May 14, 2008: Moving into our own pad, and purchasing our own wheels. We're all grown up, Beijing style

May 14's album. Only 6 pics, so it's a quick viewing: http://picasaweb.google.com/jdorrian2334

So Jon and I rose early today (since we've arrived neither of us have been able to sleep past 7am) in order to check out of the campus hotel and settle into our own pad. Luckily, when I arose and began to do some last minute packing both Daichi and Hiroshi began to stir. This was the first time since I've been here that the two of them have been simultaneously up and about in the morning. This concurrent consciousness allowed me to snap this pic of Daichi (left) and Hiroshi. Now I have this memory of my two Japanese roommates in China frozen in digital time.

We tossed our bags into a cab and rode 10 minutes to our new neighborhood and apartment. After a quick unpacking and a quasi-settle in we grabbed lunch at noodle house. On the "to do" list was to get to school to pick up our course materials for Decision Making which starts on Saturday morning. We figured it would be a good idea to try and buy bikes in this 'hood and ride back to Peking U to grab our new texts. After stopping a couple of people who looked like they may speak English we were directed to a bike store (more like a hut) to browse the offerings. After a quick haggle w/ the proprietor Jon and I each had a new set of wheels for the cost of USD $25-26 (locks and baskets included). See some pics of the bike shopping process in the album.

After we grabbed our book for class on Saturday we cruised back to the apt, watched some badminton for a few minutes on TV (the options here are severely limited, not that we came to Beijing to watch television, but you get the idea), and then took a 1 stop subway ride to Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies for the pad. One thing that stood out to me about this Wal-Mart was that they had staff for every product sub-segment. They had a laundry detergent specialist, they had a fabric softener specialist, they had a mop and broom guy. Essentially every aisle was manned by retail rep whose job was to inform and sell. Very different from your typical US supermarket (and Wal-Mart I assume, but I don't think I've ever been to a Wal-Mart). One thing that was different, but that didn't surprise me really was that in the seafood section of the grocery level of the store there was a huge tank of turtles to hand pick and buy for a nice homemade meal. Maybe Jon and I will give that a go before we leave town.

I'll wrap this post up w/ a photo of newest and proudest owner of bike that is bound to get stolen or break at least once this summer.