Wielki Mur

Plans are made. Plans are changed. I was going to take the bus to Hexi Village today and then find my way to the Great Wall from there, but yesterday I got a message from a Couchsurfer from Turkey, in Beijing on business, that had a personal driver taking him to the Wall and he offered for me to join. Yes! The driver spoke Chinese only, so there was some minor confusion about where we were going, but we sorted it all out and made it without too much drama. I ended up going back to Beijing in the car because hours of driving and hiking the wall sucked away any reserve of energy I had for finding that village. They were wonderful and took me back in rush hour traffic even though they didn’t have to go through Beijing to get home. So nice!

I had checked out of my Hostel in Beijing. I tried to go back and get a bed for tonight and they were booked. (Sad face. It’s a really awesome hostel. $7.50 a night!) They sent me down the road to another spot but I didn’t want to walk that far, so I took the recommendation of a girl and went to her hostel. All day I have been fantasizing about a private room but I couldn’t bring myself to do it ($20!) so I asked to be put in an 8 person dorm room. The front desk lady showed me to the room and the first thing that happened when I set my bag down was a new-born baby started crying. What? I thought someone was playing a game on their computer or something and I looked at one of the girls in the room and she looked at me like “You’re not crazy, there’s a baby in this eight person dorm room with us.” Oh Fuck.
I complain about shit all the time, but usually just to my friends. When it comes to customer service I try not to get too mouthy, because I get it. Working sucks. Jobs suck. Everyone has the rules they have to follow and things mainly are they way they are due to stuff that no one on the lower end of things can control, so I usually just suck it up, but after I saw that there was only one shower, the place was kind of a dump and more expensive than the last, and there was an unhappy baby in my room, I decided to ask for a refund. I sort of thought they might not give it to me. The front desk lady came the closest to shouting that I’ve heard any Chinese person come, but she handed over the cash and I got the hell out of there.

I walked to the other spot and asked to see the room. I was a bit scared now. The guy didn’t like that request at all and told me the room was like all the others and I could hit the road and look for another place. I couldn’t believe I was having my second argument in China within five minutes of the first one. I told him I’d take it and he gave me an unnecessary stare down, then charged me for the room. Once I got to the room, guess what? Empty!! It’s just me and six beds in here! Woopty WooT! Then I went down to the cafe to use the internet and it was as big a pile of donkey dooky as the last place, like dial-up. (Spoiled American whining here.) When I came back from dinner I plugged in all my stuff for charging only to find that I have this hella fast internet connection in my room! Yow! You’re only suppose to get wifi in the common areas. I don’t know how it happened. I’m going to tell you something, but you can’t tell anyone: I believe in magic.

I went and bought dinner and some groceries, this is what I got:
 
- Braised pork and rice for dinner

- A tall beer

- A huge bottle of water

- Two bananas

- One apple

- A package of cookies

- A three pack of apple fritters

Guess how much all that costs including the dinner?…? Hmm…?

FOURDOLLARSANDFIFTEENCENTS!!!!!!!!

It’s amazing really.

The other day I saw a guy sitting on a curb with a bowl of rice and some chopsticks. He had his lower lip resting on the rim of the bowl and was bulldozing rice in with his chopsticks, like not even stopping to chew. That’s what I’m doing right now. In my empty / babyless / internet hotspot dorm room, yo. Magic.