Saturday, August 05, 2006
It is Tuesday night here in China Hamilton Chicago 
always say the Asians will stare at Americans walking down the street but now with the six of us as a group we have a large black man (probably the only one any of these people will ever see in their lives) and a tall blonde girl (which people assume she is famous or a super model). WOW do people stare. It is actually kind of creepy sometimes. Yesterday in class we learned how to count and general greetings. Then we took the bus to a beautiful public park with a large statue in the sea called "The Fish Lady". There were amazing views of the sea and surrounding mountains/city/park/everything! Unfortunately I am having problems figuring out how to put pictures up on this blog so I might just have to put them on a general photo service for people to see. Today we learned how to bargain and then went to the market. INSANE!? I was picturing some guys with towels laid out on the concrete with some DVDs and cheap necklaces. No. Its insane. Its like a ridiculously intense mall the size of Camp Randall Stadium, with hallways the size of grocery store isles, and millions of tiny shops all selling really, really, really good rip-offs of clothes, electronics, watches, you name it, you can buy it. I bought X-Men 3 for 5 kuai. Do you know what that is in American? Ab
out 63 cents. Its a good copy and the movie isn't even out on DVD in the states yet?! I also got Nike rip-off running watch for about $6.25 American and the ENTIRE COLLECTION of James Bond DVDs (20 movies) for about 14 us dollars. ISN'T THAT INSANE?!?! Oh, and they are mostly recent movies. I'm talking came out in theaters last Friday. Pablo bought Miami Vice, I saw Pirates 2 and a whole bunch of other movies that are only in theaters. It was crazy. And sweet rip off watches. Will got a rip off Rolex for $20 US. And its a NICE rip off, it has running gears, a nice crank and the whole deal. I guess none of us are watch conesures (horrible spelling) but all the tell tale sings of a fake were not present. I think I'm going to go back and get the same watch he got and a couple others for myself. $20?!? That was the dangerous part though, even though its really cheap in US dollars, you can still add up a bill fast. And you have to barter! I'm really not that good at it but I tried and got some stuff knocked down from original asking price. I think that's it for today. Feel free to email me if you have any specific questions. Otherwise I hope to hear from everyone soon.
always say the Asians will stare at Americans walking down the street but now with the six of us as a group we have a large black man (probably the only one any of these people will ever see in their lives) and a tall blonde girl (which people assume she is famous or a super model). WOW do people stare. It is actually kind of creepy sometimes. Yesterday in class we learned how to count and general greetings. Then we took the bus to a beautiful public park with a large statue in the sea called "The Fish Lady". There were amazing views of the sea and surrounding mountains/city/park/everything! Unfortunately I am having problems figuring out how to put pictures up on this blog so I might just have to put them on a general photo service for people to see. Today we learned how to bargain and then went to the market. INSANE!? I was picturing some guys with towels laid out on the concrete with some DVDs and cheap necklaces. No. Its insane. Its like a ridiculously intense mall the size of Camp Randall Stadium, with hallways the size of grocery store isles, and millions of tiny shops all selling really, really, really good rip-offs of clothes, electronics, watches, you name it, you can buy it. I bought X-Men 3 for 5 kuai. Do you know what that is in American? Ab
out 63 cents. Its a good copy and the movie isn't even out on DVD in the states yet?! I also got Nike rip-off running watch for about $6.25 American and the ENTIRE COLLECTION of James Bond DVDs (20 movies) for about 14 us dollars. ISN'T THAT INSANE?!?! Oh, and they are mostly recent movies. I'm talking came out in theaters last Friday. Pablo bought Miami Vice, I saw Pirates 2 and a whole bunch of other movies that are only in theaters. It was crazy. And sweet rip off watches. Will got a rip off Rolex for $20 US. And its a NICE rip off, it has running gears, a nice crank and the whole deal. I guess none of us are watch conesures (horrible spelling) but all the tell tale sings of a fake were not present. I think I'm going to go back and get the same watch he got and a couple others for myself. $20?!? That was the dangerous part though, even though its really cheap in US dollars, you can still add up a bill fast. And you have to barter! I'm really not that good at it but I tried and got some stuff knocked down from original asking price. I think that's it for today. Feel free to email me if you have any specific questions. Otherwise I hope to hear from everyone soon.# posted by Mike @ 2:35 AM 
