speaking to me in Chinese. I pointed again to the hair straightener and she again shook her head at me and started explaining something to me in Chinese whilst pointing to some curling irons. It was then that I noticed her rather unfortunate perm and clued in to what she was saying. Which was basically, "That won't curl your hair! You need to buy this!"
At this point another sales woman came over and the two of them started talking to each other basically deciding whether or not they should let me buy the hair straightener. Thinking that I should still be allowed to have a say in this whole conversation I once again pointed to the hair straightener. Then I pointed to the curling irons and shook my head no. At this point a young girl behind a counter got into the conversation and I think it was then decided that they would let me buy the straightening iron because they started opening up locked cabinets and looking for one in a box. The girl behind the counter said, "Straight." Exactly!
So while the one girl was looking for the iron, the lady with the perm took me over to the cashier where I paid and then came back and waited for another ten minutes or so until they found one in a box. "New!" they said, thrusting the box at me. I said "Xie xie"(Thank you) and left.
*note- autocorrect changes xie xie (sounds like shay shay) to die die. Today has been a sucky day but in case I miss an autocorrect, I didn't tell anyone to die twice.
So anyway, back to the rice cooker. This was the day after the hair straightener incident. The rice cookers are located very near to the hair dryers, curling irons, and one lone hair straightener that no one wants to sell you. I walked over to the display and there were about 12 different rice cookers there. I had no sooner gotten there when a young girl came up to me and said, "Can I help you?" Since she spoke English, and I was there to buy and not to look I said, "I want to buy a small rice cooker." She picked up one for 219 RMB and said "This is the best one." I pointed to one below it for 99 RMB and said "What about that one?" She again pointed to the 219 RMB one and said, "This one is best." Then along comes bad perm, recognizing me from the day before and she starts pointing at the more expensive cooker and speaking to me in Chinese. So then they team up to sell me the 219 RMB cooker.
Now I don't need a fancy rice cooker. I just need it to cook rice. But I can't even get a look at the other cookers because they keep pointing to the more expensive one. Then they open it up and the rice pot inside is gold. They open the cheap one and the rice pot inside is silver. Again, the English speaking woman says, "This one is better."
"How is it better?" I ask?
She gives me a confused look and says, "I don't understand. This one is better."
So then I say, (pointing at the cheaper one) "I want that one."
"That is the last one. Only that one. No good. This one is better."
At this point I realized that this was taking way too much effort and chances of me getting out of there with the cheaper rice cooker were not looking very good. Doing a quick calculation in my head, I realized that we were talking about a $36 rice cooker vs a $16 one. $36 wasn't going to break the bank and didn't seem unreasonable to pay for a rice cooker so I said, "Fine." Then they took me over to pay and got me a new one in a box, took it out and plugged it in so that I could see that it works. As they were starting it up I realized that other than "On" and "Off" I had no idea what any of the other buttons said. But, at this point I had already paid for it so they packed it back up and sent me on my way. Once home I took a picture of the front and sent it to my husband and asked him if he could get someone to translate the buttons for me. By the end of the day I had received the picture back.
This morning I spent 2 hours booking the flights to Beijing. I received CONFIRMATION that the flights were booked. Now, (8 hours later) I just received a call from the booking agent saying that there was a problem with the credit card so they cancelled the booking and now the flight is full. Please rebook.
Why?? So the same thing can happen again?? Why bother sending me a confirmation if it is not a confirmation?? Why not maybe call me before the flight is full and ask me to pay another way? By Paypal perhaps as was offered on the site? SO FREAKING ANNOYING!
This used to happen when we tried to book with Turkish Airways online from Saudi Arabia. The credit card company would refuse it thinking it was fraud, but at least they never said we had a confirmed reservation and then called us 8 hours later saying that they cancelled it. They simply said we had to call in which we did and everything was booked.
It's just that nothing is ever easy here. Simple day to day things can be a bit of a struggle. Just going to the grocery store is a mile walk to get there. Then you have to figure out what things are when you can't read the labels and then wait in line forever to pay. Follow that up with another mile walk to get back carrying whatever it is that you bought and it is just a pain in the ass. Yes I said ASS!
The other day I went out to buy a rice cooker. How hard can that be? This is China right? So I went to Lotus. I hate Lotus but they have tons of appliances and stuff and if I want something, I pretty much have to go there. The thing about Lotus is that they have tons of people standing around that work there. 95% of them speak only Chinese.
The first thing I bought when I got here was a hair straightening iron at the Lotus. We looked around and didn't see any and then Matt asked a girl, and I made straightening motions on my hair and she produced a very small Phillips brand travel size straightening iron. It was 249 RMB ($40 US). I bought it and was pretty much a piece of crap. It was so tiny that it took forever to use and it didn't get all that hot but it was better than nothing.
