Voltage

I went to buy a voltage adapter today. Something I should have done 4 months ago. I sauntered over to the massive 'electric things' mall and descended into the basement. The floors above ground are fairly orderly, filled with litte stalls selling every sort of flash drive, mp3 player, dvd player and mouse you could ever imagine. Some name brands, some chinese brands, and lots of fakes. The basement is another world. Packed with the same little stalls, but each full of computer related hardware and pirated dvds. Stacks of scraped towers and printers fill the corners and aisles are packed with people searching for their favorite movie or lugging in some beast of 90's 'electric thing' needing repair.

I found my voltage converter without much fuss. Got home plugged it in, heard a strange buzzing noise immediately followed by a pop and no more buzzing noise. I quickly unplugged the very hot slightly smoking converter only to discover I had bought a 110-220 converter...not the required 220-110. Consequently china's 220 fried it. About that time my roommate came in and i told him the story. He recommended I immediately return to the store and explain that they have given me the 110-220 by mistake, and I had wanted the 220-110. The idea of trading in a fried adapter doesnt settle well with me, but hey, do as the locals do. I asked another guy on my way out and he said exactly the same thing.

At the store I repeated the magic little phrase..you gave me the wrong one, can you switch it? They took it to the back and then opened the little box it came in and began to smell it and pass it around to the other 4 superfluous employees for them to smell. This went on for a bit too long and I thought I was going to be caught in my life. Honestly the little thing smelled strongly of burnt electronics. While one guy was still smelling the thing, one employ came out and handed me the correct 220-110 and I was off.