I haven’t had a cell phone since the end of June (not counting the infamous one I used in Italy) and it’s been harder not to have one than I thought it would be, actually. The biggest downside was that my friends couldn’t get in touch with me whenever they wanted and I ended up sleeping through some important engagements. All in the name of saving money, was it worth it? Probably not, but that’s in the past. I won’t make the same mistake here in China.

The first day I got here, I made it a priority to get my cell phone connected. So I asked my Chinese friends that I had met so far where I can get one and without fail, all of them replied, “the cell phone shop!” Apparently, it’s a joke to reply that way whenever a foreigner asks you where to get something. Well, my old phone that I brought with didn’t want to work with the Chinese SIM card because I didn’t “unlock” it with my old service provider back in June. Hey, I couldn’t possibly remember everything on my to-do list, right?

All you people moving overseas, though, take note: it might just be smarter to get a cheap phone when you get over there. It fits in with the country’s cell technology, it uses the country’s native language, and it’s usually much much better and cheaper than any phone you’d get in America anyways. Which brings us to my new phone…

Noticeably small, my LG KP108 cell phone reeks of awesome. It may only fit in the palm of my hand but it adequately fills the hole in my heart. It has a full color screen. It sends txt messages with interchangeable English and Chinese. It seems to have over 4 days of battery life. It even has a Sudoku game for all those long bus rides!

And now I have somewhere to store all those phone number s that random Chinese girls keep giving me. Don’t worry, they probably just want to help with language study.

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*FYI, my Google Voice phone number still works to receive txt messages and voicemails through their website (google.com/voice), so feel free to txt me all you want at 763.515.2641 – it’s completely free! And please leave voicemails, they really make my day. It doesn’t ring anywhere so don’t worry about waking me up or anything, just call and talk!

**I’m still working on getting Facebook/Twitter/YouTube to work over here… I’ll reply to all of your messages (you know who you are) sooner or later! Until then, please rely on the above phone number or, as always, email me at daniel.konold@gmail.com