China, The Gear Guide, or "It's Geek to Me!""

Getting by in China when you are not a resident and when you are not staying in a Western style hotel is a little different. I have managed to pare my world down from what it is at home, and keep connected via electronics, but there are some key pieces of my equipment here. I'm sure you're fascinated, so here's what:

I brought my Canon Rebel Camera with its lens, an additional telephoto lens and a small HDD video camera. I usually carry the extra lens and the video camera in one case, and the camera itself with its default lens in another, and if I am out and about, I carry all of it in my stylin Little Sheep backpack. I have gotten pretty good at crouching somewhere in a corner next to a wall built during the Tang dynasty and switching lenses or cameras. My Chinese comrades at school are essentially goggle eyed at this stuff, which is no small thing since they are always so calm-faced and pleasant. It hit me today about how this gear alone is more than alot of people here make and I felt like an idiot, to tell the truth. I also have a card reader for my camera and if the kids need or want to upload pix,they could use it as well.

School lent me a MacBook, which has iPhoto and other applications on it. This has been great as it makes dealing with the website for the kids easy, and since I use a Mac platform at school, I feel comfortable enough. I also do all my emails and blogging on that.

The outlets in China are different than at home and some are different from one another. I use three different adapters in some combination to plug in the computer and charge up things like he cameras and battery chargers. I have a cell phone for emergencies that we got here in Xi'an. I had to shift the language to English. At least its charger doesn't require an adapter. The chargers don't always charge all the way up, but most of the time the electricity seems to work. It was rainy and dim today, so they even turned the lights on in the George Orwell Dining Hall, making it seem homier. I am not really phased by that place now. "A little of this please. And this. Is this Chicken?" Sometimes it all tastes like chicken.

I have a Chinese dictionary and phrasebook and a flashcards and a notebook I use just for Chinese. The characters in the dictionary are so small, I use a magnifying glass. I write down useful phrases in Characters, pinyin and English. "Is this the stop for the Taoist monastery?"

I had to buy an electric pot that boils water, a basin, a wet clothes hanger, cleaning cloths and soap, a teacup, chopsticks, a knife and two bowls. My taps do not have hot water and you cannot drink from them. So you boil the water for drinking, boil water for cleaning dishes and for cleaning clothes. To wash up, you boil the water, or use shower water, which has been consistently hot, however short in duration. I really miss a bathtub. There is no dryer here, and the "washer" is a machine that churns your clothes and cold water around. I have been doing hand laundry. I can take my jeans to the laundry around the corner, but they are really a dry cleaner. They will do other wash, but by the piece and at dry cleaning prices. My bicycle tours have revealed no laundromats. My kitchenette has a sink, a small fridge, and counter space; I put my food in there. Ramen and peanuts in a shell. Oh and Tea.

I have a TV, but guess what -- all the programs are in Chinese or dubbed in Chinese.

I brought the latest copy of Wired magazine, a Buddhist Magazine and The Economist ostensibly for the plane, but only recently have I been reading them. I have found some ideas for school assignments in them, plus it has been nice to have some English reading. I also brought Gao Xingjian's "One Man's Bible" which is OK, Anne Rice's "Out of Egypt" and a copy of the Tao Te Ching and the Art of War. I will not bring all of these back with me. I have several small notebooks and my journal which I bring everywhere.

That was pretty fascinating now wasn't it. My personal world is a little small here, I guess.