Bargaining in Beijing

Author: Gabriella M
Location: Beijing
Today we spent our last full day in Beijing (before our 2-day adventure to Xi'an) to the fullest. Literally. In the morning, we woke up to Callie's fantastic playlist on her ipod and showered before eating a hearty breakfast of cereal, fruit, and Chinese yogurt, which has the surprising consistency of kefir. Then, we finished getting ready for the day and those who were assigned 'Baby Love' on the job wheel headed out to the Holy Family Home. Since Caroline had thought to stop by the nearby store in the compound which sells weird flavored ice cream to get bread for lunch, she and Callie got to join the group with the babies. Fei-Fei, much to her excitement, got the day off and bolted out the door. After the baby caretakers had left, the rest of us filed out with Julia to go to our respective group homes, where the older orphans live in groups of four at the most with foster parents. Today, me, Sam, and Ben got to be with the younger kids (ranging ages four through eight), which has personally become my favorite past time, despite the endless energy they require of us. Upon entering into the doorway, where we removed our shoes, I was suddenly surrounded by tiny bodies squealing with excitement. That single moment is the one that I wait for all day, to know that our presence makes a difference in their summer days. Since it was Sam's first time meeting the younger kids, we sat in a circle and each of the kids introduced themselves (some a bit reluctantly) and then Shu Shu led the kids in a series of songs. Even though he is the youngest and smallest of all the kids, he is most definitely the loudest and constantly begs for attention, which is absolutely adorable. Suddenly, Sam pounced on Hue Hue, which started an intense game of tickle monster, which finally ended with the kids completely engrossed in their new coloring books and crayon sets. Throughout the morning, I read stories to Duo Duo, took pictures with Chung Chung, and danced to "September" with Tao Tao and Duo Duo. Towards the end of the day, Shu Shu sat on my lap, pulled me into hugs, and played the songs from Mulan over and over again on my ipod. Sam was even given a hair styling session, while Ben played with Guo Guo, who is blind and a musical genius. After an exciting and exhausting day, we left the kids and returned to our flat a couple blocks away on the compound. Since the group that had been with the older kids were invited for lunch, a small group of us munched on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Suddenly, the apartment went dark as we realized that the power had gone out. Making the most of the situation, we resorted to taking hour long naps before our daily afternoon excursion.
After a refreshing snooze, we headed to to the Silk Market downtown to spend a boatload of spending money. After about half an hour of driving in our little coach bus, we finally arrived at the indoor market and were given roughly two and a half hours to explore seven floors of booths and shop till we drop, which most of us did. When we first walked in, we went with Megan (who happens to know all the ins and outs of the market) to find black market 2008 Olympics shirts for a reasonable price. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful and split into small groups to browse. As we walked the narrow aisles in between the booths, hundreds of vendors tugged at our sleeves, shouted out prices, and attempted to lure us to buy their wares, which were all overpriced. That's where the wonderful art of bargaining and Julia's wonderful translation skills came quite handy as we put ourselves in suspended moments of frustration as we pounded numbers back and forth on the calculators and argued with the very stubborn vendors. By the end of the day, we were all quite pleased with our purchases of knock off designer labels and traditional clothes, bags, and scarves. After leaving the market we ate dinner Peiking duck restaurant, whose food was delicious! Each time we stopped eating due to our exploding stomachs, they brought more food. In order to eat Peiking duck properly, Brent taught us that we must take the thin pancake, a couple of pieces of duck dipped in plum sauce, some veggies (I personally enjoyed asparagus) and wrap everything up and enjoy. His advice definitely worked because my meal was delicious. Once again, Ben tried the craziest foods on the table and ate a ridiculous amount of them, while we all laughed ourselves to tears. Tonight's bizzare specialty were duck tongues, which I didn't love due to the strange, bony texture. For dessert, the waitress brought us a plate of fresh fruit, and I tried dragon fruit, which was sort of a cross between a kiwi and a plum and was pink and white with black seeds. On the way home, after completely stuffing ourselves, Megan, Caroline, and I attempted to watch 'Beauty and the Beast' on the portable "EVD" player, which must to our dismay, did not play. We finally arrived back at our apartment after another fun filled day in Beijing, realizing that our remaining time is dwindling and Steph reminded us that we must find the sweetness in each moment that we have left.


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