Yesterday I went to take my new colleague to get to know the ropes of some good shopping places. The first stop was the DongJiadu giant cloth market, where he had a custom winter coat made, a suit and some shirts. I ordered a winter weight suit, with a red vest, to make it appropriate for the office Christmas party. We're suppposed to wear something early-historical Shanghai or Tang. I googled that and other than having to wear a traditional shiny Chinese buttoned up top, the option was to dress in a drop dead elegant suit. I opted for the second.
The next stop was the Hongqiao International Pearls Market for some Christmas shopping of good quality uhm, copies. Sometimes westeners are irrational when bargaining here and quite despective to the retailers. You are supposed to bargain but it is irrational when people think they can get a good quality item for next to nothing just because it is an imitation product. The items used to make it cost money too, as well as the labor.
Today has been busy with meditating, retrieving my mat from the shala, talking with the Teacher about the challenges to our practices that just living here creates, studying green concepts, studying Mandarin, language exchange, cooking for the week, etc.
0 comments:
Post a Comment