Friday and I plan on doing some Zumba, gotta get ready to show the girls here what it's all about! The I planned on meeting Virginia for lunch. That was my Friday planned but you and I both know that things do not always go to plan. The kids started school on Wednesday and I told Javier on Tuesday, "you have to remember your lunch each day it's not like the school is across the street like it was in AZ" then Javi replied, "I know mom, I will!" Guess what Javi did today???yep, Forgot his lunch and his water bottle. I texted Mr. Yang that I needed him back to pick me up at 9:30 because I needed to take Javi his lunch and then I would have about a half an hour or so before I would meet Virginia. I knew I would not get in and get out without talking to a few people so I gave myself a half an hour in the school. So I got there at 9:50a whoooo hooooo ten minutes ahead of schedule, met someone on the way out of the school who noticed me bringing a lunch and then we struck up a converstation. No longer ahead of schedule but it was worth it, she was very nice and now I know on Fridays, there is a weekly coffee at Campus Village so next week I need to plan to come. Went inside, asked where Javi's room was. I walked up quietly and slowly so I could see what was up. The teacher saw me as Javi did and he walked right over to me. I introduced myself and she introduced me to the class so she could get them all back on track after the excitement of meeting the new kids mom? Anyways, Javi seemed grateful I made the track to bring him his food, he is not into school lunches unless they look like they should, you know what I mean??
So I was off and headed for birthday gift shopping before I met Virginia for some lunch. Mr Yang and I went looking for toys, one gift for a Reece who seems to be Javier's twin brother from another mother and one for his sweet little sister who just ADORES Asia and Asia loves her as well. So as I get my phone out to tell Mr. Yang we need to look for toys, he has this puzzled look on his face like, How the heck do I know where to get toys lady??? So he does the best he can talking to me and figuring out by calling someone to talk to me but the toys we find are tai gui la(to expensive!) T.I.C. For goodness sake, should the toys be abundant?? EVERYTHING is made here. So I spoke to Linda, she told me where to go but then communicating it to Mr. Yang was a whole other ball game. Finally, Virginia called me and saved my day!We were going to meet for lunch and then she would help me find some gifts. It turns out one of the places Mr. Yang and I went into was the Kai Fa Qu Market Linda told me to go to but I didn't know it or go to the right place in the actual market.
I was pretty tired when I met with Virginia for lunch even though the day had just started really? So we decided to go to lunch first and what did I have to eat you ask? That's right, dumplings baby! But this place was new to me and they also had the spicy green beans, yummy! Jackpot, so I told Virginia what I wanted and she took care of business! WOW!!! Is her Manadrin amazing or what? She understood what they said to her and she replied back like a pro! I thanked her for letting me just dump my order on her like that and then we just chilled and talked about her life experiences in Dalian. She told me to tell people I was a teacher when I'm am shopping and that the driver is not a driver but a boyfriend and that we live in green town. All of these things combined would make the locals give better prices! Ok, mental note of that for when I do start negotiating on my own. The said she has had a lot of people want to take pictures with her, natural strawberry blonde hair and very tall draws some attention but she keeps a good attitude about it and I kinda admired her for it. I told her of our few times that people had taken our pictures because of Javi with his green eyes and blonde hair and a few times we have been mistaken for Russians. Suonllen reported that he did not have this issue of picture taking before we came, guess the kids and I are Rockstars!! Haha Asia feels left out some but understands this culture is all about the boys and with light eyes AND blonde hair, Javi is going to get attention just like he did in the D.R. The first time we took him there. We finished our lunch and decided to head out to get the toys and the chips for the party I said I would pick up...
By the time, Virginia and I found the toys, we began the game of "Let's try to not pay too much and get a deal instead" We found a really cute princess Lego-like toy but the lady wanted way to much money and would not budge. I was told after we walked out of there, Virginia has never been able to get a "deal" or even a sense of a deal from that lady so I made a mental note NOT to go back there. I have no problem paying a fair price but not more than everyone else just because "I am a round eye". So we finally found the toys that were suitable and I just knew Javi would ask me if I got him the same thing I got Reece because that's Javier. I picked up a Disney princess purse for Alana and a Lego-like toy of a tank with little guys included in it, all for about $20...nice, birthday gift budget in AZ, $25 a gift but because T.I.C., two for $20 and I probably STILL paid too much but at least the sales people worked with us, acted wounded when we haggled, even though they were still making some money, and we all walked away feeling good about the transaction...
Virginia took me to a section of the Jin Ma Market I had never been into before and I was able to buy some chips. Granted, I had to buy six bags to make up one regular size bag in the states. Virginia showed me a few local favorites that can pass door American brand chips because they are just as good so I picked up a couple of those too for the kids to try. They are a LOT cheaper than the Lays and if they taste the same then, hey, why not make our spending money stretch even farther. The markets here are amazing, I mean it, really AMAZING!!! You can fine pretty much anything you want. For example, "Nikn" slippers, Sports Jerseys printed wrong but you still pay a high price because "they best quality" and of course any kind of food you never wanted to try or even thought was a food in the first place? Now after going to this section of the Jin Ma, I am even more confused where is the best place to shop. But am grateful to Virginia for helping me get the items I needed and still have time to spare before I had to go pick up the kids before the party. So what did we do? why, a taste of home...Dairy Queen Blizzard! Now, at home I NEVER ate DQ but V and I made our way. We chatted some more about life and how things are so different and no matter how much preparation you do, you still a not prepared for the things you see and experience but again, T.I.C...
