Lame

There has been a slow pressure building over here. It is hard to believe we have been here as long as we have and now we are in the midst of finishing everything and trying to not be overwhelmed by the pressure of the boundless potential in this crazy city. So we have been getting stuff tailored like crazy, getting plane tickets ready (trying to buy tickets from airchina is about the craziest process in the world (in short- it involves taking a lot of pictures of things you write freehand)), and buying last minute electronic and DVD neccessities at awesome prices.


Sad story:

So earlier i reported about my handy camera started having CCD problems. Now in the US this would cost about $100 just to get someone to take a look at it to try to fix it.
Luckily I live in the city of ingenuity and took my camera over to a shop. They told me they could fix it and the entire cost would only be around 200 RMB ($30).  It would only take 3 days.

On this third day, though, I made my first successful telephone call entirely in Mandarin. It was great; I could understand everything including the part about how my camera was terminally ill. There was nothing I could do but pick it up.

I got to the camera shop and the man assured me once again that there was nothing he could do because he said there was water in it (which is odd for a supposedly waterproof camera). I was confused when he handed it to me though. The camera worked much better now. The blurriness was mostly gone, except for a tiny blurry area in a new section of the screen. The man apologized again and didn't make me pay anything. When I got the camera outside I noticed that the lens had this big blotch on the inside.

Apparently they must have fixed the CCD and then spilled something onto the lens. So I took the camera to this Electronics Carnival wonderland downtown to see if anyone could fix it. Indeed they could, and in 1 hour and less only 65 kuai ($9.50) I had my camera back up around 90 percent of perfect.

Then today I hopped on the bus after eating fun syrian food, but this jerk in front of me wouldn't go further than just inside the door. It was pouring outside, and everyone was shouting at him to go on. He quickly turned around and went back out to the bus station with his friend, and kitty and I made it in and out of the rain. Then the bus left. Now my camera is gone. So I did a really good job getting the camera fixed for that guy.

Lame.