Saturday, Jan 16 2322

Today, I woke up and went in front of work to meet Chris and Blake to go to Yuyuan Garden, a rather large bazaar. It was such a bustling place and bargaining flurry that I find it difficult to write down the series of events, but the general state that I found myself in was that of poking into hundreds of stands each with odd little baubles and goods, with the air loud and crowds omnipresent. Blake was our bargainer: all merchants initially state six times the price of their product, and it is wholly on the buyer to not pay such ridiculous prices.One has to walk away at *least* twice and have the merchant chase you before you can get a good bargain: no 'sales' here, only haggling.

Personally, the idea of haggling over a price is extremely alien, but seeing the kick that Blake got out of chaining four merchants on him, each of which he had engaged in haggling, showed that bargaining can be a true pasttime! I felt like a pied piper with my new ocarina, doodling little notes as Blake became the bane of every shopkeeper: foreigners aren't supposed to be good at bargaining, so Blake was called (I believe) 'bu ren', or "bad man", by some of the ladies he had gotten bargains I'd've never thought they'd allow. For example, Chris' eye was caught by t-shirts in his size, and he had bargained the lady down to 1 shirt for 100rmb. Blake intervened, and while I stood and looked at the stand, the woman and Blake traded "too much!" and "great price, just for you! no lower!" until Chris had 3 shirts for 100rmb with the lady mumbling curses as we left. Insane! I got an ocarina (76rmb, fixed price) and a timepiece (80rmb from 200) that I hold to be the Platonic Ideal of all 'Baubles': every other little gizmo is but a physical instantiation of this particular watch-in-a-crystal-ball. It's like an old pocket watch, but encased in crystal: quite cool!

Chris headed back home in a taxi, but Blake and I caught a cab to Eric's house, the same place I first visited in Shanghai. There, I got to have this *DELICIOUS* Szechuan sausage that Eric's mother had sent in the mail: it was savory, spicy, and stuffed into intestine. Also there were what I *think* was bok-choi in a deliciously spicy sauce that you can only get from Szechuan: I would have gobbled it all up, but it was too spicy, and so my body rebelled against the heat, even though I quite loved the hot taste. I then played (for Blake and Eric's entertainment) some PS3 games, the most awesome of which was Little Bigplanet, which is possibly the purest form of innocent, unadulterated fun I've ever found in a console game: if I ever bought a PS3, it'd be specifically for that game.

We then met Eric's wife and went by the river near Huangpu District and took in the night skyline, seeing The Bund at night, walking around and staring up at the skyscrapers with Blake and I practicing our Chinese. I wish I hadn't been hungover in the morning so I could have gotten batteries for my camera, but I will be here for months, so will get my pictures eventually. There were candle-balloons being launched from the river that night by people, and they speckled the sky with little candlelights: it was very beautiful.

Here are some phrases I've learned this week (not sure about the spelling... writing how they sound to my ears)

Ni hao - Hello
Zai Jian - Goodbye
Xie Xie - Thank You (My *most* common utterance this week in Chinese)
Doibushi - Sorry
Wo shi Meguo - I am American
Ta shi Inguo - He is British (usually about Chris)
Ni shwou Fa wen ma? - Do you speak French? (to discourage peddlers, who barely know any English, let alone French)
Ni shwou Ing wen ma? - Do you speak English?
Bu - bad, not
Duay - yes, correct (like d + french ouais)
Hao - good
Yi - One
Bu yao - don't want
Ma - question marker, comes at end
Chur - eat
Xihuan - to like
Ni xihuan chur mao ma? - Do you want to eat cat?
Wo bu yao, Bukene! - I don't want! Impossible!