More non-work, more exploration

Lunch yesterday was good. I wasn't sure what most of it was, but I tried a bunch of stuff and none of it was terrible. I had a fried egg--it was hard boiled and then deep fried and covered in sauce, so that when I first picked it up I thought it was some sort of meatball. Then we asked George, one of our Chinese co-workers, and it sounded like he said "It's a fried eye." Of course, that was about the be the end of my trip right there, but he corrected us and all was well. It was good, too. Of course I had a bunch of other things including some pork and some watermelon. It appears that people in Beijing love watermelon as much as, if not more than, North Carolinians. Though the watermelon was cut in slices, there was one woman who must have had an entire watermelon's worth of slices on her plate!

I came back to work after lunch, and picked up where I left off not working.

On a side note, my good friend Chenkai Liu, who chooses to be called Karen, told me that I should get used to being a slacker for this job because it's Chinese hospitality to treat guests well, and that they don't like to push others (especially guests) too much. I can understand this attitude, but I came here to work!

I did get a (single) story to edit in the afternoon. It was about two students who committed suicide just before the college entrance exams. The article wasn't poorly translated, but I was a little concerned about how it was presented. There were no names in the article at all. The story referenced "a boy" from a rural area and "a high school girl." Since the story came through Xinhua, which is boasted as being the Chinese Associated Press but actually functions as more of a censorship filter, I don't think the people in the newsroom here have any idea what these students were named. We aren't a part of discussions of news value, but I wonder if the editors thought about the value of the story. On the one hand, "a boy and a girl committed suicide before exams," doesn't give very much information that can either be verified or used in any meaningful way. On the other hand, perhaps bringing the issue of pre-exam suicide to light is more important than the individual stories. Of course, if the latter was considered a reason for publishing the story, one would also expect to see a follow-up story about recent exam suicide trends. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the kind of news this organization publishes.

Anyway, on with my day. I left work and Dan and I went out exploring, since we hadn't really been out very much around the apartment. I feel like I have a better grasp of the few blocks nearby now, even though I can't read a thing. We walked quite a while until we came to a major road. Along that road were several shops, so we continued down that road for a while and walked in a few. In one, I tried on some shorts that were at least labeled as Calvin Klein. The original price tag said they were about 1,300 Yuan, which would mean almost $200. Probably not way off for the brand. Then I noticed that there was another tag attached that said 150 Yuan, which was more like $22. The lower number was probably the actual price, and I probably should have bought them. But I figured it's a little too early to start buying everything I like.

We walked a little more, and turned back. We were getting pretty hungry, and we had to go swing back by the apartment to grab Brian (the outside door of the apartment requires a magnet key, and since we only have two to share between the five of us, we have to travel in packs). We stopped by the supermarket on the way home and I grabbed a few more snacks.

Brian, Dan, PA and I went to the famed "noodle place"--at least that's what PA, Brian and Annie kept calling it. It turns out they don't actually have that many noodle dishes, but the ones they have are good. I had a lot of food left over, so I will at least get one more meal out of it, and I payed 15 Yuan (a little more than $2) for the meal. I also got a beer, which was pretty big but low in actual alcohol concentration. It was also pretty cheap, but I don't remember what it costs because we had to do a combined check, since we can't tell the waiters to split it up.

After dinner we started walking back toward the office. PA mentioned that he wanted new headphones, and I realized I did too. Sitting for long periods of time wearing earbuds makes my ears hurt. We went into the store and I found a pair that I liked. They were marked at just under 300 Yuan, or about $45. That seemed outrageous, and since I learned that prices are negotiable almost anywhere, I had my first experience with bargaining.

Of course, the guy didn't speak English, which made this even more fun. Actually, at first Dan and I weren't sure if this was the sort of store where it was okay to bargain, but I figured no harm could come for trying. I offerred 200 Yuan to start off with--go low and hope, right?--by writing the numbers on a piece of paper. He pointed to the sticker price again. So I offerred 250, and he pointed again at the 300 Yuan sticker. I didn't want to pay that much; I didn't even really want to pay 200. So I said no and started to walk away. At that point he called me back and pointed where I'd written 250. Of course, that was still a little much for headphones, so I said no. But I did learn that the prices are at least a little negotiable. And it was pretty fun!

We came up to the office for a little bit to check email and such, then we went home and went to bed.

This morning I woke up bright and early again to get up to the office to call home. On the way in, I stopped to buy a breakfast that I'd heard about. It's basically a piece of fried dough about the size of my forearm. The texture was not unlike a croissant, but it was fried instead of baked. It was quite a bit of food, and it was--this is the best part--1 Yuan. Yep. Seven cents. Of course, it was just fried dough, and I really wanted it to have cinnamon or donut glaze or something sweet on it. It would be a good thing to buy in the morning, except that I will be the size of the plane by the time I come home.

Work was a little more productive today. I got three stories to edit. I still ended up spending a lot of time on the Internet--like right now. The last story I had was sent to me around 2:30, and it was edited by 3, and since then there have been no stories to work on.

Lunch was not as good as it was yesterday. I'm trying really hard to try new things, but I couldn't bring myself to try most of the stuff in the cafeteria today. I did get to try a neat festival food. It was rice filled with some delicious sweet paste (which was either dates or a red bean paste), and then wrapped in leaves and tied up with a little bow. I should have taken a picture! It was pretty good, but a little difficult to eat with chopsticks because it was so sticky.

Steven's mom will arrive tonight, so I'll be meeting up with her and hopefully she'll show me something neat! Hooray for adventure!