I spent the last few days in Xian, the capital of seven ancient Chinese dynasties. It was interesting to see 2000 year old monuments surrounded by pollution. I posted some pictures from the trip.
On the lighter side, my roommate has become my best friend in China, and we had some great moments in Xian. He loves politics and history, and is brilliant when it comes to book smarts. However, him and I could both use some more common sense.
On Saturday night I was so tired that I collapsed as soon as we got back to the room. I woke up around 2 in the morning and found my roommate watching HBO and drinking a Budweiser. All the lights were on and he had a bottle of Jack Daniel’s on his nightstand. My roommate is from the countryside and doesn’t spend a lot on food and clothes. He wont even go out in Beijing because its too expensive. You can imagine my surprise when I saw him with a Budweiser and Jack Daniels.
I asked him where he bought the alcohol. He told me that we got it as a gift. I wondered who was giving out expensive American whisky as gifts. My roommate then told me that our light couldn’t turn off and that he wasnt able to fall asleep. I was exhausted, and without paying much attention to the situation thought that we should call the lobby. We had someone sent up immediately. While we were waiting, my roommate went to the minibar to get something to drink. I told him that the minibar is not free and actually very expensive. He was still convinced that the drinks were free because they were placed in our room. Once the guy arrived to fix our light, we realized that all we had to do was turn the light off using the electronic keyboard next to our beds. My roommate then asked the man if the drinks were complimentary.
The man from the hotel thought that we were two dummies who need to get out more.
Maybe knowledge of modern products should be a measure of economic development. You could look at the percentage of a country’s population that know about Hotel Minibars, wireless internet, Google/Microsoft, etc.
