Shopping & Old People

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A lot of people have been complimenting me on my blog and though comments are sparse, it seems that I have quite a few regular readers. Thanks for reading! I can't wait to get back to the States and read it all through myself!

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So, for the last 2 weeks or so, I've been frantically shopping for cold-weather clothes since I came to China less-than-prepared for the winter. The winter has come, so it gives me an excuse to shop.

First, I will introduce you to the pifa (wholesale). The pifa is across the street from my school and consists of quite a few wharehouse-sized buildings. It's basically kiosks filled to the brims with ugly clothes, knock-off brands, and shoes. Every once in a while you can find a gem (my friend found a "Marc Jacobs" black dress for about $10US over the summer. You can't try anything on ahead of time, you just have to eye-ball it, which oftentimes, proves disasterous.

So why is it a "wholesale"? Well, though the details are still very fuzzy to me, apparently all of the store owners in Beijing come to the pifa to buy their clothes in bulk and sometimes individuals can look around and just buy a shirt here and there. I really wish I can take a picture to show you the inside, its quite a hustle-bustle, barely able to walk around at all, but I'm afraid they'll get angry that I took a picture since they have so many knock-offs.

So, after days of looking around, I finally found some sweaters and a coat. Today bought (without trying it on, not so good) a white "Abercrombie" coat with lots of fur on the hood. I wouldnt be a true China person if I didnt have fur on my hood. I think it came out to about $30US.

Yesterday I went to Silk Street, which is where all of the waiguoren (foreigners) shop. This is where I can buy fake bags, shoes, and clothes (and they have waiguoren sizes, too!) I went to buy shoes. Got 2 pairs of Nikes and a European loafer for about $10/pair. Not too shabby. This place is also full of kiosks and people grabbing you wanting you to check out their stuff. Speaking Chinese is such a plus. No Chinese, no deal.

I bought this "Louis Vitton" purse in Shanghai and have yet to see it in Beijing and a bunch of the ladies working there asked me 1.) if its real, and 2.) how much I paid for it etc.. etc.. since they dont often see it and rarely sell it. I found one lady who sold it and asked her how much the average foreigner paid for it, she said about 500kuai ($70US), which is over triple what I paid in Shanghai. I love bargaining in Chinese because there will be a foreigner right next to me buying the same thing bargaining in English and my price is so much lower than theres! Ahh!

Ok, now on to old people.

My class consists of 2-3 lessons a week. Each lesson has a special topic, like shiye wenti (unemployment problem), chinese sayings, guo malu hen weixian (crossing the street is very dangerous), etc etc. We have studied the life of laoren (OLD PEOPLE) at least 3 times now. How we can keep addressing this, I do not know, but we do.

Last week we went to the park and had to interview old people on how they think their retirement life is going and if they would like san dai tong tang, 3 generations under one roof, basically, whether or not they want to live with their kids.

The old people here are amazing. They seem so healthy and active. Dance at least twice a day, get up every morning to go to the park and work out. I'm a member at a pretty decent gym about 15 minutes from my school and most of the people who workout there are not your typical yuppy trying to stay fit, over half of them are old people.

Anyways, though we oftentimes discuss Old People's lives and how China's economy has developed, and how women and men are not equal and whatever, we have yet to discuss POLITICS or RELIGION. Not once. And not in our forsee-able future.

So thats that.

Oh, go to Xi'an again tomorrow with CET to see the Terracotta Soldiers again. Hmmm.

My friend found a really good version of American Gangster online for free (already selling the DVD on the sidewalks for less than $1), so I think Ill watch that right now.

PS- Support Chinese director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) and go see Lust, Caution! I've heard sooooooo much about it! It's apparently NC17 in the States. The Chinese government was originally going to cut out 1/2 hour of the originial, but now is only cutting out 7 minutes. Yay for censorship.