Pearl Market

Today was our first Sunday, which is our only day of the week that is entirely free of programming. I started out by planning on sleeping late, but actually waking up at 7AM and doing laundry. The machine does four different cycles, one costing one more 1Yuan coin than the other, and drying costs 1Yuan. I only had 2 coins, so I did one "quick wash" cycle, which took care of all my machine washable colors. I didn't use the dryer because I was told it was not very effective and I didn't have a third coin. I usually get 1Yuan bills in change rather than the coins and there isn't a machine to change them, so I have to get the coins as change from either the subway or vending machines.

At 10:30, I Skyped with my family who are all back in the States. It was 10:30PM on Saturday night there, and they had just returned from a family gathering. This was the first time I had spoken with them (rather than e-mailed) since arriving in China, and it felt good to be able to just talk. It's hard to arrange these times because of the 12-hour time difference, but I am going to start waking up early to Skype before class on a weekday so we can realistically talk at a moderately reasonable hour for both parties.

Once I was done Skyping, I coordinated with my suitemate Andrea, and we met up with our friend Maddy for lunch and then going to the Pearl Market for shopping. It was Maddy's birthday today, so we were in a festive mood. We had lunch at a cafe in the dorm area (building 5) where we each ordered a panini sandwich and a beverage. I had tuna, and it tasted really good. The sandwich was bread, tuna salad, ketchup, cheese, lettuce, and tomato, and it was warm. I drank a diet coke. My friends each had the ham panini, Maddy drank a coffee drink, and Andrea drank water.

The Hoqiao Pearl Market is about an hour away from campus. We took the subway, line 4 to line 10 to line 5, and it landed us directly across the street. The Pearl Market is indoors, four stories high, and bazaar-style. We really enjoyed bargaining with the vendors. Andrea, Maddy, and I met up with our friends Helen and Haley while we were there, and Haley won as the expert bargainer. There was a silk robe that the vendor was trying to sell her for about 1000Yuan that she got for 50, which is less than 10USD.

I got a set of makeup brushes (marketed as Bobbi Brown, whether they are or not, they are soft and a full set in a case, and I like them, particularly because I'm getting more into makeup) and Maddy and I got fanny packs for excursions. The packs are knockoff Le Sportsac bags; hers is traditional fanny pack shape and mine is a convertible square purse/fanny pack, depending on which straps I use. I bargained both of these items to less than half of the original asking price, and spent 102Yuan. They had multi-tools for sale, and I really wanted to get one for use in the theater when I get back to the US, but they weren't good enough quality for it to be worthwhile. The pliers were held by a flimsy spring and the tools were on the outside with nothing to lock them in place. I'm very happy with my purchases.

We headed back on the subway so we could put our stuff away and then head out for Maddy's birthday dinner. We met up with some more friends and Maddy's language partner, then walked over to a place called Laker's Pizza. The pizza was really good, and they have some great deals throughout the week. For instance, Sunday is free coffee all day, and 6-8PM there is a discount on medium and large pizzas. It was very good pizza! We all enjoyed having some plainer food after the many flavors of Chinese food. That said, I could still eat Asian flavors all the time (except I've had my fill of hot pot).

We walked back to campus, got ice cream bars from the C-Store, then went home to do homework and go to sleep! I took a shower, blogged, then practiced listening for tomorrow's Chinese quiz on pronunciation (we have to write pinyin (English transliteration) based on what we hear).

Today is awesome because of Skype and bargaining for fanny packs.