The international group in China did some shopping and dining tonight. A group of 10 of us made the trip down Nanjing Road. Nationalities represented included: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Germany and the US.
All week I've been feeling like ugly American, as all I speak (reasonably) fluently is English. Granted, I could survive with my knowledge of Spanish, but that is about it. Elsewhere, I depend in the education of others.
What I didn't realize until tonight was how several if my pan-Asian counterparts were in as bad a shape as me. Granted, they spoke a second language, namely English, but faced with some if the locals, they were as depended on the help of our Chinese speaking friends as much as I. For some reason, I think the perception is if you take an American plus someone from another country, and put them both in a third country foreign to them both, the American will have more trouble adapting. That was not the case. For our dinner, all the Asians wanted to go to a noodle place because they were "sick of eating rice". Both the German and I found this odd, we went with the flow.
The shopping went well. I had to get a new bag, to carry everything back that I had accumulated. As was mentioned to me, my face is not good for bargains, so the local from China, Tina, and the woman from Singapore who was also looking for a bag accompanied me. Bargaining got easier when you are not committed to a particular item. Plus, the same bags were in several of the same shops.
I started getting a feel for the prices and I figured out my max price, 150 Chinese (about $20 US). I was about to tell this to Tina, who was negotiating on my behalf, when she tells the shopkeeper "150!". Yep, I was feeling good about hitting the right price.
Three other things made me me feel more at home here tonight
1. After the negotiation, Tina started asking me questions in Chinese. When I reminded her I only speak English, she smiled, laughed and said "oh yeah right, I forgot!"
2. Tina decides to buy the same bag at the same price.
3. There is a Krispy Kreme in Shanghai.
Yep, I'm liking this place more and more.
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