Saturday adventures with the RMB

Today was my first day off that felt like a day off in China. I woke up late, did some grocery shopping and took it easy--but still managed to have some pretty hilarious adventures.

The payment system in China is a little weird, I have no idea how I've bought anything since I've been here. First of all, everywhere except large establishments wants you to haggle for things. I had my first haggling experience today at a calligraphy shop. The guy wanted 30 RMB for something, and I "haggled" him down to 25, which he totally laughed at. I probably should have told him I'd pay him like 10 for it, and see what he said. Since 5 kuai is somewhere around 10 cents, I saved myself some big bucks there. I just wanted to see if I could do it I guess, and I did, so I'll practice. Earlier in the day I went to Auchan, which is like Chinese wal-mart (yes timber, I went to wal-mart), and bought a rice cooker (78 RMB) and a cutting board (9RMB) and the like. I had to buy the rice cooker upstairs, then go through this huge maze to get downstairs to buy everything else (10RMB), where the girl tried to make me pay for the rice cooker again. At the grocery this morning, I tried to buy some dragonfruit, papaya and bananas, and I think I had to pay for those upstairs too because the girl wouldn't ring them up downstairs, but theres no cashier upstairs, so I'm not certain what she wanted. I'm going to have to go back tomorrow a.m. to try to get the dragonfruit though, they're so beautiful! I've had them dried a whole bunch, but never fresh and I'm excited to try it with the instant oatmeal (5RMB) I bought.

This afternoon Robynne and I went out to the foreign language bookstore. I wanted to buy a copy of Journey to the West, and while I was looking at the classic chinese lit section, this man walks over and starts talking to me in really good english about all the places he's been and things he's done, and the U.S. and lord knows what else. I was excited to have someone Chinese to speak to, so we were chatting and all of a sudden he was asking if I could sponsor him to come to the U.S. When I said no, he asked me if my father would, then my father's superior or inferior, and then my mother. Just when I was about to retort with a "no, YOUR mom", I bade him goodbye by grabbing my friend and hiding around a post downstairs from the part of the shop we had been. I then proceeded to make a scene at the cashier at the bookstore by attempting to buy only Vol 1 of Journey to the West when it only came in a six volume set. But, in order to tell me this phone calls were made and a group of Chinese students gathered behind us while we waited for someone who spoke English.
Eventually we made it out of the bookstore, and after getting sufficiently lost trying to find our way across the street through the pedestrian access underneath the intersection, stood in the middle of the bicycle lane to try to hail a cab. After five or so minutes and 15 full cabs went by, this guy peddling a rickshaw waved at us from across the street. After we pantomimed agreement to a ride, he risked life and limb to cross the street to come get us. The poor guy and his squeaky bike dragged us for a miserable and guilt ridden 10-15 minutes back to the hotel, upon which he demanded 60 RMB for the ride. Now, 60 RMB is about $10 USD. I've never even made this much money per hour, but we were feeling so guilty and stupid and tired that we just paid him the money and went home. I used my rice cooker to make us a deliciously bland soup of vermicelli noodles and some sort of chinese vegetable and tofu and am about to tuck myself in for the night with a book and maybe even a cup of tea.
nightnight!