4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July Everybody! So I know that I might be in china, but you are never to far away to return home for birthdays. So for America’s birthday we decided to go to the American Embassy for a fourth of July cookout. Now they don’t just let any old person walk into our countries second largest embassy, you have to be pretty special to receive an invite here. So I knew a few people, made some calls, and boom-bada-bing we all have invitations sitting in our email inboxes. So the Fourth of July party was actually on the third of July, and after analyzing all the possibilities of time zone differences, Daylight savings time, and leap year changes, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why they would possibly throw the Fourth of July party on the Third, but they did and for those hamburgers and hotdogs we were promised, we would of showed up on any day in any month.

The party was at 5 and we decided go to Beijing and return on the same day as to save some money and not stay in a hotel. We got to Beijing around 11 and had 5 hours in the city before we went to the embassy. We ended up going to Qiananmen again and you’ll never guess who I saw there, My ‘good Chinese friend’ who invited me out for tea then stuck me with the bill. I always had the feeling but it was confirmed that this guys intentions were foul the whole time. He was lying through his teeth the whole time that I talked to him this second meeting. He said he didn’t remember me at all, and I’m not positive but the girl with him, ‘his sister’ apparently, wasn’t the same sister that was with him before. I couldn’t believe when Leonard, Sanjay and I saw him again. And it was the same guy alright because I would never forget that Kermit the frog voice in a million years. So at the price of ruining every American’s reputation for this guy, I told him exactly how I felt about what he did, and then I left.

So we wandered around Qiananmen shopping district and decided that we weren’t such huge fans of the 90 plus weather, so we took the subway to the indoor, air conditioned, shopping market that we had visited the first time to Beijing. We spent quite a few hours messing with the shop attendants and practicing our bartering skills, which are quite good by the way. My most successful barter story of the day is this. So I was buying a present for somebody back home and it originally started at 300 Yuan. I said 80; this shop was attended by two ladies, an older mother and her daughter in her twenties. Now they were very reluctant to come down in price, they would say like 260 or 240. And I was persistent on 80 and told them a plethora of reasons why I should be able to buy it for my price. They weren’t being very cooperative because most foreigners would pay an upwards of 200 Yuan and I was asking for less then half of that. So I changed the price. I told them that I lived in china and knew how much it’s worth and lowered my price to 60 Yuan. That’s right I went form 80 to 60. They were losing the deal! They quickly came down to meet me closer offering 100 then 90 but I stood on the rock and didn’t budge from 60. Eventually they said 70 and said it was the lowest they could do. SO I told Leonard to do exactly as I instructed him and I told the ladies 60 was the highest I could go and turned and walked away. Leonard said that I should have taken the deal and I whispered to him two simple words, Just Wait. As I got closer to the end of the row of shops I realized that I may have asked for too low and lost this steal of a deal. Way to prideful to walk back to a deal I turned down before, I realized that with every step I took away from this shop I was one step further away from them calling me back. I listened and longed to hear them call me back but they weren’t saying anything. And just before I turned a corner I heard the old woman say ‘Boy! Come back!’ I got it! I turned around, looked at Leonard and saw how amazed he was at this victory. And I slowly, pridefully strutted back to the shop to make the deal at 60 Yuan. Victory was mine!

But enough about my sixth sense in Bartering, after a few hours in the silk market we appeased Leonard’s cravings by going in a BMW dealer and sitting in his cars. It was weird to sit in cars again, we had taken taxies but short of that we hadn’t driven in cars for 4 months. After Len drove us all to America in his BMW, we stepped out to find our selves still in Beijing. We then took the Subway over to the Embassy district and stopped at the local Starbucks to change and take an Asian shower. For those of you with normal hygiene habits a shower is different than an Asian shower. The Asian shower is a combination of washing your hands and splashing some water on your face and calling it a week. After cleaning up we went to the Embassy and waited at the east gate for our escort to take us inside. Our escort turned out to be this kid the same age as me named Gene Quilin. A real nice kid who’s father and mother worked for the embassy. His father was actually the embassy’s doctor. It was interesting to talk to Gene throughout the night and find out what life was like for a kid living with his parents and two brothers in a different country. I asked where he was from back in the states and he couldn’t answer that question. He has lived in about 5 different countries but never really lived in the states. He was really a fun kid though and made us feel welcome and chilled with us the whole night.

At the Cookout we had the opportunity to talk to a few employees who worked at the embassy and I know what you’re all thinking and no Obama wasn’t there and neither was Hilary. I actually prepared the night before and looked up about the ambassador expecting to have a few minutes to talk with him. I came up with a few comments I would discuss with him about his recent involvement with the Chinese government regarding (IPR) intellectual property rights. I was ready to make a stand out impression with Ambassador Huntsman but to my dismay this potential presidential candidate in years to come was state side at the time and didn’t come to the party. But it’s ok because the best part of the evening was still there.

The Grill was there and the burgers came off juicy and hot, really beautifully done. They had the whole spread out from potato salad to the burgers to deserts. It was a classic Fourth of July party and we ate more then we could comfortably handle. I forgot to mention that they had a chili contest and we got to eat the fabulous creation of about 8 different entries. After three hours we saw that people had started to leave and we got the message so we thanked Gene and a few other people and left the Embassy. We stopped back at the Starbuck for Sanjay and Leonard felt that Chili pretty quickly and after another Asian shower we headed for the subway to go catch our train home. As we sat on the sub we realized that we were cutting it pretty close. So we had a battle plan. We laced up our shoes and tightened our belts; we were sprinting the whole way from the subway to catch a taxi and then from the taxi to our train. We sprinted to the street and realized that there weren’t any taxis ready to take us to the station. We saw some on the other side of the divided high way and without saying a word we knew what had to be done. Being carful to avoid all on coming traffic we crossed the street, jumped over the divider, then crossed the other side. We got into a taxi and told him where to go, but he told us no because we were on the wrong side of the road and it would take way to long to get to a point where he could turn and head the right direction. So we pilled out of the taxi and into a small auto rickshaw. It should have fit one person but we fit in three. We speed negotiated from 30 down to 15 and we were off. Traveling on a combination of back roads, sidewalks, and bike paths, we took a back way to get to the station. We paid and sprinted for another 5-7 minutes to get to our waiting room. I actually ran though the security check and didn’t even give my bags to be checked. We sprinted to the gate and the lady closed them right before we got through them. We asked her to let us through but she said no and we showed her that her clock was fast but she kept pointed to the sign that say you must board 5 minutes before the train departs but we were there 8 minutes before but her stupid clock was fast so we missed our train.

Luckily China is really good with this; we were able to exchange our tickets for the next train free of charge. But unfortunately it was completely filled up so our tickets were standing room only. We found a place in between cars to sit but sadly so did about 20 other Chinese who didn’t have seats. This train was absolutely packed. Evidently there is an endless amount of tickets that can be sold for every train. And this train proved our theory correct. I heard somebody say that if the train we were on crashed and everybody onboard died the death count would have been equivalent as the whole population of Montana. Unbelievable right! Anyways we arrived in ShiJiaZhuang at 2 o’clock in the morning and that was the end of a long and really fun day!

So happy Fourth of July everybody! Believe it or not I only have a few more weeks here; I think the count is 20 days until I am home! Unbelievable! Ok so I will definitely post again before I get home so look for that. Miss you all and can’t wait to see you soon!
Peace and Love!