Saturday was a very long, but good, day. After the meeting, I slept until about 10:15. Then I got up and hurriedly showered. I was a bit late getting done to meet Richard to go to the market, but Kerry was late getting back from tutoring anyway. He told me that he might need to find a new place to tutor--details on this later.
We managed to find a cab with Didi to go to the market with not trouble, which shocked me a bit. But the ride to the Jiashan Market was long. The weather was a bit nippy today--windy and a bit cold--but I can't complain compared to what they're going through in MN right now. We enjoyed the market a lot. We bought some plates as gifts, noshed on quesadillas (yay Mexican food!), bought some brownies and cheesecake, and even purchased some tea towels and coasters from a small business called Pinyin Press. I also bought two fans from the fan lady in the alley: her price has gone up from 40 to 50 RMB, though. Tsk tsk. Overall, Richard is very enjoyable to hang out with--a down-to-earth guy who seems very nice. Probably because he's from Wisconsin. :)
Once the market was done, Kerry and I took the subway to the Museum of Contemporary Art. We had a heck of a time finding it: we didn't know that it was in People's Park. Once we got there, much to our chagrin, we received confirmation that it was closed for the day (a British couple we met on the way warned us of this). So we just waited for Janetta and Elliot to show--they were a bit late, but they finally did appear. We started chatted with them, but a beggar kept hanging around us. "Zou kai!" I kept saying. "Zai Jian!" (Go away! Goodbye!) Janetta and Elliot had a yen to go to the silk market, so that's where we headed: another subway ride. Lots of high-pressure sales people at the market. Elliot was quite skilled at haggling with them, though, in spite of the fact that I knew more Chinese. I admired how tough he was! Elliot and I bought socks; Kerry bought belts; and for awhile Janetta couldn't find anything. But she came upon this one store that she absolutely adored and bought a lot of black-and-white fabrics there. It was fun helping her select things!
After the market, we went to dinner--yet another subway ride (#3 of the day)--and decided to go to DaDong in the IAMP Mall (where Morton's is). We arrived there, but we were told it was a two-hour (!!!!) wait. I was extremely suspicious of this because that's exactly what Carol was told when she tried to make reservations for me at two different DaDongs in Shanghai. That seems insane to me, but I wonder if it's actually true. Regardless, we weren't in the mood to test this, so we ended up at Grandma's Home in the same mall. By contrast, they had only a 10-minute wait: it was one of those places where you check things on the menu (and it was in English and Chinese!). We got chicken, beef, veggies with tofu, and sweet and sour ribs. Janetta and I got iced teas; Kerry got Coke (of course). I think I liked the chicken the best--same as the Grandma's in the Hongkou Plaza. (I think it was a similar menu.) The ribs were too chewy, though, and I thought the beef was too fatty, even though Kerry liked it.
Once we were done, we saw Janetta and Elliot back to Shanghai University in a cab, and then we hit the subway again: there's a station right at the Mall (South Shaanxi Road), so that's nice. But we had to switch lines twice on the way home. We took the subway to Chifeng and then hopped on the 745 and walked home.
One negative note: coming home from the subway, I noticed that I lost my subway card for a second time and had to buy a new one. It's okay, though: I had only 17 RMB (about 2 bucks) left on the one I lost. I have no idea how I lost it, but oh well. Kerry hasn't lost any, so I have him beat 2-0 in lost subway cards so far.
I didn't do schoolwork today, but that's okay. Sometimes it's fun to have an off-day.
Saturday pics:
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| Richard and Kerry, in the alley at Jiashan Market. |
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| Janetta at the silk market. |
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| Janetta and Elliot at Grandma's Home (the restaurant). |
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