Day 8

"You want to buy watch?  Roleeex?  Omeeega?  How 'bout purse?  Praaada?  Coach?  I give you best price!   BEST PRICE FOR YOU!!!  Meester?  Lady?  How 'bout YOU lady?  Very bootifull, you come and look.. Just LOOK!" is all we heard today.  It was a day by ourselves in Puxi. First we went back to the Tai Kang Lu district and the Yuyun Gardens.  Pete and Diane had taken us here before but we wanted to explore some more.  Di had a phone meeting from home so she didn't have to go in early.  My diane was VERY thankfull for that 'cause she got to sleep in and we all know how my baby like her sleep!  After dropping Di off at Jin Mao we kidnapped her driver again and headed toward our unknown fate.  It wasn't too crowded when we got there but that was soon to change.  By 11:00 we were in the midst of a tidal wave of short, dark-haired people.  I actually have video of Diane walking through the masses and believe me - although she is about the same height she is very easy to pick out!  Blonde was a good idea indeed! We passed by a hair booth and three young asian girls started in:  "You come in, we fix your hair bootifull!"  Well, before I could figure out something clever to say in Chinese they had her in a chair and one was braiding while another was picking out all sorts of treasures to adorrn her golden locks while the third was hovering over her and watching the first lady braid and "ooing and awing" at how "bootifull you hair is".  By the time they were done and gave us the price and we realized we would have to mortgage the house to pay for it (which incedentally, Spenser has informed me is now His and Katreena's.  Apparentally there is a room available for us at Doug and Lauries...) she negotiated for less and we left.  In all honesty the lady did a wonderfull job braiding her hair and it looked very nice and was fun to watch. And yes, I have video. One of the reasons we wanted to go back there was there is a place in the market that is famous for making dumplings.  By 11:00 the line is probabally a hundred yards long and it keep going like that or farther all day.  We really wanted to try them so in line we went.  I stood in line while Diane explored around the people - she was having fun looking and I wasn't too worried as long as she didn't go too far away from me (refer back to the blond hair thing).  We were in line for about 40 minuted and finally got to the window.  you get 16 dumplings for 12 Qui.  We each got a "set" of these and found a place to eat with ten of our newest Chinese friends.  Lunch cost us about $1.20 each and it was more than we could eat.  We gave our leftovers to a Chinese lady who was obviousally looking for someone to give her something to eat and continued on..  I bought Diane a set of earphones for her Ipod - her's had broke.  We got a really nice set of Sony ear-buds (I'm POSITIVE they were authentic!).  They wanted 150 Qui but of course that was ridiculas so we chatted a bit and I got them for her for 40 Qui. They actually are really nice and honestly were probabally worth the 150 to start with, they have a really nice sound quality.  After walking a lot more and looking at all the things the vendors were POSITIVE we needed (LADY, come here!  I have Goochee purse!  You look!) we found Mr. Luo and off we went Now the plan had been to search for a battery for the digital and maybe get another one for the video camera.  Pete had told us of a place and I ask Mr. Luo to take us there.  Apparentally he didn't quite understand my VERY CLEAR Chinese and we ended up somewhere completelly different than where we wanted to be.  After walking around for a while we noticed this.  I heard a couple of ladies speaking english so I asked them and they said "try telling him to go to.............".  We did that and sure enough we ended up exctally where I wanted to be.  This is the biggest electronics place I have ever seen!  Two buildings, both four or five stories tall and PACKED with little Kiosks of electronics vendors.  Think Costco size, four or five stories high, with 20 x 20 booths of every electronic brand you have ever heard of and a whole lot I'm sure you haven't.  It was amazing!  We went to about four of them and although I could get them to give me the camera battery at the price I wanted I could not seem to get them to see my way on the video batteries - cheap bastards!  We did find a nice case for Diane's IPod.  They originally wanted 120 Qui - I think not! (Di has been a great teacher to me!)   After some friendly chatter and a couple of "winks" to the lady behind the counter - I think she liked me - we got it for 30 Qui.  Nothing's too good for my gal! Um, unfortunatally my opinion of what the batteries were worth has kind of backfired and we still don't have them but I'm not done yet! Mr. Luo then dropped us off at CaarFour - it's a market/shops/food court type of place that Pete and Diane had taken us to our first day here.  We shopped a bit, had a bite to eat and got some essentials for the house (beer) and then headed home. Audrey, Diane's assistant, had scored us some tickets to The Shanghai Circus Theater, an acrobat show in Puxi that is very popular (think Cirque du Solie on a smaller scale) so we got ready to go to that and Mr. Luo dropped us off around 19:00.  We got our tickets and before entering the Theatre we decided to get a munchie and something to drink (you can take food and drink into the Arena).  We found an authentic Chinese Vendor who sold stuff so we bought a few Authentic Chinese Snacks.   One was a potato chip type of snack called "Pree-ngl-es", another was a sweet snack called "em-&-em's" and a drink named "pe-ps-i lite".  They tasted commonlly farmiliar....... The show was wonderfull and afterwards we got a call from Pete and Diane to join them for a drink at a resturant they were at.  It was there anniversary - I think their 63rd..... They had gone to dinner and enjoyed some "alone time" so we figured "well, enough of that" and joined them for wine and great conversation.  The time flew by and before we knew it it was almost midnight!  We had Mr. Luo collect us and headed home and to bed. It was a great day and a wonderfull night.