My birthday started off properly when I was awoken by my buddy Craig with a bottle of Johnny Walker Red. I headed off to work and was greeted by my boss with a new watch and an enormous birthday cake. While teaching, many kids gave me random stickers and treats that they had. Later that night, my girlfriend Lora and I went and had a nice grilled fish dinner and birthday cake for a night cap :)
That Friday, a large group of my friends and I went out to one of my favorite restaurants in Tangshan. This place has good local Chinese food, live music, and a great atmosphere. The owner of the restaurant even bought me a cake!. He also sang my favorite breakup song called "Shawbee", which means motherfucker in Chinese. it is a fun song to here them play because everyone is shouting "Shawbee!!!" at the top of their lungs. After a few Chivas Royal shots in, things were much a blur. I do remember getting on stage and I spoke Chinese to the crowd, who were all quite impressed. After a few bits of Chinese food we made our way to the club where we drank, danced and laughed the night away.
 |
 |
The next morning I had to nurse a major hangover, but I was excited for guys day in Beijing. NO, not camping and hunting, but shoe shopping at the Silk Market!!(No homo) We arrived at about noon, ate a bit of McDonald's and headed off to shop. The Silk Market is a very famous tourist shopping attraction, complete with 7 levels of clothes, jewelry, toys, and electronics. One must use their bartering skills to get the desired price of the fake goods they chose. My fake brand of choice for the day was Timberland boots. I haggled for a very nice black pair to 340 RMB ($55) that would have coast me about $100-120 in the States. I probably could have got them for another 100 RMB cheaper, but I am not the best haggler, and the master of haggling (Craig) was occupied by his own shoe purchase at the time. It was a definitely a fun experience at the silk market, but it can get very tiring people trying to sell you any and everything. The couple tips I would recommend about going here is know the price you want to pay for something (Usually 15% of what they originally offer) and never buy electronics. My two friends learned the electronics bit the hard way by wasting 30 RMB on a fake pair of iPhone ear-buds that sounded like listening music through muffled megaphone.
One of the best highlights of the day was randomly running into one of college friends Kellie when we were leaving the silk market! I would have never expected to run into anyone I knew from home, but I was so happy I did. We caught up briefly and went on our way. Talk about small world!!
We ended the day having a very nice Indian food dinner, and hopped back on the midnight train back to Tangshan. As my friends were busy rapping to the Chinese passengers, I was thinking about what a excellent birthday celebration week I had with new friends in a country I was still getting familiar with. As much as I miss everyone back home at that moment I felt I was in the right place at the right time.
No comments:
Post a Comment