Chapter 3: The Boring Stuff

September 29, 1999

Now, today is boring day. We have to get a bank account, health insurance, computer tutorial at the campus... I spent most of the day in waiting rooms, or listening to a guy trying to explain in English how to send emails with Next.

The fun thing is, this is the first day I took the monorail. Pretty impressive. It's more comfortable than the metro and it has air conditioning inside. However, it is very SLOW. Cut the metro speed in two (maybe even three), that's the monorail speed. The monorail runs both outside and in tunnels, mostly in the open air though. Other funny fact: you pay an amount proportional to the distance you're going. However, if you miss the station, you can go back the way you came, no problem. So, you have to check where you want to go to get the price of the ticket and pay your ticket in a machine located at the entrance. You then put in your ticket in the slot at the gate (the gate is actually nothig, you just keep walking, there's no door. I think it's some kind of hidden detector...), it comes through with a hole in it, you ride to your destination, and then you put it back in the slot at the exit. The machine keeps your ticket, so I'll never be able to show you what it looks like :(. Anyways, don't ask me how this system works, and what happens if you don't pay enough or if you don't give your ticket back when you exit, because I won't try it and I've never seen anyone try either.

Chapter 4