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The World of Credit Cards

July 25th, 2011 by Manda | 10 Comments | Filed in Life

I was approved for a credit card at the bank today. This is clearly a sign I am Moving Up and Becoming a Real Adult as I’ve only ever had a debit card before. While I don’t have my actual card yet (it takes 2-3 weeks for my card to be sent to me) I do have a credit account now, with a line of credit from my bank and everything. Isn’t that scary?

As a rising college senior, it might seem like I’m a little late to the credit card game. In a way, I am; to my knowledge I have a non-existent credit rating. I’ve never had a credit card, how could I have a credit score? But the truth is, I’ve always been a little terrified of credit cards. Tons of people, especially in my age demographic, have more credit card debt than they know how to deal with. Of course I know the basics of avoiding credit card debt (which all basically boil down to don’t spend money you don’t have) but the fact that the terms “credit card” and “credit card debt” are almost always used in the same sentence in every news report about credit kind of scares me.

I don’t plan on making any flashy purchases with my new credit card, nor do I plan on spending money I don’t have with it, line of credit or no. What I do plan on using it for is to build my credit. Which leads me to an all-important question: anyone have any credit-building tips?

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The Tip of the Reverse Culture Shock Iceberg

July 16th, 2011 by Manda | 4 Comments | Filed in Life, Travel

I never noticed how dependent the US is on the concept of customer service until I came back from China.

Take my first two days back in the US, for example. My first night, my friend and I went out to dinner at a place that served all-American food. (The sandwiches were delicious. I think part of the reason why I loved mine so much was because there was so much cheese on it!) While we were there, neither of us had to shout “服务员！” to get our waitress’ attention. All we had to do was make eye contact and… bam! She would appear at our table. Hell, sometimes she would come over and ask us how we were doing without being prompted to come over. It was like magic. Not to mention totally unheard of in China.

My second day in the US, my friend and I went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. The portion sizes! I’ve always thought the Cheesecake Factory served massive portions, but after a year of eating smaller portion sizes I was completely wowed by the hugeness of my chicken piccata. (I was very hungry though, so I managed to eat a lot more of my food than I thought I would. That’s something, I guess.) This waitress, like the one from the night before, kept coming to our table and asking us how we were, how the food was, etc. At one point I was getting rather annoyed with her attentiveness; I just wanted to be left with my friend and my food in peace! I’ve grown so unaccustomed to any form of attention or care from wait staff while dining out that it was alien to have this helicopter waitress hovering over me. I was also quite sad to part with the money required for a 20% tip when it came time to pay the bill; I’d forgotten about tipping.

Another weird thing is toilets. For one, squatters are pretty much non-existent in the US. I’m neither here nor there on this, as I can take or leave a squat toilet. But what I can’t get over is how there are toilet paper dispensers in each stall! Not only that, BUT THERE IS ACTUALLY TOILET PAPER IN THE DISPENSER! Most toilets in China don’t even have a dispenser for toilet paper. That might seem strange, but when there’s never going to be toilet paper in said toilet dispenser, it seems a bit useless to have the dispenser.

…never in my life would I have imagined I’d devote an entire paragraph to the topic of toilet paper in a blog entry.

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Jet Lag and Other Things

July 15th, 2011 by Manda | 5 Comments | Filed in Life

I feel like I am the only person in the US who did not go to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter last night, but I don’t even mind because I know that if I had gone I would have just passed out from jet lag while waiting in line before the movie even started. I hope the movie is good though, because I do have plans to see it in the coming week.

Having said that, I almost am recovered from jet lag. Which is nice, because I am not even close to recovering from the reverse culture shock. One thing after another, I guess. Although, weird as it is to not be in China anymore, it is good to be home. I’ve seen my best friend, I’ve gone to Chipotle, and I’ve watched the Food Network. Maybe today I’ll even bake something.

I miss China terribly already, as I knew I would. It’s not that I feel a part of me is missing; it’s that I feel there is a huge part of me friends and family won’t (possibly ever) be able to 100% understand.

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