Old Town

Today:

-Weather: 7C

-Local Time: 10:10pm

Saturday

Saturday afternoon I went out with a friend of mine to find a couple other people.  As a group of four, we made it to a part of Shanghai known as "Old Town."  Old Town, or OT from here on, is located next to the famous Yu Yuan Garden.  It was quite difficult to actually find our friends we were meeting up with because while our reading skills are improving our pronunciation is just terrible at this point.  We also didn't have a map, because - who needs that?  It took us about an hour to get from campus to finally meeting up with the other two.

Old Town

Our group of four began to stroll the streets of OT.  It is a district that has very tradition architecture, and is very much so an area for shoppers to go.  It is full of tourist and local type of shops, more tourist though.  Really, it comes down to hundreds of stores selling the same thing.  Chinese clothing, chopsticks, stones carved for stamps (to mark on important documents), copyright infringing dvd and cd stores, toys (remote helicopters and matchbox cars), tea shops, knives + lighters, paintings and art, leather bags and belts, and small electronics.  We spent a good amount of time looking into almost all of the stores in this area.  We arrived around 3pm and shopped for 3 hours.  I got a set of chopsticks (6 pair + holders) for 7usd.  My friends got art, silk bags, new years decorations, and a lighter.  We did a lot of shopping and a lot of haggling.  Surely, if you're reading this blog - you know how much I enjoy haggling.

Haggling in China is part of the culture.  We've learned a lot about it in the culture classes we are taking.  As part of the holistic lifestyle, buying something has everything to do with the path to finding the right price.  In western culture, we're very binary.  The price is posted and we'll either buy or pass.  Here the price is determined with each individual buyer.  The culture is focused on the path to finding the price, where two people agree the value of an item.  I very much enjoy haggling because it is a conversation of worth, not a predetermined value.

Green Laser Pointer

As the sun began to set, we were browsing a store and the gentleman behind the boxes had some green laser pointers.  Let me stop here and express how awesome green laser pointers are.  Without boring you with the science, the human eye is more sensitive to the green wavelength.  Unlike a red laser, a green laser can be seen in air; the air between the laser pointer and the dot on the wall.  Well I started talking to this guy about this laser pointers and he's showing it off.  I get a hold of one and start playing with it.  I asked if he had any better ones... he showed me that he had a 300mV, which topped the 50 mV I was currently using.  I decided I needed one.  We began at his price point, 285 yuan (42usd).  An excellent price, because this is at least 100usd in the USA.  I counter him with 40 yuan. After a few counter offers, we get to the point where he said, "Best price?"  I typed it into his calculator (the way haggling is done, so there is no miscommunication). 85 yuan, I typed.  He lowered to 160. I said no and walked away.  He shouted for me, I came back. 135. I typed 85. He rejected, I walked.  This repeated, 4 times. Finally he said 90.  I typed 85, and walked away.  I got about 60 ft away before he said "85!"  I came back and bought my green laser pointer for 12.50 usd.  I'm pretty happy with it, I think my price was good enough.

Annoying Folks

As many of you know, I enjoy being annoying to people who are bothering me.  Well whenever you go to an touristy place like OT you are approached by folks trying to show you a laminated sheet of products.  DVDs Watches Purses iPods etc.  These people are hired to talk to us in english and get them to come into their store.  They're particularly annoying.  I enjoy egging them on and wasting their time.   We make fake names and they become very friendly.  The group I was with discovered that no english speaking chinese person knows pig-latin.  We would talk to each other this way and then kinda screw with the sales people.  It was also very helpful for communicating while haggling to see if the other that it was worth the price.  Anyways we were approached in OT by a gentlemen who was quite annoying and so we talked to him and walked with him, then went into a store.  Then when he started to walk away we'd act interested again.  Then we'd go into another shop.  This obviously continues until he realizes we're just screwing with him.  It's a great way to pass the time.

We finished our time in OT and went to a restaurant.  I have nothing good to say about this meal other than I had fun playing with my laser pointer in the restaurant.  We finished our night near campus at a nice bar, they have a computer with iTunes and you can play songs whenever you want otherwise it's on shuffle.  They had 44,000 songs so it had a lot of good music.  I very much enjoyed playing DJ for the evening.

Sunday was a lot of homework.

Monday

Formal Dinner

The Shanghai Jiao Tong University(SJTU) dean invited our program out to dinner.  We went out for a 6pm dinner with some of the teachers we have and some folks in the administration who were helping with the program.  There was plenty of unique food served.  A few memorable items; Jellyfish w/ Soy Dipping Sauce, Chicken Liver, Chicken in some hot spices, Beef, Eel with sandwich rolls, a large Fish, other raw meats, some vegetables, Baozi, and watermelon to finish.  I tried most of that stuff, except the liver.  Let it be known, there are certain textures I just don't like. Gooey, Slimy, excessively chewy items with little to no flavor.  Jellyfish is a GREAT example of this.  Putting my better judgement aside, I tried it.  It was just about the most awful thing I've eaten since I got here, it ranked right up there with that bird heart.  There was some good stuff, but the best was no doubt the watermelon - it just is delicious.  Tasted just like home, one of the very few things that is not different.  We also got some good group pictures, this is the attached photo.

My roommate has a new camera and I have a new laser pointer, so we've been playing with that, I'll soon post a link to the results soon. I also have done some laser safety training at GE and at school.  I am aware of the dangers and keep it in mind when using it.  That being said.. it should be mentioned, this laser is visible at well over 5 miles -- awesome.  I was shining it out the window earlier and I got a text message from my downstairs neighbor, it said "I can see your laser outside the window."

Please send me email or text messages, I miss home - let me know what you've been up to.

Thanks for reading,

JBiber (at) g mail <dot} c o m

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