Pleasant Weekend and Wolves in ATM Clothing

Classes started a week ago, but my Classical Chinese class is pitifully easy. Each day we go over a short story, character by slow and painful character, for two hours and fifteen minutes of class time. I feel like I die a little bit inside every time in class, and the last half an hour is like pulling teeth. Okay maybe it’s not quite as bad as that, but it’s really slow, really easy, and I question the usefulness of the content. It’s required for the major however so I don’t really have an option to switch out of it anyway.

The easiness of the classes has at least permitted more free time. We are basically able to eat, drink, and be merry whenever. One easy thing to do here is take advantage of the not only the cheap beer, but also cheap bootleg DVDs.

Yes, 10 kuai DVDs. Sure, the default settings are set to Chinese, the packaging is questionable, they don’t play on some computers, and the menu titles are sometimes in Chinese, but it’s still sweet. For less than a buck and a half you have a movie that you would have paid 10x for in America. Also, movies that haven’t exactly been released yet on DVD such as X-Men Origins: Wolverine, or occasionally even movies that aren’t even out in theaters yet (The Dark Knight last year). Combine these all-region/region-free discs with a cheap DVD player and it’s quite nice. I’ve already seen Night At The Museum, Yes Man, Wolverine, and half of He’s Just Not That Into You. (I fell asleep halfway through, brought on by a case of overwhelming boredom.)

The sketchy/cheap part of China has its downsides however. As I noted last post, I took out 1500 yuan and went happily on my way. What I neglected to mention was that I tried two ATMs before the third one let me have my money. These first two were both on campus, and neither worked last year, however I decided to give them a try and see if they were back up. Sort of. The first one told me it was broken and I moved to the second. It seemed to be working okay, but when I put in the amount I wanted it told me that there was no money left and gave me back my card and I took a receipt. Normally, I am so very good at keeping receipts and other paper-trail items. I keep gas receipts for a week or so. However after I got my money from the third ATM, I returned to my room and the receipt was chucked in the trash. After all, the result was the exact same as last year, so I figured no problem.

A couple days later when doing a routine check on my bank account, I noticed there were two withdrawals, on the same day. One of these was for $148 from an ATM on Weijin Lu, which happens to be the street our campus is on. I immediately commenced a search for the receipt but the trash had already been taken out (it is done daily) and I was feeling quite royally screwed. After cursing a few times, I asked my bank (UW Credit Union) to dispute it and explained what happened. They responded that after the machine is audited which is done every week or so, the money in the machine may not add up with the withdrawals. So basically the fate of my $148 is in the hands of some sketchy-ass local bank official who is probably taking large chunks out of the dumb 老外 (laowai, a slightly derogatory term for foreigner literally meaning “old outsider”) who decide to use their ATM. My bank explained that it could be up to 45 days for an answer since it’s an international thing, but I’ve basically already written it off as a loss. In my account right now I see I have been reimbursed (minus a $1.50 fee but whatever) though I’m not sure if that is the credit I have been extended by my bank, or if I won this small battle. I’ll see if it goes away and then talk to my bank. Lessons can be expensive.

On Saturday we took a ridiculously easy test and were out of class by 9:00AM. The supposed afternoon classes to compensate for missing earlier never materialized, thankfully. After a small talk by a 警察 (jingcha, police) on the dangers of not respecting local customs and which bars not to go to, we settled in, watched movies and ate, then promptly went to one of the clubs we were warned against.

This is not some stupid rebellious move that is seeking trouble. The truth is that the program does not particularly want to be liable for what happens when a dumb American gets belligerent drunk in a night club, makes a pass at some Chinese guy’s girlfriend and gets punched up something fierce. And if one were to avoid all human contact, you could also avoid the same fate. But where’s the fun in that?

So the girls took a few hours to beautify, and I changed into a never-fail classic in China: my Say No To Scurvy shirt.woot.com shirt. This shirt has everything. First, it is awesome, even in America. Second, it has English on it that 特别少 (very few) Chinese people will be able to understand, which makes me look awesome. Thirdly, that ridiculous looking cutesy orange with a smiley face is completely in line with the rest of this country’s unhealthy obsession with things like Doraemon and 喜洋洋. So it’s a born winner basically. At the club we bought a bottle of whiskey, and my night ended up playing a lot of the totally awesome game of Liar’s Dice which involves way too much thought given it is a drinking game. Though I guess that provides extra incentive not to suck.

Coming back to the club, I was once again feeling a craving. For a massage. So a friend and I went to the massage place at 2:00AM or something and got foot massages. They are open 24 hours, as I loudly noted several times. There is very little that feels better than getting a foot massage while starting to nod off and still a little bit intoxicated.

And being as how it was a one-day weekend, that is basically it. Class has resumed and is still easy. My tutor and I usually read those Pleasant Goat books together, because they are just a little bit above my level so are a pretty good way to learn, and there is not much for her to tutor me on really. I think some of us are planning some travel this weekend, but I’m not at all sure where. Our Beijing trip will be coming up the weekend after that, and I should have a veritable cornucopia of pictures from that.

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