Following on from the previous post…
Amy then smsed us to find out if we were keen for food or the night market or both. I went back and said both, and that we were chilling in the Starbucks where was she. Not 2 mins later she comes over to our table and it turns out she was with her folks up stairs – China is not so big after all. We then made our way together to the bus stop to meet up with Chris. At the bus stop we were directed around the block by some construction guys as they were busy with bulldozers breaking down a building next to the bus stop which they have been slowly demolishing for the past few weeks. As we got to the other side of the bus stop we looked back at the half demolished building about 10 stories high only to see it lean to the left and proceed to collapse. It was the strangest thing as we didn’t hear any explosives and the bulldozer had been working on it not 2 minutes before. Needless to say that as we watched the cloud of dust slowly dissipate, still dumbfounded, fireworks started lighting up the sky, presumably as celebration of a successful demolition, so it must have been planned.
Having met up with Chris it was off to the night market again where I did actually buy some things this time. The advice we were given by some chinese friends was that as a rule of thumb we shouldn’t pay anything more than a third of the starting price otherwise we would be paying too much. With this in mind I went off in search of a hoody (a hood being essential with the temperatures here) and having not brought that many casual warm tops with me. After walking past lots of stalls that seem to only stock girls hoodies I stumbled upon one with Quicksilver tops no less and then the games began. The bargaining went something like this:
Me: Duo xiao jian ? ( Dwuo shou chien – chinese for how much is it ?)
Lady Stall Owner: What size ? You look like Xl, here try it on.
Me: No, how much.
LSO: Here is a XL try it on. There it looks very nice. You Like?
Me: Nice, but how much?
LSO: This very nice brand, normally 480 (shown on a calculator) but for you special price 380.
Me: (exaggerated gasp) No, start to walk away.
LSO: Ok , ok, how much you pay?
Me: 50 (typed into calculator – going in hard and low)
LSO: (even bigger gasp) no, how about 250.
Me: No. (and I type in 60 on the calculator)
LSO: no you are crazy (visibly irritated)
I start to walk away (a great tactic when bargaining)
LSO: Ok, ok, give me last price, how much ? (chasing after me)
Me: 80 (still playing hard)
LSO: Ah, be reasonable. I kill you. She then shows me 150 on the calculator.
I start to walk away again.
LSO: ok, give me your last price.
Me: 100
LSO: I kill you. A little bit more, c’mon be reasonable. Last price, last price.
Me: 100 (and I started walking away)
At this stage Zunaid walked up and said “130 ok, which she agreed to instantly and called me back.” I protested to Zunaid saying I didn’t want to pay more than 100, but the lady was already wrapping it up. I really wanted the top though and figured 130 yuan wasn’t a bad price. Zunaid ended up buying one too and talked her down to 100 because we had taken 2 so we split the difference and it only cost 115 yuan in the end. BARGAIN.
I also bought a scarf (although I’m not really a scarf person I don’t think) for 15 yuan but with temperatures forecast to drop here I thought it a wise investment and have been wearing it ever since. The next day it was time for another haircut but this time I went with the latest copy Hangzhou More magazine (an English expat magazine) that always has a common phrases section with a different situation each month and this months happened to be At the Hairdresser. Not trusting my Pinyin pronunciation I just took in my visa photograph and showed that to the barber but before I could even point to the relevant phrase he was nodding his head and preparing to make his first cut. I must say he did a pretty good job and he cut it shorter on the top than last time which is what I wanted. The sides may be a touch shorter than I wanted though (closer to a number 1 when I usually never go below 2) but as my uncle JG often says “The difference between a good haircut and a bad hair cut is about 2 weeks!”
The afternoon was then spent Skyping my folks back home for Christmas as they are heading to Morgan Bay for the holidays and so won’t speak to them on Christmas Day. After that I met up with Zunaid to go over, or actually start discussing, our clown routine for the Christmas Show which is taking place on the Sunday 20th. For some reason I have ended up being involved in a lot more than I anticipated and I’m not quite sure how it happened. As a preview this is what I’m going to be involved in for the Christmas show:
1. Singing Last Christmas by Wham – with all the other staff.
2. Intro to Pretty Fly for a white guy – I have to say “Untag, glieben, glouben, globen”
3. Co-host a game with a local teacher – called Guess who.
4. Clown skit with Zunaid – have to juggle raw eggs
5. Fashion Show – model some EF merchandise
6. In the Navy – choreographed dance
7. Good Santa – beat up bad santa and hand out sweets to all the kids
So, all in all, 4 x costume changes, 7 different appearances – how did this happen I ask myself?
Stay logged in for a full report of the Christmas Show with pictures in the next post.
HAHAHAHA – Beauuuutiful Rors, really enjoyed that post.
“I kill you”… hahaha -some hard bargaining going on there. Have been through some similar stuff in the Thailand markets. Amazing what can be communicated with a simple calculator.
Also cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to your update on the Xmas show. Have seen your clown outfit already (very special) but I reckon the In the Navy dance is what I would dearly love to see. No chance of a Youtube video is there?
I couldn’t help but think of Ahmed – the dead terrorist because she said “I kill you!” exactly the same.
The clown outfit was indeed special unfortunately the intricacies of the Village People’s wardrobe got lost in translation but we did still have some pretty outrageous outfits. No chance of youtube video unfortunately but I will try maak another plan.
Fully agree with Roan – awesomely entertaining blog. And like Roan, the bargaining bit took me straight back to my time in Thailand & Indonesia exactly a year ago! How time flies! The calculator & “walk-away” strategy – aaahhh, LOL! Well done on that by the way!