A Lost Friend

A Lost Friend

I think one of the most terrible things is losing a friend. Unfortunately, I experienced it when I came to Chicago. The loss of Ali-pay was like the loss of my friend. Ali-pay is one of the most popular applications, and in China and it played an important role in my life. Ali-pay is a convenient app for payment. When I began to pay something by myself Ali-pay was the first choice of my payment method because I could do nearly everything with it. When making payment, I only show my QR code or scan the merchant QR code. It is safe, simple and convenient. This payment method is very suitable to people like me who always forget to carry a wallet. However, after I came to Chicago, I recognized Ali-pay doesn’t exist, and it means I lost my first choice of payment method. Though I can buy things by cash or card, I had gotten used to paying by Ali-pay and it is difficult for me to get use to paying by traditional payment methods.

People will never know what a great helper Ali-pay is if they did not use it  before. It has a lot of wonderful functions that cover nearly every aspect of Chinese daily life. We can use it to order pickup, book train tickets, air plane and movie and book hotels. Renting Shared-bikes is also included. In China, nearly everyone knows how to use it. Someone said that Ali-pay plays a more important part in Chinese daily life than cash, and most Chinese people cannot live without Ali-pay, especially the youth who have witnessed the development of Ali-pay. If someone had not been to China in the past three years, they would never know how humorous the influence of Ali-pay has been. Even when people go to a sidewalk snack booth, they can pay by Ali-pay. The shocking thing is that when people pay by cash in the street, it is not easy for them to get change because the stores don’t have enough cash to give them back except the change from Ali-pay. Though the United State has Apple Pay and Google Pay which is similar to Ali-pay, I still feel lost due to using limitations. I can’t use Apple pay nearly every place I go and it can’t cover most of my demands.

When I lost Ali-pay in Chicago and I knew I just can use card and cash most time , I felt lost with the environment here. Using cash is not a big problem because it is also a common payment method in China. However, paying by card is not very usual for the Chinese youth like me who typically don’t spend much. In Chicago, we can pay anything by card and it is the most common payment method. Compared to Chicago, Chinese people tend to pay by card when they have a big purchase. What’s more, it takes a long time to receive a new card and sometimes, the card may be sent to a wrong place. Another reason I felt lost is that I couldn’t find another method to pay when I forget to carry my wallet. This situation made me embarrassed. Nowadays, cell phones are always by our sides. If the cell phone is combined with the payment method and this function plays widely, most people’s lives will be more convenient.

The loss of Ali-pay not only caused me to feel lost with Chicago but also made me became afraid to be lost with my own country. Many days ago, one of my friends who have lived in Chicago for so many years asked me how to use Ali-pay. She said all her Chinese friends know how to use it. This situation make her felt lost with China and her friends. At that time, I began to get scared. Though I feel lost with Chicago now, maybe someday I will feel lost with my own country. At present, I have nostalgia due to what I have lost, and the loss not only is the Ali-pay, the translation in Chicago, but also the connection between my country and me.

Ali-pay played an important role in my life. It is safe, convenient and simple. The existence of it likes a friend. It helped me whenever I needed help. However, I lost my friend in Chicago. The loss made my nostalgia stronger and make it more difficult for me to adapt to Chicago life. I am not going to do the comment on the differences between the payment methods in different countries or evaluate one is worse than the other. In my view, every country has its own great aspects. What makes me feel lost is the thing that grew up with me and played a great part in my life that already lost. I hope I can get used to paying for my daily necessities without Ali-pay, and Apple Pay can develop more maturely one day.