i've passed by the same makeshift cavities inside the tiled walls of the east side of 赤峰路chifeng road six times today; some with pink lights and women with fake eyelashes cross-stitching in nightgowns strewn about languidly on lusty-colored ikea couches; others lightless until you cross the threshold of those with curdled blood tofu skin and a dash of pepper hair for good parsimonious taste; and more without electric light capabilities altogether, those of the nomadic tribe, lacking a edifice to hole in, instead hiding durians, pumelos and apples under a blanket, or books in between the partitions of a rectangle paneled bike cart. (the latter giving me a 400% foreigner price hike for the pirate-printed american heritage dictionary, of which i refused, and his pride refused, and nobody won.)

why? why three times today did i make the twenty minute trek in my blue plastic mary-janes that rub the inch below my outer-ankles to visit carrefour? dee first time i went to procure 'dem necessities like a buy-one-get-one free package of mint dental floss, jumbo-sized nail clippers that don't cost 10 cents USD or have steel that breaks in the middle of the lever, toothpaste that has illustrations on the package that signify "whiter teeth"--in my case a sparkling diamond--and an external hard drive. the second time i went to the carrefour i came bearing laptop and pleasant smile with AAA buddhist grade detachment. we tried both my purchased chinese brand external hard drive and a different one of the same make and model by a few computers with an unnervingly nonsensical and arbitrary sampling of responses. the third time i went to the chifeng road carrefour, i came donning bandages below my ankles, and grade C+ style detachment. i was able to get a return on the item, prided myself in being able to handle a return using chinese--i usually cannot do this in america in english--and left without an external hard drive.

moral of story. unknown chinese brand products usually are not quality tested.