Birthday party turned into night out after the party. It was catered by "Eddie's" and we had the Chinese version of Mexican food and it kinda made me make a mental note to smuggle back into this country some good salsa or the makings to make good salsas next time I am home. But it was good and went down...We all went out dancing afterwards, Jenelle's Ayi, Ms.Li stayed late and our kids stayed there to hang out as well. It was nice to be able to hang with our friends and not have to worry about who's driving home. This could be a problem to from what I understand and one can easily overdo it because of that. I had a few and then called it quits, I was afraid if I had had any more, I would have passed out! Really??? From what I did today you ask? Yeah, pretty much! Communicating is exhausting!!
So on Saturday the 14th, we decided to take a little trip to Electonic City. An underground HAVEN for gamers and techy types! We had Suonllen's first generation iPhone that Asia had been using that had a cracked screen and we thought if we could get it fixed, with would be fixed for cheapest there! I tried to get it fixed in the states and was told, it would be cheaper for you to buy a 3GS then fix that. We also wanted to get the Wii unlocked so we could get all the games that were possible by simply downloading them from the game place to a hard drive and then Javi would be able to play all he wanted AND we could also download additional games as they came and if we wanted them. Gotta Love CHINA, it's all ok here! So we went to our regular game place where games are three for 10RMB and they were happy to see us. Of course they get the stools out for us to sit and wait while they are busily taking care of our business. Suonllen asked them about the iPhone and although they do not work on phones, they promptly took the phone over to someone they trusted and handled that for us. For unlocking the Wii, all the games, a external hard drive, 6 more Xbox games and fixing the iPhone, it was only 1400RMB which is about $206.53. We were pretty happy with that and they also gave us ice cream while we waited. Asia and I went and looked for cases for the our phones while the boys stayed there the whole time, they played video games of course. We were able to find a case for Asia and then one for Javi's phone and when it was 5RMB more than Asia's I asked the girl who spoke English very well if she was giving me the best price and she said she was and that Javi's case was more expensive because apple is not making the accessories any more because it's the first generation phone and they want everyone to upgrade and it's hard to get the parts and things to go with that phone. Isn't that the American way? Don't fix it, just buy a new one. We are trying to get away from that but it's very difficult when companies are making it more and more difficult to do so. Look, we had to wait until we were in China to have the phone fixed, because in the USA it would have "cost more than the phone was worth" but now it only cost us about $50 to fix it here and if we would have had to buy a new phone, that would have cost us $300, how is that cheaper? Glad we were here and we actually came out ahead of it all only spending the $206 on everything.
On our way out, we decided to look at some portable boom boxes. Because of our great savings, we decided to look for a boom boxes. I had checked out the system at one of the gyms and there was no system? and the second gym did not have an iPod plug that I could see. i had told Suonllen when he was home, I wanted to get a box just in case so I could travel with tunes to teach Zumba because at that time, I was not sure what the gyms had for playing music. I tried several times to buy one before we left the states but the one I wanted was sold out. I actually ordered it online four times when the venders said they had it in stock but each time was told it was back ordered! Electronics are more expensive in China even though most of them are made here. The whole inport/export tax thing I don't completely understand makes buying in China more expensive. With our little savings we had made with the phone and Wii, we were "just looking" and of course, the first place we stopped had a harmon karmon portable box. It was not one that I had researched but I was familiar with the brand, GOOD SOUND AND GOOD REPUTATION! They wanted like a rediculas amoung of RMB for it and I told Suonllen it would be anywhere from $300 to $350 for it back in the States. Suonllen threw out a number to them not really caring if they took it or not. They went and got the manager and he tried to get Suonllen to come up in price but we of course had no intention of buying it unless they came down so we said no. We were getting ready to leave and then they agreed to our price. We eneded up paying $380 which if we would have bought it back in the states, with tax, that's what we would have paid. So although we did not save any money there, we did not pay more than what we would have in states which we were ok with...
We were not planning on such big purchases and had one more stop to make. Ikea...thank Goodness they take cards! but we ended up using the last bit of our cash there and head home after eating some meatballs and potatoes...ahhhh, some home food to end a great day of shopping! life is good here in China!
Sunday, ahhhh what do we do on Sundays here? why Massages of course. Really all I can say is we all got one and we ALL enjoyed it. I tried something different other than the 2 hour fully body and foot massage at the suggestion of Suonllen who said, " You gotta try it at least once so you know what you are missing or not" So I decided on the 90 minute oil massage. Not as intense as the Chinese massage but still supposedly as relaxing. I did like but it something about it made me not enjoy it as much. The same guy that always does my massages did my oil massage too so I was not unconfortable because I was still wearing the little shorts and tie shirt they give you to change into but it just did not do it for me. Grant it, it still knocked me out for the rest of the day and I had to nap when we got home but I did not feel I got as much out of it as I do the Chinese massage. So, Next time I will be doing "regular". I am ususally a creature of habit when it comes to certain things and it makes some people crazy. BUT when it comes to eating out at resturants regularly, I usually order the same thing. That way you are not disappointed when your meal comes. If you find something you love, why you gotta mess with it? You're not boring because you're not trying something new, you're SMART because you have identified what you like and are not afraid to do it over and over again without caring what anyone thinks....The same is going to be true for me now with massages as well as resturants now. When they seem me coming you will here me saying, "I'll take the regular please" as a a matter of fact, I have been here so much do I really need to tell you what I want?" I think not.... and that is the way I roll here in China, no different than back in the states!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment