
China is a land where cash only is key, I acted the fool by not taking a few extra minutes at Optics Valley Square station to get some money out, I called it a bad case of 'Wuhan Syndrome!' Typically I found that I couldn't find a bank that I usually use to withdraw money from that doesn't give me a hard time, this is China! I found Computown as directed once exiting from Guangbutun station's own Exit A but I needed that Chinese Yuan to make those purchases first! I was hungry like the wolf, as cheesy as that sounds I was! Stumbling upon Kengee, China's answer to Greggs I satisfied my hunger pans with a sausage bake of some sort, nothing like at Greggs in England but Kengee serves some lovely baked goods! Before getting to Kengee I stood still for one second, I had misjudged the length never-ending Luoyu Road as I was standing in Jiedaokou, with Maan Coffee just over the road! Chinese banks drive me mad sometimes, I tried to withdraw money first at a different bank but I failed!

Since living in China almost one year my grasp of the Chinese language is terrible, yes I can get by ordering food and for day to day greetings but asking for a new screen was going to be a whole new experience. It might sound like I was in a rage or a bad mood but I was surprisingly finding some amusement throughout this unplanned repair day, I had made it to another new part of Wuhan and was getting to grips with an insane electronic mecca. I must of asked twelve repair stores on two floors within the vast Computown to help me with replacing my broken phone screen but their response after calling for the glass was simply 'meiyou!' That dreaded Chinese word means 'to not have something' and I was getting more and more aggravated every-time that word was said to me, it got to the point where I knew their response before they had finished the inquiry. The current craze in China is to own an iPhone, an abundance Apple parts sat ready, no I wasn't prepared to wait!

Before I headed to the metro for the final time I saw a few African students enter the campus gates, I had heard that most Chinese universities lock the gates to the campus after 11pm each night?! That true fact became real for one of my friends who I was on a night out with a few months ago, he was going to spend the rest of the early hours of the morning in a internet cafe because his university had locked the gates, I let him sleep on my sofa as it was bitterly cold that night. I had no luck finding a solution to sort my smashed up phone, I looked at my experience that afternoon to believe it wasn't a complete waste of time. I'm going to buy a new handset from Shenzhen on Ebay as they are much cheaper than going in-store to buy a new phone. I'm not sure if I'll be returning to Computown in a hurry but never say never! Kengee satisfied my hunger pangs and I saw a random graduation photo opportunity! I can honestly what a random blog post this happened to be!
Don't Say Meiyou!
Joseph Harrison