The Inconvenience of Convenience

I mentioned in previous posts that I had bought a bicycle as one of my first orders of business upon setting foot in Shenzhen. When I purchased the bike, I did so with the help of Charlie (my contact teacher at my school) and Anson (the contact teacher at Caitlin's school). Anson had recently purchased at least two bikes from this particular shop. I felt secure in the transaction--having two locals who could also operate as translators, arbiters of quality, and testifiers to the shop's trustworthiness--and have since realized that that may have been a false sense of security.

Within three days of buying my brand new blue bike, I exerted a little too much force when hauling up a hill to make a lunch date. Consequently, the rubber pedals both broke. I MacGyver-ed the pedals to the bike using cardboard and duct tape; I realized, however, that this was only temporary.