It’s been a quiet three days here and I feel much better than I did on Wednesday. My symptoms now are just occasional headaches, some nasal congestion and shortness-of-breath (!) at climbing stairs. That last one is a bit surprising for me. It usually takes strenuous exercise to make me get out-of-breath, but not these past few days.

I have been hanging out in my room, taking occasional naps, reading and tidying-up the gradebook for my Intro Stats class back in Ithaca. And I have been eating the meals that they deliver to my door at 8:30 am, 12:30 pm and 5:30 pm. It feels very leisurely compared to my usual pace.

As for today’s topic, let’s cover another slice-of-life topic: grocery shopping. I made a brief foray to the grocery store today.

[An aside on COVID: I know that some of you are thinking, “WHAT?! You got COVID 5 days ago and you’re out in public?!” Yes, I wore a mask and socially distanced from the people I met. That is easily within the bounds of acceptable COVID behavior here. The Chinese are pretty chill with regards to COVID now. From the start of the pandemic up until last December, the government was very very strict and followed a zero-COVID policy, with severe restrictions and strict rules with regards to isolation and quarantine. Then, in December there were widespread protests and Xi Jinping (China’s president) did an about-face and basically eliminated all the restrictions. I was talking with a student about COVID and he said that when the COVID-policy was strict, he had to isolate at an off-campus hotel for 10 days, when there was a case of COVID in his home province which is 1300 miles away! The policy was that if you visited your home province and there was even 1 case of COVID there in the past two weeks, then you had to isolate for 10 days when you came back. Anyways, the current policy is that, well, there is no policy. If you feel ok, you can do as you wish. I think that if you test positive, you are supposed to stay away from other people, and that is what I have been doing. When you are feeling fine, you can go back to doing your usual activities. I don’t even know if there are masking suggestions or requirements, post-COVID. I started feeling symptoms last Monday, I tested positive on Wednesday and I plan to be back teaching, in-person, next Monday. Everyone here seems to think that’s a perfectly reasonable plan. ]

So, I walked to the grocery store. It’s called WuMart and it’s a 15-minute walk from my room, just beyond the north entrance to campus. I was in search of the two food items that I love and aren’t served regularly here: chocolate and peanut butter. I also needed boring things like paper towels and Kleenex.

It was a bit scary going grocery shopping the first time. Many of the packages are only labelled in Chinese, which is not particularly helpful to me. It felt quite intimidating until I discovered a most-amazing app… Google Translate. Suppose that I see a package of something and I have no idea what it is. I pull up Google Translate, click on Chinese -> English, then point my camera at whatever it is that I need to translate. I don’t even need to take a picture — just look at the item in the view finder and the Chinese is translated automatically. Like Magic. AI really. Below is a packet. It could be any number of things. An office supply product. A kitchen gadget. Or some kind of food product. Who knows? But using Google Translate, I can figure it out! Below on the left is what the item looks like on the viewfinder of my camera. And then on the right, it shows Google’s translation of the Chinese text. Just aim my camera at Chinese characters and voila, an English translation!

On this package you can see that it’s braised duck wings. From my experience with Chinese cuisine so far, I am going to guess here that they are not boneless. Maybe they are for gnawing. Or for consuming whole. Inquiring minds want to know.

Anyways, this Google Translation app is very useful. I have used it for other things too. I can type in English, and it makes a translation into Chinese. This could have saved me a pile of trouble last week at KFC.

I discovered today that paper towels come in square packets instead of round rolls, and they stock both both Tide laundry detergent and Skippy peanut butter. That’s useful information.

In the fruit and veggie section, I found deals on Asian pears, peas, cauliflower and dragon fruit. I love the look and name of dragon fruit! I have one in my fridge, but I am unsure how to prepare it. I’ll google it and see what they say. I’ll report back when I have more info.

This brings me to a discussion of the check-out and paying for things. In China everyone pays for everything with their phones. Literally everything. They use one of two apps: either WeChat or AliPay. They don’t use credit cards and they rarely use cash. I have been working with Marge over the past 10 days to get WeChat funded by my VISA credit card. Sources on the internet say that it’s possible, but there is no actual evidence of this. If you don’t have a Chinese phone number, then you can’t use WeChat. That seems very short-sighted on their part given that foreigners do come to China and do want to spend money, but WeChat doesn’t make it possible.

And why do I care so much? What is driving my desire for WeChat or AliPay? It’s not the buying of groceries. And it’s not the payment of pharmacy items. Or restaurant bills either…. I want to have the freedom to take the Metro and explore the city. And most importantly, I really want to ride a bicycle. There are bike share bikes everywhere. This campus has at least 200 of them. I haven’t been able to ride a bike in 10 days, and I am getting itchy with desire. I can rent a bike from right outside my building for $1 per hour. Yes, that’s right, super-cheap. Everyday I walk past hundreds and hundreds of bicycles that I am itching to ride, but can’t, because I don’t have the right payment system on my phone.

News flash from 5 minutes ago — I googled the spelling of AliPay and found this:

So according to the below release from AliPay, a foreigner can now attach their foreign bank card to AliPay and use this to make purchases in China.

So a solution to my payment issues may be in the works. I’ll have an update if it actually works out.

But I digress… I am at the check-out with my groceries and I absolutely know that I should be paying with WeChat or Alipay, but I can’t. So the clerk scans all my groceries and motions to the register with the amount I need to pay. She expects me to pull out my phone and pay. Instead, I pull out my wallet and reach for my cash — she rolls her eyes, furrows her brow and makes a snort, and says something in Chinese along the lines of, “Cash!? Jeepers, you can’t be serious. There are phone apps for this, you know. ” I don’t know Chinese, but I am sure that this is what she’s saying. I look at her apologetically and say something like “I know, I know. I am really trying hard to get one of those nifty apps, but it’s harder than you think. Maybe next time?” I pay her in cash, smile sheepishly and leave with my groceries.

As I travel back to campus, we come to the entrance gate. CAU is a gated campus. It’s not open to the public. There are three entrances to campus. Everyone entering has to have an official approval. Mine is a virtual form that I carry that indicates that I have official permission to enter because I am a official foreign visitor to the campus. I am much relieved that I don’t have to use the official Chinese method of entry — facial biometric scan. The camera scans your face and matches it in their database. That makes me shudder. I am glad to have been spared that.

I thought this would be a quick-and-easy blog entry on grocery shopping, but you heard so much more. I am obviously emerging well from my COVID fog.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes!