Since I have a lot of free time this week, I thought I would spend some time with Aaron, an American who works at Konall. His parents are in town, and he wanted me to get a chance to meet them, so we met in front of 联邦名都 (liánbāng míng dū) and ate at one of the restaurants across the street. Aaron’s parents are very down to earth nice people, and seemed to really be enjoying China.

After lunch, we hoped in a cab and headed to the outdoor market by bei guo so that they could do some shopping. They weren’t looking for anything in particular, but were quickly taken aback by some of the jade sculpture, some of the tea sets, and some of the different teas.

As I walked around the mall, I realized that I am becoming more and more Chinese. Every time I saw a shop that had nothing I was interested in buying, or would ever be interested in buying, I would randomly pick an item in the shop and ask how much it cost. I would then show my contempt at how expensive it was and start some heated negotiations, trying to get the merchant to lower the price. I would sometimes spend 15 minutes arguing with a salesman, only to walk away once he met my price. Now don’t get me wrong….this doesn’t show very much respect for the shop keepers or their time, but it is a distinct part of Chinese culture, and an excellent way for me to not only hone my bargaining skills, but also practice Chinese. The big win of the day was a huge hand carved piece of this special stone, that I ultimately got down to 1,000 RMB ($125 US) from 3,500 RMB ($437.50 US), including a new base. That took the merchant making a few phone calls, a separate man coming over, and 15 solid minutes of negotiating, but was well worth my satisfaction in both my negotiating and Chinese.

We spent about 3 hours shopping and drinking tea at various tea shops before finding a coffee shop to rest in. The coffee shop was typical for China – very expensive but very nice. Their ice cream was fantastic, as were their French fries. Ivy, the president of Konall, met us at the coffee shop. After a brief rest, we went to people’s park to wander around a bit.

Aaron’s parents took the obligatory picture in front of the Mao statue at the park’s entrance, and then we wandered around looking at the sculptures, kite flyers, musicians, top whippers, and singers strewn throughout the park. The place was jam packed with people due to the holiday. Aaron had wanted to show his parents the drummers that come out after dark, so we went to a nearby bar-b-que restaurant.

The weather was nice so we ate outside on stools. The 5 of us ate bar-b-qued 羊肉 (yáng ròu) (lamb) skewers, 馒头 (mán tou) (steamed bread), as well as several vegetable platters. The whole meal, including booze, cost 41RMB ($5.13 US) total, or about $1 US per person. Sometimes I really love China

It was really nice to spend a day with a group of people from America. I hadn’t spoken that much English in a LONG time, and loved finally being able to converse at my normal capacity for an extended period of time. The word gizard even managed to pop up at one point during the evening. Ahhh….how nice it can be to just be able to speak your own language to people who understand.

After dinner, we returned to the park to find that for some reason, there were no drummers. They must have also been on vacation. I rode my electric bike home, studied a bit, called my girlfriend 申琦 (shen qi) in 北京 (Beijing), and fell asleep watching a pirated DVD of Wall Street.

Just another day in paradise