Buying a bike

I feel like a 16-year-old who just got his license. A bike equals freedom here in Chengdu and now I have freedom. But there is a story behind the adventure of purchasing one.

We had heard of a place across the river that sold a selection of used bikes. Myself and about 5 other friends made the journey asking for directions along the way, and also pointing to a piece of paper that had Chinese characters on it that none of knew the meaning of. I didn't want to pay more than 100RMB but everyone that had gone to this place before had paid at least 140RMB.

We finally found the place when Chambers crossed the street first and was instantly bombarded by people asking if we wanted bikes. The place was so sketchy. They led us down a dark alley that was very wet. They had many fish swimming around in large cement containers. Everything smelled so humid and also like a mixture between snake and fish that had died and were sitting out for too long. Many people were each trying to sell different bikes that were their's. It was obvious that all of these bikes were stolen. I almost stepped on a watersnake that was in a puddle. It really freaked me out and the local people just laughed at me. The people who lived down there were picking up the snakes and throwing into a big container so that they could eat them later. Ew. While I was bartering, I could smell the hot snake breath of the people. On the ground, There were remnants of dead rats. The tail was the most distinguishable thing from the pile of guts.

My Chinese was good enough to tell them that I wanted a bike for 100RMB. A man herded me toward a bike that looked ok. I checked it out and it seemed ok so I made the purchase. The next closest price that anyone got was 125RMB. After the purchase, I got the heck out of there. I didn't want to buy the locks that they were trying to sell because I figured that they could break into their own locks. Riding my bike back, I ran into some minor problems but nothing that couldn't be fixed. I bought a lock from a bike repairman and he also fixed my bike for only 10RMB. The locks that everyone else bought were 30RMB! HAHA.

Long story short. I have a bike that works now. So now I've been cruising around. But to this bike I had to go the sketchiest place I've ever been. It was so shady.

A little update on classes. I met my professor today. Gao Lashr. She is very nice and class seems like it will be fun. I'm taking an intensive language course which means Mondy to Friday 8:30AM to 12PM. We will go through a chapter a day. I'm really fortunate to have some background of the language. I'm excited to try to really get better at the language. Class starts next Monday, September 8.