Waking Up in a New Country

April 3, 2016

I had a rough night sleeping. I had a nose bleed due to the dry air and then 2 and a half hours later had severe leg cramps that lasted for about half an hour. I decided to get out of bed at 5:30 AM and start putting things away.

At this point, I plugged in one of the outlet converters that I had brought with me in the bedroom and as I plugged another one into the living room, the power bar sparked and smoke started to come out. The power for the whole apartment failed! Eventually, I found the circuit breaker and tried to reset the breakers but nothing happened. So on my second day in China, I contemplated having no power until Tuesday when I could get a repairman (remember, I don't speak the language and I didn't know who to even call). I was thinking my legacy for my adventure was going to be something like "How I burnt down my apartment on my second day!” Funny, right?

Luckily, I was able to access the main circuit breaker for my apartment from the hallway and I got everything going again. I am glad I didn't Bar B Que anyone else out of their apartment by mistake, as I was deciphering the electrical panel in Chinese. However, I still didn't want to plug in any of my electronics since I didn't want to risk burning them out.

In the meantime, I am still smelling smoke and I found that the power bar that I had plugged in the bedroom was "blackened" and had obviously burnt out as well. I have limited power for my iPad and phone since I had brought portable chargers with me. We will see if this will last until Tuesday. I am off to go shopping for some other power converters and apartment items.

I went to the shopping district by Tiananmen Square via the subway. I was surprised I got there without getting lost as the maps were in Chinese and the people in the customer service booths spoke no English. I ate lunch at Sizzler's which I trusted had a good salad bar.

Figure 1 Organic snacks anyone?

Afterwards, I went through the market place which was really crowded. They had the usual scorpions and starfish on a stick. With all of the food they cook, I don't know if all of it gets eaten or how they make any money doing it.

I took another walk in the evening and saw a number of people lighting small fires on the sidewalks and especially around the corners of intersections. They were apparently praying and burning offerings to their ancestors. Now every so often, you will see round piles of ashes.

(I later realized that it was a long weekend and a National holiday - Tomb Sweeping Day). I found a department store nearby that I will go to tomorrow.