Fifteen

We have spent part of the past two days shopping on Shamian Island in Guangzhou. It is full of little tourist shops that specialize in selling Chinese souvenirs to foreigners.
We were told that, unlike most stores, it is very common to bargain with the sales clerks. Negotiating the price is part of the deal and part of the fun. We’ve had a good time with that.
Most of the salespersons will start with some ridiculous price to see what they can get, and then see what kind of bargainer you are.
Usually, you end up paying about 100 or 200 Yuan, which is $15 or $30. In one store, I got five T-shirts and three other gifts for 200 Yuan.
In another, one lady started out offering Missy several rather expensive gifts for 850 Yuan. We wound up getting them for 500. At a couple of places, we simply said no and walked out, only to have them chase us down and accept our price.
Several of the sales people told me, “You hard bargain.” One said, “You funny man.” Not sure what she meant by that.
In the end, we probably got ripped off anyway, but we had fun and came away thinking we got a good deal. I’ve bought seven T-shirts and paid only about $5 a piece; you can’t do that at home.
Most of the money we’ve spent has been for food. Breakfast has been free everyday at the hotel, but we’ve eaten out at lunch and dinner everyday.
At least we’re finally eating normal food now.
The first week in Beijing and Hefei, we ate mostly authentic Chinese food – rice, noodles, some exotic dishes we couldn’t identify and enough duck to fly home.
But since flying to Guangzhou, we haven’t eaten one Chinese meal (unless you count rice at breakfast). We’ve eaten at Pizza Hut twice, McDonald’s once and a nice Italian restaurant twice. All have been outstanding.
I’m not a big fan of Pizza Hut, but the food at the one here is the best I’ve ever had. McDonald’s is pretty awesome, too. That tells you how much we were craving Western food.
The two things I’ve missed most are normal food and football.
I got up early yesterday (Sunday morning here, Sunday night there) to check the NFL scores. Surprisingly, I was channel surfing when I ran across the Cowboys-Giants Sunday night game. I got to watch a few minutes of it before we had to leave.
And, right now, as I’m writing this, I’m watching Monday Night Football – in Chinese. It’s a great game, but the only American word I’ve heard is Peyton Manning.
More later. It’s the fourth quarter, and then we’re off to get a Big Mac.