Back in the Game

Thursday 7/12, 7:45am: Roll out of bed (my roommate will sleep for another 5-6 hours)

8:00-9:00: Hammer out a 10 mile run in just over an hour

8:20: Fan Wei texts me and calls me only to find no answer (I bought a Chinese cell phone)

9:05: Fan Wei walks up to me while I'm stretching and cooling down, and then tells me the good news...

It seems my computer is completely fine!? The watermelon juice dried up and now I can use it. The HP guy said that I'll never be able to know when the/a problem will surface. He was pretty baffled at how my computer could handle so much punishment. I told him it gets it from me. My friend Fan Wei, who accompanied me to the HP shop and served as the contact point for HP, said that a Chinese computer ($800-$900) would've been one-and-done.

So naturally, I'm pretty relieved. I can save my money and my sanity. Now, back to that interesting hiking trip up Xiang Lu Mountain. (Does that first picture look a bit...gay?) I'll be the first to say this was barely a mountain--it took us about an hour and a half to reach one of the "peaks," and I probably could've done it in under an hour had I not waited for my roommate. It seems all those days of sleeping in until 3pm and being essentially bedridden finally caught up with him. Anyway, we got to the summit after some arduous climbing, then listened to some Chinese people scream as if they were being injured. For some reason, none of us Americans had any inclination to yell or scream. Must be a Chinese thing.

One thing that was obvious was the blatant disregard for the environment. It kind of spoils it when every rest stop has garbage scattered around. This difference was clearly evident when my roommate--I'm going to start calling him Hongbo, because that's his name and I think you all can handle it--and I took a quick rest on the way up to the "summit." He took out his tissue pack (yes, every Chinese person I've ever met carries one, to wipe sweat, use at restaurants, etc.) and offered me a tissue. At first I refused, but then he insisted. After using the tissue, naturally I stuck it in my pocket to wait until I found a trash can. He did what most other Chinese person would do, throw it right next to all the other trash scattered around. This wasn't that unfamiliar though--I deal with the garbage every day in the streets as I dance around it on my runs.

It's fundamentally recognized that developing countries (China) or 3rd world countries are going to have little concern for the environment--you're not going to take care of the environment until you can meet your basic needs. Thus, the "Green-Fever" hasn't quite caught on in China (not to say we're perfect in the US).

However, probably the most interesting part of this trip was the fantastic bathroom I actually used. If Moblie rated bathrooms like it does hotels, they would give this one a negative score. If you could get past the fact that you could see everything that had been deposited into the "hole" in the last month and the human feces smeared in various places, you'd probably be okay. But then, you still had to deal with the onslaught of buzzing flies, the revolting smell, and the fact that you had no toilet paper. This bathroom was so ridiculous that I just had to take a picture(s)...I've got more if you really want to see.

So, it was after this...interesting...all day trip that I returned home to find my computer licking its wounds. But now all that's taken care of, so you can sleep well again. I know you were worried.