3--The First Week of August

By the afternoon of July 30th I was feeling better, but was taking it easy. Dick had gone to the grocery store to buy some crackers and he came back with a bag of little packages that each had two rice crackers in them. They were coated on one side with a little white icing and that was just what the doctor ordered. I kept my diet simple for the next day or so. I think we were subject to the third stage of culture shock, although not in its regular form. We were both having difficulty coping with the fact that we weren't hearing from our families as much as we would have liked and were not able to get hold of them by phone; we were not in good spirits that day. It was probably the most frustrating day we spent.

The following morning we decided it was time to try the phone again. We had tried a couple of times before to phone out, but would get a message in Chinese or it would give a busy signal. It was quite frustrating, to say the least. Of course the same thing happened on this day. Not only that, but we couldn't get online and the power kept going off intermittently all day.

So we decided to get on the bikes and go to town. Dick had to find a new part for his bike because when the seat was raised, the little tube that holds it had bent. It was too short to be raised up as high as he had, and the pressure of the locknut combined with his weight on the seat had twisted the poor little thing. It was kind of funny watching him ride it with the seat over the back wheel, but I guess it wasn't very comfortable.

We rode down main street looking for a vendor that might sell bicycle parts, but none of them appeared to have the item we were looking for. Then I noticed a bicylcle shop with brand new bikes lined up outside. Dick went inside as I held on to his bike. The lady came outside and we pointed to the bent tube under his seat and she knew immediately what he needed.

Dick accompanied her back inside and she dug through a box in the back of the store. She came out with a new (much longer) stem and a wrench. Then, after she removed the seat and was ready to replace the tube, she asked her son to bring another tool which turned out to be a rubber mallet. She installed the new part and made sure the seat was at the right height for Dick. All of this service and it only cost us 3 Yuan, that's about 60 cents Canadian, eh!

Then we decided to ride through one of the side streets where we had always seen a market. We ended up walking our bikes through the market and looking at all the food on display. There was the usual meats and vegetables, fruits and nuts, but also bakery items (we bought some cookies with sunflower seeds that taste pretty similar to peanut butter cookies without the salt) and flours, spices and all kinds of food items. It was quite an education. We couldn't always identify the things we were looking at, but most of it was familiar enough. By the end of the market we had bought a pineapple and peanuts.

Then, back on main street, we decided to buy a bucket and a dustmop and a new bottle of "disinfectant", the closest thing I have found to floor cleaner. It has bleach in it, you can smell that. Then on the way back to the apartment, we realized that we needed eggs. So we stopped at the vendor accross the street and asked for some eggs. We started out wanting a dozen, but they sell them by weight here. Everyone was a little confused, because we ended up with an odd amount, both in number and by weight, but we all managed.

It was now time to get home, 'cause we had spent way too much time in the severe heat. Back at the apartment, I was ever so glad that one of the neighbour ladies spotted us and came to help me carry my bike up the stairs. I don't think I could have made it myself.

The next day marked a new month, August. It looked a lot more promising than the last couple of days. The internet was back up and I was able to check my bank accounts.
We stayed at home because of the heat but, later in the day, Mr. Zhang came over. He said he had tried to call us but there was no answer. That's when we realized that the phone number had been changed, but no one had bothered to tell us what the new number was. We had been told a couple of days before that they were thinking of doing it due to the amount of "wrong number" calls we were getting.

Mr. Zhang was bringing Dick a couple of maps (well, photocopies), one of the county and one of the area of Binzhou City. He told us that he happened to be in the printshop and had seen these maps on the wall. Since they couldn't sell him originals, he asked for photocopies and they obliged. By now the local people are quite aware of Dick's passion for maps. Later, we got an email from David with a mention about Mapquest. That made Dick a happy camper because for some reason he had forgotten about that site and it would help him find all the info he had been looking for.

The following day it was hot again, so we stayed home. Unlike most days in the heat, I managed to muster up some energy to clean floors, which was needed quite badly. Vacuum cleaners don't seem to exist around here, so it's back to basics, a mop, broom and dustpan. Then the wetmop. It's all quite exhausting, you know. It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it.

