Fly-unders

Sorry for the picture quality. This is an underpass. It's used in this city to allow traffic to avoid a busy intersection. Imagine the First Ave. and Collins Road intersection (the busiest in CR). If the First Avenue traffic were allowed to simply drive underneath the intersection there'd be few traffic jams. I love the fly-unders. I live 15 miles from the heart of downtown but thanks to the fly-unders I can make it there in 20 minutes. I can get to the opposite end of the city in less than 30.

Air conditioning

One of the better ideas here is separate air conditioners per room. It makes it easy to leave the unused rooms hot.

I particularly like the individual remotes in each room.

Nothing adds to laziness like being able to lay on the couch with TV, cable, and air conditioning remotes.

Chopped onion

I love chopping up red onions, sauteeing them and adding them to about anything. The problem is that the red onions here are tiny. It takes 3-4 to get as much as one onion back home. Fortunately, the problem is solved: A store here sells half a pound of finely diced red onions for $.75.

Cell phone contracts

You probably have a cell phone with a contract.  You pay a set amount each month and if you go over in minutes or text messages you pay through nose.

Here, virtually everyone uses pay-as-you-go.  You buy a phone and a sim card(what gives you a phone number and connects you to the network).  You'll pay more for the phone.  There are no "free" phones like you can get with contracts in the US.  But we Americans know there is nothing really free.  We pay for that phone over and over during our two year contracts.  

When you get a new phone in the US you have to contact the service and they set it up for you.  Here you simply take out your sim card and put it in your new phone.  

In talking to colleauges it appears the US is the anamoly in how cell phones are used.  Most countries have pay-as-you-go and sim cards that can be transferred from one phone to another. 

And nobody can believe that US companies charge for incoming calls or incoming text messages.  More than once I've heard, "Let me get this straight.  The person making the call gets charged AND the person receiving the call gets charged?"  It's astonishment and disbelief that we let them get away with that.

Why don't we use pay-as-you-go?   I think there are two reasons:  1.  The pay-go phones suck.  I've looked at getting one for Ann while she was back and the phones are vintage 2001.  2.  The price per minute is outrageous.  I saw phones with 10 cent per minute fees.  This isn't the 1990's.  Noboby pays 10 cents per minute anymore.

I am glad to read that the times are changing.  Pay-go phones have improved and apparently they now have some reasonably priced plans.   I will probably switch to this when I return.  Right now I'm paying Sprint $30/month for a phone I'm not using and a contract that is up in July.

How much cheaper is pay-as-you-go here?  I use the phone only slightly less here and I've spent $80 over six months.  Yep, it's a lot cheaper. 

Good ideas

Over the course of the blog I want to show things that I like better here. First up, shopping carts.
The carts take a quarter to unlock in the mall. To get your quarter back you have to return it to the corral and hook it to the cart in front of you. This way all the carts are properly returned. (This is also the reason that poor laborers spend their one day off in the mall parking lot... hoping to take the cart back for the quarter.)
Also, the carts have all four wheels that can go in any direction. That's much better than our front wheel drive shopping carts!

Many escalators are more like moving walkways you see in major airports. The wheels on the shopping carts fit into the grooves of the escalator and act as a brake. Whether I have a cart or not I really like the walkway type of escalator more than the step type in America.
*****
I took this picture quickly. Shortly after arriving I found the mall interesting and began taking pictures. Let's just say that I quickly realized I was breaking rules and left before I was escorted out.