The foreigner is looking at you

People seem to get into arguments freely here and it can be quite entertaining.  I've seen women hit/slap their boyfriends/husbands more often that you'd expect.  A week or so ago I was in a packed subway station waiting for the next train when a man and a woman started slugging and pushing one another.  The man pushed the woman hard enough for her to fall down.  Then he took off running.  Two subway attendants ran after him.  A moment later the woman got up and with a face that said "You're gonna get it", she also took off running.  After they all ran out the crowds of people stopped staring and went about their usual business.  It seems to me that everyone likes to watch but no one acts like seeing two people shove one another in a heated argument is anything too out of the ordinary.  Sam and I were sitting in a McDonalds a couple of days ago when Sam says to me: "Don't look but two girls are fighting over there".   Because I was not allowed to look I will describe what Sam said he saw.  There were four teenage girls sitting at a table and two of them were "wrestling/roughhousing".  Then one of them says to the others "The foreigner is looking at you".  At which point they stopped "wrestling".  Hmm maybe next time I see a shoving argument I'll be a little more obvious in my staring.

Internet shopping

Sam and I have recently discovered that buying things on the internet is not only really fast and convenient, its also the best way to get a good deal without the hassel of bargaining for it.  So far we have bought a bike, a phone, a printer, a memory stick, and most recently an oven.  We found out after our first purchase that most of the warehouses are in our city.  This means that many times there is no shipping charge and you can place an order late Sunday night and receive your package the next afternoon.  The great thing about it is that you don't even have to use a credit card here, you can choose to pay on arrival.  Of all our internet purchases I am most pleased with our oven.  Although we had to wait four days for it to come, it works great and we got it at a great price.  It really is silly that we waited nine months to finally buy an oven!  I think it wasn't such a priority after I figured out how to make toast using a pan on the stove.  About a week ago friends of ours bought an oven at a local appliance store and I was impressed by the quality. The price, however, was out of our range so I asked Sam to find a similar one on the internet.  We found one the same brand and same size at less than half the price.  I was sure there must be some difference between our friends and the one on the website but the price was good we ordered it.  When it arrived, lo and behold, it was the exact same oven!  You can imagine our friends reaction when they found out we paid 299rmb for the same oven they paid 760rmb!  Sam has now promised to help them buy a refridgerator using the same website.  Right now I'm quite pleased with my home baked cookies and shepherd's pie.  Tastes just like home, yum.

Another shopping experience

I think most of the people reading this blog know I love to shop.  I especially love to thrift shop because it feels somewhat like a treasure hunt.  Shopping in China feels more like a crap shoot.  Sometimes you can get a good deal and sometimes you come home with a piece of cleverly disguised trash.  A couple of days ago some foriegn friends of ours invited us to go to a well known market here.  This is a place that foreigners like to go to buy fake stuff(purses, shoes, watches, etc).  You can also buy typical Chinese items such as tea sets, silk items, calligraphy, and real pearls.  I was curious and so was Sam so we went.  The place was a like a four story flea market with lots of booths and plenty of "expensive" looking things.  All of the girls in our group wanted qipao's (traditional chinese looking blouses or dresses). One of our friends had bought a blouse at one booth before so she thought the woman there would give us a good price.  I found a real silk blouse that I thought would be perfect to wear on our next trip to Hong Kong.  It was either a nicer blouse than the others or the woman knew that I really liked it because she was not bargaining low enough to my liking.  She started off by telling me it was 380rmb but I quickly got her to come down to 150rmb.  Another girl in the same booth said she thought the lowest price they could give me was 100rmb.  I decided to walk a couple of booths down to see the competition.  Sure enough the same blouse was at another booth.  The girl there gave me a similar price so I offered her 70rmb.  She said no way then told me how nice the blouse was and how she couldn't sell it so cheap.  I told her 80rmb was the highest I would pay and when she said no way I said nevermind and walked away.  As I walked back to my friends she called out after me and agreed to my price.  She wasn't very happy when I made her get a bigger size for me but I was very happy with my purchase. All my friends congratulated me on my bargaining skills.  Sam considered having a wool coat made for him (They have booths with tailors and bolts of cloth willing to make you any garmet you like), next he pondered over some watches, and then finally as we were about to leave I turned around to see him bargaining over a pair of "Diesel" jeans.  He had no idea how much to pay for them so he asked me to help bargain.  It was close to closing time so this girl was eager to make a sale.  Sam and I played good cop bad cop (I'm always bad cop) until she agreed to 100rmb. (about 15usd)  He told her his size and she started to put them in a bag when I said that he needed to try the jeans on before we bought them.  Both Sam and the girl looked at me like I was crazy but I was firm about it.  Although both Sam and the girl complained to eachother and to me it was really good he tried them on because they were too small, the next pair was too big, and finally the third pair fit....except they were too long.  The girl said it was no problem because for 10rmb we could go upstairs and have them hemmed on the spot for us.  Sam was pretty tired though and told her to forget the entire sale.  The girl was so mad at this time that she said she would have someone else take the pants upstairs for us we would only have to wait 20minutes.  20 minutes seemed too long to wait for Sam so he said no again.  This time the girl said she would lower the price to 90rmb for the pants so that altogether (hemmed and all) it would be 100rmb.  I urged Sam to accept not only because it was a good deal and the girl seemed really put out, but also because it saved me from hemming the jeans by hand. So Sam agreed and all were happy.  That is until we got home and Sam realized they were still too big.  :)   

It's a culture thing

I've been trying to be more hospitable lately.  We had friends stay with us for a couple of weeks before finding an apartment of their own.  I think after they left Sam felt more free to invite others over to our place.  It's not really in my nature to entertain and especially not something I enjoy when it comes to making food.  It's not that I can't cook, its more of an insecurity issue.  Also, I'm not good at taking critiscm so I am in constant fear of it. Sam invited some friends over for dinner a week ago.  He cooked spaghetti. They also brought food.  One of the dishes they brought was pig's ears.  Yes pig's ears!  Sam was much more gracious than me and he actually ate one.  He said it was chewy. Why is that not a surprise? :)  
 
Yesterday I invited a couple of girls to our place.  Sam picked up food from a local restaurant and we watched movies.  Sam thought they would really enjoy Napoleon Dynamite.  It's a DVD we brought from home so there are no chinese subtitles.  These girl's english is pretty good so they got the gist of the movie but many things I could tell just went over their head.  (Like when Uncle Rico entices a couple to buy a set of his tupperware-like bowls by offering a free miniature sailboat with purchase.  Then the wife leans toward her husband and says "I want that" - I've quoted that to Sam many times and we always chuckle.)  One of the girls kept asking how old the movie was.  She was sure it was made a really long time ago but we found the date on the credits to prove it was made in 2004. Humor is a strange thing.  You really have to be familiar with a country's culture to get some of their humor.  At least that may be true in the case of Napoleon Dynamite.  They did like his dancing at the end of the movie.  Wonder what they would think about Nacho Libre.