July 16, 2010
Last night was nuts. I couldn’t sleep. I went to bed around 2:45 am because I was helping a friend back in the states with an application for an internship as he had an interview the next morning, and I didn’t know if I’d be able to meet up with him before the interview. So…late bedtime and I couldn’t fall asleep. I laid in bed, rolled over, switched positions, read, listened to music and everything and nothing would work. So, around 6:15 ish, I got up and went to the gym and had a pretty good workout. I even used some weights, stretched, and swam. I love swimming! And, the gym and pool at the hotel are really nice, so it made working out that much more fun. I went back to the room and got ready for the day and then went to go have breakfast. Once again, I have to say…I love the breakfast here. It is so good compared to some of the breakfasts that we’ve had haha. Glorious!
Our first meeting for the day was actually at the hotel in one of the upstairs conference rooms. We met with Giordano, a clothing company/store line primarily in the Asia market. It was really interesting talking with the 2nd man in command for this MNC (Multi-national corporation) and discussing some of his company’s business decisions. We definitely some interesting things haha. We finished up his visit with a trip to one of their stores that happens to be pretty close to our hotel…its only about a 15 minute walk. The clothes were nice, but more than I wanted to pay. I guess last year the study abroad group got a 50% off deal, but this year we didn’t. If we got the 50% off deal, I’d definitely have bought some stuff. Haha.
Lunch was at Yokishaya or whatever it is but it wasn’t very good this time around. And they gave me the big bowl instead of the small one, and I couldn’t finish it. Weird. But as always, there is ALWAYS room for ice cream (from McDonalds). Haha. It definitely hit the spot.
We gathered as a group again and got on the subway to go to the Forbidden City. We crowded on and I was with one of my friends named Ashley in a different car than some of the others in our group. We got pushed to the center of the car and went the few stops that we needed to go and the time came to get off…except we couldn’t. There were so many people who were trying to get onto the train that they blocked us from squeezing our way out. Finally, as the buzzer was beginning to ring, I squeezed out of the car and grabbed the hand of my friend Ashely and yanked her out of the car as well. It was insane! We definitely ha a pretty good laugh over it.
Off to the forbidden city. Man. It is big. It felt like it never ended! The lamest part is that we only had about 45 minutes-1 hr to explore the place and see everything. I had so much more that I wanted to see and explore, but we at least got to hit a lot of the main buildings as we walked through. I had to stop and read about each one ,and I know I was annoying some of the people I was with (Sorry Brittany, Erika, and Joseph :-D) haha. But…I was glad that we had the time we did. The architechure is beautiful and so intricate, and the color is amazing. It is hard to believe that most of it was built (and later restored…but still) thousands of years ago. Craziness.
We were all thirsty so we went to a little shop in the city and got waters. Well, let me clarify…we attempted to get waters/drinks. One of us paid and he said we didn’t pay, even though he had the money in his hand. But, we got it all worked out. Then I paid and another girl paid, and we grabbed the water and he said we didn’t pay. We argued with him for a few minutes…and he took one of the waters back and kept the money! We argued with him a bit more (in very broken English…he didn’t really speak any at all) and then just left. It was only 3 yuan, which is really like 30 cents. Not worth my time. So, we went and waited for the group and I got some cool pictures of cute families there at the “palace museum” as they call the forbidden city. After everyone showed up, we started walking out to the bus when we were stopped by a bunch of asians wanting to take pictures with us. Haha. It was awesome! We were there for probably 10 minutes taking picture after picture after picture and then we headed out to eh bus for real. There were a lot of sellers selling things on the streets and beggers too. The worst was when this adorable little boy came up and grabbed my shirt and started tugging on it and walking with me. He started crying and begging and tugging on my shirt. My first impulse was to protect my belongings in my pocket, and then I had to just kept telling him no. We were told not to give. It is sad, but it’s the way it has to be.
We made it back to the bus and headed to the pearl market. I pulled out some money earlier in the day (and later realized that I had lost my ATM card…I’m pretty sure I left it in the ATM Machine…bummer) and was ready to shop. I decided I was going to just walk around and see what was available before I went shopping for real. The sellers in China know how to bargain and they know how to get customers. They will call you, and if you touch it its basically as if you buy it. And, they will even grab you as you are walking by in order to get you into the store. If I was looking at buying something, I’d often get blocked into the store haha. It was pretty entertaining actually. I did get ripped off a few times, but that is all part of the learning process. I will not describe what I got because I don’t want the surprise of the gifts to be revealed haha. But, I did get some awesome deals.
While I was there, I decided to look for a man bag They are pretty popular in Europe and asia, so I figured I should join in right? Haha. Well, while looking at different types, I met a seller named Kiko. She was really nice and helped me out a ton. I liked her so much I even brought a friend back to her later in the day. I wanted to buy something from her but just didn’t find anything at her store that I wanted enough to buy. Bummer. She was stinking awesome though.
It was also funny talking to some of the people in the group about how they barter with the people. Some of the people in the group were rather ruthless in their tactics and really got things down, but others were way too soft and overpaid a lot. Interesting to see the different variables. Haha.
We met as a group and went back to the hotel in the bus. A few of us went to Pizza Hut for dinner (sound familiar? I hope not because if it did I’d know you weren’t paying attention haha.) It was kind of pricey, but not too bad really…and it was really quite good. By this time, I was exhausted having had a day pretty much of no sleep. I was so tired, that I kept falling asleep in the restaurant while we were waiting for the meal (plus, it was warm in the restaurnt, which didn’t make things any easier.) I napped for a few minutes while we waited (there were 3 of us) and after probably 15 minutes, I was good to go. Mcdonalds for ice cream/dessert (now, does THAT sound familiar? ;-)
It seems like that is how I have consistently been for the last while. Sleep for a few minutes, and then go for a while…then sleep for a few minutes, and then go for a while haha. Its been working … although, I’ve been consistently tired. Gotta love it.
So, I went home and right before we left it started pouring. IT was awesome though, because with my shoes I could slide on the sidewalk a pretty good distance. What made it cool (besides the sliding) was that all these people on the sidewalk were pointing and talking about me sliding haha. It was pretty funny. I laughed an inside laugh. Ha. Ha. Haha. ☺ It was quite fun, and I’d totally do it again.
I puttered around for a while, and then fell asleep. Man…it was so good to get into bed. ☺
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