Then Alisa came over and she had another little item from Mr. Liu, a cell phone. We figured out how to charge it, but the instructions were all in Chinese and so we weren't quite sure how to program it. Dick has since gotten onto the Siemen's website and has made contact with them. They are supposed to be sending English instructions, but as yet we haven't received them.

That evening we decided to go out for noodles at the street vendor downtown. Alisa had taken us there about a week prior and told us what would be a reasonable price: 1 Yuan for a small bowl of noodles and 3 meatsticks for 1 Yuan. The guy who cooks the mutton on a stick was glad to see us and he and Dick did some fancy sign language. We wanted just six of his tasty shishkabobs and then ordered two small bowls of noodles from the same lady that Alisa had bought them from.

We sat down on the tiny little stools at the tiny little tables (not good on the knees, you know) and the noodles came in just a few minutes. Then our meat on a stick guy filled a couple of plastic cups with beer, and of course it had to be filled right to the top. They were going to look after us properly! Then he brought the meat, but there was a ton of the little treasures. Dick let him know that there were too many by repeating "no, no" and we ended up taking 9 of them and motioned for him to take the rest away.

We're still not sure how they order stuff here, but it seems that you either use the weight measure, which is half a kilo, or you order by how much you want to spend, or maybe by the number of items! I think. It's all a mystery at this time.

We took some pictures of the scene downtown and then got back on our bikes to head back home. I had wanted to buy some hairclips so I made Dick stop at one of the vendors where I had seen them. I picked out four of them and then we decided to go to the grocery store. We split the groceries up between our bike baskets and then I put my purse on top, like I always do, and wrapped the strap around the handle bars. We proceeded on our way home.

Once we turn off the main roads, there are only two roads, well alleys really, that we can take to get to our apartment. Both are equally dark, and we knew the one turnoff better, so we took it. For quite a while there was some light from the motorcycle behind us, and I mentioned that it was kind of nice having our way lighted. But then the motorcycle started to pass me, and I kept to the right. Dick was ahead of me and on the left side of the street.

All of a sudden an arm reached into my bike basket and grabbed my purse. I reacted by grabbing the strap and pulling (and calling the guy a jerk), but the strap broke off the purse. It took a few moments to realize what had just happened, and then I called out to Dick and told him the guy stole my purse. Dick started yelling "Thief, thief" and then we both started yelling "help, help". I don't know why we thought that would get a reaction from anyone, because this was a quiet alleyway and it seemed the locals were safely tucked in bed. Not only that, they wouldn't know what we were saying either.

We watched the guy ride in front of us to the corner and then turn right. We continued riding in the dark to our turn, which is left, but only after looking long and hard to the right. Nothing! So we went to the gate of our apartment building and once on the grounds we stopped for a minute. I cried briefly and then we continued on home. Dick tried to call from his cell phone but couldn't figure it out. I then told him that the regular phone would be cheaper anyway.

We called Alisa right away to let her know, but she didn't understand what Dick was saying. It is difficult at the best of times for him to simple down his language, and being under stress didn't help much. She asked to speak to me and I told her my purse had been stolen. She knew enough to come right over, so in less than 10 minutes there was the familiar ringing of our doorbell.

She and another teacher, a man, had come to find out what the problem was. We told them and I showed them the strap of my purse. We had already started a list of items that were in the purse, most of which were of no use to the guy. The only cash I had in it was 100 Yuan (about $20.00 Cdn) and my credit cards. Other than that, there were things like a dictionary, the hairclips I had just bought, keys, and other miscellaneous stuff. I had forgotten about my glasses, which I still don't have replaced. (It is so hot here, that when I ride my bike I take them off).

Alisa was a little relieved that it was just the purse that was gone; she originally thought the apartment had been robbed. But of course the situation prompted a call to Mr. Liu and he came over. Everyone was very concerned about our safety, but we were physically just fine. Even emotionally we were OK because there wasn't any major damage. The guy was a jerk, no doubt, but I wasn't going to lose sleep over him.

