Made in China

Products in China are very seasonal.  You can't buy ice cream in the wintertime, for example.  But the first time we noticed this phenomenon was when we first got to Huainan.  We always sleep with a fan in the room to drown out random outdoor noises but we couldn't bring one with us, of course.  So we set out to find a fan but could not find one anywhere.  All we could find were radiant heaters, which look just like fans but without the blades.  It was November, so apparently fan season was over.  We've made do, and I'm actually surprised at how easy it's been to sleep without one, but I attribute this success entirely to the comfortableness of our bed.  It's such a great mattress I want to have it shipped back home with us.  That probably won't happen, though.  Well now it's April and fans are back!  So we bought one today at the Carrefour.  We bought the cheapest standing fan we could find because we knew we wouldn't be taking it back with us ($23). 

We got it home and began the assembly.  The instructions had pictures, plus IT'S A FAN so why would we have any reason to believe this would be hard to put together?  Well, the concept wasn't hard, but there was a component on this fan that, according to the pictures and all logic, was supposed to unscrew and come off of the motor shaft so that you could put the blades on.  But it wasn't unscrewing.  It was as if it were glued on or something.  We used all our combined strength, I used pliers to keep the motor shaft from turning while Adam turned the thing to the left.  I suggested, "Maybe we should turn it to the right, maybe it's backwards here."  He just said, "...no."  I tried it anyways and had no luck.  Then we thought, maybe it's not a screw, maybe we just need to pull it off.  But alas, that didn't work, even when we tried hitting it with a hammer.  Adam was definitely on the verge of smashing something.  We took a break and I slowly translated the instructions using www.nciku.com which has this sweet feature that lets you draw characters and it'll translate them for you.  I confirmed that it was indeed supposed to unscrew so we tried again.  This time we put a little bit of cooking oil on it to see if that would loosen it up.  Adam had plier duty and I said, "It's turning, but it just feels like it's getting tighter."  So we switched and as Adam was turning it, I saw the end of the screw break through the plastic cap.  We WERE tightening it the whole time.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!  So here's the completed fan:

I'm glad we didn't have to resort to just listening to the motor run.  And now, because Smudgie waited patiently while Daddy yelled profanities for an hour, here are some pictures of him hanging out by one of his favorite places, the big curtain!