Later, on another trip to Lotus, I saw a bigger straightening iron. I also saw that it had temperature control and went up to 220 C. It was 200 RMB ($33 US). Now it is very difficult to just look at something in Lotus. As soon as I show an interest in something, someone either comes up to me and stares at me or starts talking to me in Chinese. If I am just looking, I either say nothing and hope they go away, or I go away and hope they aren't there the next time I come into the store so I can get a better look and decide if I want to buy it. This time, I didn't need to decide, I wanted that hair straightener. So, I turned to the lady following me around and I pointed to the hair straightener. She shook her head no and started speaking to me in Chinese. I pointed again to the hair straightener and she again shook her head at me and started explaining something to me in Chinese whilst pointing to some curling irons. It was then that I noticed her rather unfortunate perm and clued in to what she was saying. Which was basically, "That won't curl your hair! You need to buy this!"
At this point another sales woman came over and the two of them started talking to each other basically deciding whether or not they should let me buy the hair straightener. Thinking that I should still be allowed to have a say in this whole conversation I once again pointed to the hair straightener. Then I pointed to the curling irons and shook my head no. At this point a young girl behind a counter got into the conversation and I think it was then decided that they would let me buy the straightening iron because they started opening up locked cabinets and looking for one in a box. The girl behind the counter said, "Straight." Exactly!
So while the one girl was looking for the iron, the lady with the perm took me over to the cashier where I paid and then came back and waited for another ten minutes or so until they found one in a box. "New!" they said, thrusting the box at me. I said "Xie xie"(Thank you) and left.
*note- autocorrect changes xie xie (sounds like shay shay) to die die. Today has been a sucky day but in case I miss an autocorrect, I didn't tell anyone to die twice.
So anyway, back to the rice cooker. This was the day after the hair straightener incident. The rice cookers are located very near to the hair dryers, curling irons, and one lone hair straightener that no one wants to sell you. I walked over to the display and there were about 12 different rice cookers there. I had no sooner gotten there when a young girl came up to me and said, "Can I help you?" Since she spoke English, and I was there to buy and not to look I said, "I want to buy a small rice cooker." She picked up one for 219 RMB and said "This is the best one." I pointed to one below it for 99 RMB and said "What about that one?" She again pointed to the 219 RMB one and said, "This one is best." Then along comes bad perm, recognizing me from the day before and she starts pointing at the more expensive cooker and speaking to me in Chinese. So then they team up to sell me the 219 RMB cooker.
Now I don't need a fancy rice cooker. I just need it to cook rice. But I can't even get a look at the other cookers because they keep pointing to the more expensive one. Then they open it up and the rice pot inside is gold. They open the cheap one and the rice pot inside is silver. Again, the English speaking woman says, "This one is better."
"How is it better?" I ask?
She gives me a confused look and says, "I don't understand. This one is better."
So then I say, (pointing at the cheaper one) "I want that one."
"That is the last one. Only that one. No good. This one is better."
At this point I realized that this was taking way too much effort and chances of me getting out of there with the cheaper rice cooker were not looking very good. Doing a quick calculation in my head, I realized that we were talking about a $36 rice cooker vs a $16 one. $36 wasn't going to break the bank and didn't seem unreasonable to pay for a rice cooker so I said, "Fine." Then they took me over to pay and got me a new one in a box, took it out and plugged it in so that I could see that it works. As they were starting it up I realized that other than "On" and "Off" I had no idea what any of the other buttons said. But, at this point I had already paid for it so they packed it back up and sent me on my way. Once home I took a picture of the front and sent it to my husband and asked him if he could get someone to translate the buttons for me. By the end of the day I had received the picture back.
So glad that I paid extra for the "Congee" setting since I have no idea how to make Congee!
So yesterday I tried it and the rice was a little burned but edible. Nothing stuck to the "fabulous gold pan" inside so I figured, "Whatever, it's fine."
Of course today being a super sucky day, the damn thing wouldn't even turn on. Filled it up, plugged it in and nothing. Checked the cord, tried a different outlet, NOTHING. Nada, zip, zilch, great big goose egg! Because that is just what kind of day this has been.
And now what am I supposed to do with this damn thing? Repackage it, walk a mile with it and try to figure out where the heck I am supposed to return it to, and then probably find out that they won't let me return it because I used it, only I won't understand what the heck they are saying to me because I don't speak Chinese!
No, I will add it to the growing list of things that have broken the first or second time that I have used them. ( I'm so glad I bought the "better" one. )
This reminds me of the story of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
I keep having to remind myself that some days are like that. (Even in Australia, and apparently especially in China.)
Oh, and did I mention that my husband texted me earlier to let me know that the electricity is going to be off tomorrow from 5 AM to 8 PM? That should make things more fun. I'm so glad that I walked the mile to Lotus yesterday to buy meat and frozen things. I may as well just start wiping my butt with renminbi because it seems like I just keep buying things only to throw them away.
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