Mr. Liu contacted the police for me and then asked if we wanted them to come over tonight. I though about it for a moment, and decided that a Chinese man on a motorcycle was hard enough to identify in the day, never mind in the dark. The chances of them finding this guy was literally one in a million.

At first it was decided that we would go to the school to meet the police at 8:00 in the morning. But, after Mr. Liu thought about it, he realized that this would draw unfavourable attention to the school, having the police there, so it was decided that Alisa would go to the policestation in the morning. She took our passports and the pursestrap with her, as well as my list of missing items, and then they all left after apologizing profusely.

They had told us that this type of crime is very rare around here, and we agreed. We told them that we felt very safe here, and this guy was just a bad apple. That phrase got Alisa asking questions -- she picks up a lot of idioms we use and then asks us about the meaning. Smart cookie!

Before they left, we decided to try the safety lock on the door. If the door handle is pushed in on the inside, you can't use your key on the outside. Being suspicious North Americans we had to make sure, after all the guy had my key and might have been watching us for days, for all we knew. Mr. Liu decided that he would tell the gatekeeper to not let anyone in that he didn't recognize.

After they all left I got on the internet to cancel my credit cards. There were 1-800 numbers on both sites, so I tried them, but again the phone wasn't cooperating. I decided that the guy wouldn't be able to use my cards anyway. This town is a cash only town, and even if he went to the big city, a Chinese man would not have a North American credit card and would certainly be questioned. I'd worry about it tomorrow. We went to bed and slept just fine. In the morning, I emailed Visa and Mastercard about the stolen cards, letting them know of my difficulty with the phone.

About 10 o'clock Alisa showed up with two plain clothes policemen. They needed to ask some questions -- I had to give them the typical details and it was all written down in Chinese characters, by hand, and very quickly, I might add. Then I had to sign the statement and Alisa witnessed it. Then they brought out a round red inkpad and I had to put my right index fingerprint over a number of places on the document. So did Alisa. This is their way of insuring that you have actually seen this document. Quite ingenious!. The first time I've been fingerprinted, and it was as a victim.

They then assured me that they would do everything they could to catch the guy, but it would take time of course. I have a feeling they might have a suspect who has been doing the same thing around here for a while. But I'm not holding my breath on getting the stuff back. After all, how do you pick out a Chinese guy with black hair on a motorcycle at night in this place?

In the morning we tried to call home on the cell phone. Still no good. Pretty frustrating to have all this modern technology and you can't even make a phonecall. So we called Alisa and told her we wanted to go to the bank and cash the remainder of our traveller's cheques and also go to the phone company to get some help on using the cell phone for overseas calls. When she showed up, she had money for us, an advance, as well as a couple of 5 digit codes that we needed to call out of the area. One was for the regular phone and the other for the cell phone.

Dick had to sign and fingerprint the receipt for the cash and then decided to call home. He got through almost immediately and broke down in tears at the sound of his daughter's voice. It had been something we needed to do for so long and finally we were able to. It's so strange that something so simple as a numeric code can keep you from doing a task that at home is a no-brainer.

We decided we had to buy Alisa lunch, for bringing us such relief, so we went to the only western restaurant in town. She wasn't quite sure where it was, but after asking some directions we found it. We had been there once before with Mr. Liu and Mr. Zhang. It's a burger joint that also serves Chinese food, but when it's the only choice of western food, you have to go with it. We ordered cheeseburger meals, but you don't get a choice of softdrinks -- you get cola. She liked the burger and decided that she would bring her boyfriend, Dennis, here sometime.

After lunch, we went to the department store to buy a tea set and some glasses, things we had wanted to get for some time, but didn't know what the going rates would be. It is better to have someone with you who speaks the language and can barter on your behalf. She always makes sure we get the best product and pay the best price.

That evening I phoned Connie and was also relieved to hear her voice. After such a bad experience as the purse snatching, it was a relief to have a really good day. It's all in your attitude, of course, but sometimes you do get dragged down.

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