SUNDAY FUNDAY!

 Such a good day! It started a little rocky because I was having issues with withdrawing money from my debit card, but after a little troubleshooting and lots of help from my advisor and my dad, everything worked out! We met up with Ruby (one of our student advisors from Tsinghua

University) and took the subway for about an hour downtown to the Pearl Market.

 

The Pearl Market was sooo cool! Contrary to my expectations, it had way more than just pearls for sale. You could find anything from electronics to silk to purses and shoes. Prime spot for some Mother’s Day shopping, I’d say 😉 I was actually surprised that Mother’s Day is not just a Hallmark Holiday- it’s recognized here in China too!

 

But back to the Pearl Market- OMG THE VENDORS ARE CRAZY! They give you some hyper inflated price for a knockoff, then say something about giving you a tourist/student/American/friend discount, then show you a mildly less ridiculous price, then ask you to name a price (which is usually like

200 Rmb less than their asking price, in my case), and then proceed to scream “YOU NO NICE!!!!!” or “NOOO! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU???” My strategy now is to just stick to my guns and walk away until they agree to my price. I should say *TRY to walk away, because most of the time they either death grip your arm or completely block and chase you if you make a break for it.

 

My craziest vendor experience so far goes a little something like this: I was walking by some purses and expressed .01% of interest in a bag as I walked by and somehow before I even knew what happened, this vendor girl had reached over her counter and grabbed my pointer finger in her hand!

She tugged so desperately that it cracked like every little bone in my finger. Felt kinda good because I’m all about knuckle cracking, but that little stunt cost her my patronage.

 

 After the Pearl Market, we walked a little way to the Temple of Heaven.

It was actually a series of temples where the emperor of China would go every year to pray to the gods for a good harvest in the upcoming seasons. Pretty much seemed like everyone who used the temples were praying for healthy crops and good weather, so that’s practical at least.

Oh, on a completely unrelated note- we saw a group of Asians in McDonald’s today that were all wearing 76ers jerseys! It was hilarious, and no worries I got a picture.

 

So we navigated back to the hotel on the subway again. Even though I felt like I needed 7 showers and 12 hours of sleep, we all packed our swimsuits and towels up right away and headed to the Water Cube! Hopefully you haven’t forgotten, but the Water Cube was the 2008 Olympics swimming venue where records on records on records were blown out of the water (no pun intended). Since then, Beijing has converted part of the pool into an indoor water park! And lucky for us, we got a huge group discount and it only cost about $15 to go!

 

I really can’t even describe how much fun it was, but just imagine so much fun and then multiply that a few times. There were 3 slides in particular that were absolutely WILD! Like dangerously so. My favorite was this one where you stand up in a tiny chamber, you hear an ominous countdown, the floor opens up, and you plummet into a SHEER drop for 15m before doing a freaking LOOPDY LOOP and finally getting to the bottom. Scarily awesome.

 

And of course, quick shoutout to my wonderful, beautiful, and hardworking mom on this Mother’s Day. Mom- thanks for everything you do and thank you for making this incredible trip to China a reality for me! I wish I was there with you and the fam today, but know that I’m thinking of you and will eat many insects/foul things in your honor!

 

SO that was my Sunday. Hope everyone is having fun too!! Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to sleep heavily. I don’t suggest that anyone goes to a water park the day after climbing the Great Wall. I need a massage like nobody’s business. Good night!