Yet another fun adventure

Yesterday, Laura, another girl on my team, and I decided to go to the silk market to buy some gifts. The silk market is a giant shopping center with booth after booth of anything you can think of from paintings to jewelry. You have to bargain with the sellers to get a good price. The people there all want you to buy from them so they will grab you and yell at you. They always say,"girl, pretty necklace, come look girl". They know a decent amount of English, but only the words they need to know to sell their merchandise. It is a very crazy and busy place. There are lots of people and not a lot of room. We always have to convince them that we live in Beijing and they can't rip us off b/c we know how much the items really sell for.

Laura and I made it to the silk market we figured out how to use the subway. It took about an hour to get there by subway. Then we started to shopping and bargaining with people. We have never been before and no one else wanted to go with us because they wanted to go with old team members who have been before. Laura and I decided that we wanted to try and bargain for ourselves. So we started shopping and I actually was able to get good prices on some jewelry and some pictures. If someone would not give me a good deal I would leave and find someone else. So we felt very accomplished after getting there and buying items for a good deal.

We started home and we had to hurry because we had one hour to get home and it took 50 minutes by subway to get home. The subway pulls up and it is so packed with people that their faces were smeared against the glass. When the doors opened only one tiny person got off. Laura and I looked at each other and were unsure if we should try to fit. So we squeezed in, I barely fit when the door closed. I did not even have to hold on to anything because there were so many people I could not move. I could not even raise my hands to fix my hair. Thankfully we only had to go a few stops on that subway car. The next subway was not nearly as full. We made it back just in time for our meeting. It was a great outing, I like taking little adventures like that because it makes me feel like I have more independence.