Shopping-induced Satisfaction!

Today I went with Pei to Ya Xiu Market to get suits made! We went around and picked out material and designs and got measured and bargained it down and had a pretty super time. I love shopping with Pei because she is so good-natured and silly that it keeps me from getting shopping stress. Yay! We went to a bunch of tailors, and ended up both getting approximately the same suit, 3 pieces (jacket, pants, and skirt) for $100 American. And it's going to be tailored to fit; beat that! We are going back on Thursday to have them fitted. See, I may be spending buckets of money in China but at least I am getting a lot of bang for my buck, right? Today I also bought long shorts and a skirt with lots of colors and a short denim skirt that seemed to be the only one that wasn't obscenely short but I had to bargain really hard for it because it's True Religion (which, for those of you who maybe aren't as up on your really expensive American fashion, is a really famous and expensive American brand) and the girls who were selling it to me were SO CUTE. They wanted a high price, and I gave them my highest price, and they wouldn't agree so I walked away, and as I walked further they called out lower and lower prices to me until they were 10 kuai above my asking price. I didn't want to pay the last 10 kuai (can't lose face!), but they were like come on come on it's just 10 kuai, give us 10 more kuai so we can go buy ice cream, don't you want us to have ice cream? And they were so adorable and had been so nice that I really did want them to have ice cream, but I didn't want to give in to pay the extra 10 kuai. I got it for my price in the end after we agreed to buy some more stuff, but I still felt a little bad. I wanted to get them ice cream!

Ya Xiu was so much fun that Pei and I had to tear ourselves away at the end. We were in this little stall that was full of clothes that were walking the fine fine line between AMAZING and ABOMINATION. They were so crazy that they were kind of awesome, and we sort of wanted to buy things but they were so expensive it was making us sad. Bu hao. Oh well, there are lots more cheap and wacky clothes still out there. Hooray!

Tonight we had chuanr night and went to this place where we ate lots of food on a stick, including (my immediate family members will appreciate this more than most, for Bill Cosby-related reasons*)...CHICKEN HEART! It was pretty good, really. Better than congealed pig blood on a stick, even. Jealous? Yeah, you know it.

*Start smearin' that Jell-O!

Tomorrow after class will be more shopping adventures with Rebekah and Pei Pei! We are going to scour every market in Beijing for the prettiest of clothes and the awesomest of bargains before we leave!