Back at Work

So I know I haven’t exactly been posting regularly, but can you blame me? I’ve been pretty busy. I had a very nice last few days with my mom and Marie-Eve. We did more shopping, visited the 798 art district and even went to a cooking class.

798 was interesting. It was full of wacky statues and some modern art galleries. It was free to enter the area, but they charged for all the galleries so we mostly stuck to the gift shops and saw the art on postcards. It was quite hot so we didn’t spend all day there, but we had a nice time and it wasn’t quite as complicated to get to as I thought it might be.

The cooking class was amazing. It was at a place called The Hutong and we learned to make baozi (stuffed buns). We made 3 kinds of fillings (lotus root and bok choy, pork and brown sugar), learned about all the ingredients and the history and even got to take home leftovers and a recipe. The only sad part was that we overdosed on buns and thus decided not to go to our favourite bun place for lunch the next day.

I eventually caught my mom’s cold and got quite sick with a fever yesterday so I wasn’t up to doing much. We packed and went for lunch before taking a taxi to the bus station. My mom accompanied me in and then she and Marie-Eve left for the airport.

They tried to catch a plane yesterday, but the odds were not with them (since they were flying stand-by), so they are trying again today. Keep your fingers crossed for them!

I was back at work today and put the finishing touches on my Excel booking calculator. It is now completely usable and easy to update and comes with simple instructions as well as a document detailing its inner workings so somebody else can update/modify it someday.

On a different note, anyone reading this should a) like the Schoolhouse at Mutianyu Great Wall on Facebook and b) Enter our caption contest.

Thoughts on Bargaining and How I Only Sort of Failed at It Today

I haven't spent a night in Beijing in a while, so I thought I would tonight and check out one of the hostels my mom, Marie-Eve and I are staying at next week. It seems decently nice for what we are paying (a little over $10).

Nothing particularily interesting has happenned today so I will share my thoughts on bargaining instead.

In my opinion, there are two methods. The first involves knowing the price something should be and aiming for that price. This takes lots of practice and you still may be unhappy with what you get if you think the typical price is unreasonable. On the other hand, you won't walk into a different store later and find out you wouldn't have got whatever you are buying for cheaper.


The second method, and my prefered one, involves not caring what something is worth, but instead considering how much you want it. You may end up paying way too much for something, but you will always be happy with what you paid and you don't have to spend lots of time checking out different stalls/stores to find out what the typical asking price is. This technique works especially well for getting things you really don't want for cheap -- so be careful!

Numerous times I have walked away from something with what seems like a reasonably typical price because I really didn't want it, only to have the price drop by half.

On the other hand, I walked by a store and found a dress I fell in love with today (this from someone who hates dresses). I asked about the price and it was way too high. I offered a bit less than half and the lady shook her head so I walked away -- only to turn around a few minutes later and walk back because I really wanted the dress. Now in the world of bargaining, going back is the worst thing you can do because it tells the vendor you really do want what they are selling. I cut a little off what she originally offered, but still paid about twice what I wanted. Oh well! At least it represented what the dress was worth for me :)

On a different note, I'm back to being the only intern as William suddenly got on a plane and went back to Spain without an explanation the other day.

On another different note, I had a great conversation about tomatoes yesterday. We had tomatoes and egg for dinner so I was asking Li Dan (the cashier from the glass shop) how you say tomatoes in Chinese. Our conversation went a bit like this:

"How do you say tomato?"
"What's a tomato?"
"The red vegetable we had for dinner. Or, well, I guess it's a fruit, but you know what I mean..."
"Hunh?"
"You know...the red thing..."
"Oh, a tomAHto"
"hahahahaha"

Then I had to explain the "tomAYto, TomAHto" expression. It was great!

40 Hours in Inner Mongolia (Part Èr)

Before I restart my tale, I just wanted to take a few minutes to explain how to comment on my blog, since many people seem to be having trouble and I love reading comments. Once you read a post you want to leave a message on, simply click on the number of comments at the bottom. It will say something like "1 comment." It will open up a box to leave your message. Type it in and then choose how you would like to sign it from the drop-down menu. The simplest is perhaps "Anonymous/Name" - just put your name - though you can also do it through a number of different accounts. Click "post" and you're done!

Now where was I? Oh ya, the midafternoon nap... When we got up we all piled into the car and headed out to a field, where we were to pick some famous Mongolian flowers. I got to see more of the grasslands and animals (horses, cows and sheep) as we drove. I mentioned to Tana that this reminded me much more of home than the rest of China -- sort of like Saskatchewan actually. About 30 seconds after we got out of the car we decided that our plan was not going to work because there were a gabazillion mosquitos (if you are not clear on the concept, this is a gazillion bazillion mosquitoes). We quickly ran back to the car, where I discovered that somehow I didn't have a single bite whereas everyone else had been eaten alive. Apparently this was not exactly true as some of mine appeared the next morning, but there were still only five or so even though I am usually the one whose blood they love!

 

 

 

 

We drove for a little while longer and ended up in a new field with a bit more wind and very few mosquitoes :) We got out to walk and climbed up a little hill. There was sand everywhere, so Tana and I both took off our shoes and ran as one might on a beach. Except it was better than a beach because there was a hill which lead to... you guessed it... running/sliding down it and getting covered in sand. Perhaps you had to be there but I think it might have been the highlight of my trip. I got lots of wonderful pictures which I will try to post tomorrow when my internet starts working better again, so do check back.

Tana's niece also had a great time and started crying when we had to leave. We drove back and had some leftover dumplings for dinner (as too many were bought for lunch). They were just as wonderful as before. Tana's husband is working on a paper he is trying to get published about plants, so he asked if I would be willing to proofread it for him. I happily did so and found it quite interesting. I sense my arts and science degree coming together -- Tana was surprised to hear I used to do this for friends and tutor English.

I'm going to leave my tale here for tonight -- at bedtime and pick it up again tomorrow (or whenever my internet lets me blog again).

On a more recent note, somebody please explain to me why tonight, in the middle of a thunderstorm, not one, not two, but three of our groups in our houses decided they wanted to have barbecues! Crazy people!

New recent words: Bus, Intern, pancake bread, hat, sofa, go home, house, mutton, toilet