Four days left....

I had a really fun weekend hanging out with friends and eating good food, but it was bittersweet, as it was my last weekend here in Beijing. I'm spending this week just seeing some random sights that I haven't seen yet, as well as eating my favorite foods before I leave.

Today, I took care of some shopping. My first stop was the 马连道茶叶城 (MaLianDao Tea City), which is a huge neighborhood that is filled with shops and malls selling tea. There aren't even any other stores in this area, just stores that sell tea, tea tables, tea pots, tea ceremony tools, and the like. When I first got there, I was overwhelmed, because I was just looking for rose tea, but there were too many options. I bought some from a random small store on the street, because I was (stupidly) worried I wouldn't be able to find any later, and then I went inside one of the malls that had been recommended on a website. I went to a couple of the stores/stalls on the third floor but didn't find any other rose tea. On the second floor, I bought some pretty fragrant and inexpensive rose tea for much cheaper than on the street. The girl at that store commented on my paper, on which I had taken notes on which stores to go to, as I had written most of it in English (except for things like 马连道茶叶), which she couldn't read. I asked if they had any 龙井 (LongJing) tea, and then I finally got the full experience that I had read about online. She invited me to try a couple of the teas to see which one I wanted. I was initially a little apprehensive, because I thought it would be a somewhat pressure-filled situation in which she would try to push more expensive teas at me. On the contrary, once I told her I didn't want anything too expensive, she chose two lower-quality teas to try. I then proceeded to have a very relaxing 45-60 minutes of just sitting by a fan (it was warm today), drinking cup after cup of tea with the salesgirl (from Meizhou, Guangdong province, the fourth person I know from that city now). I probably drank a liter of tea. I drank so much that I was getting sleepy and the girl joked that I had 喝醉 (gotten drunk from the tea), haha. The one I bought ended up being 55 RMB for two 两 (I think about a quarter pound), so not too bad.

I then went to Xidan to continue my search for hair ornaments for Tam. I first bought a couple of belts for myself, because they fit really really well, and it's very difficult to find belts (or anything else, besides shirts) that fit me in the US. Once I found some hair stuff, I fell into my old trap when I bargain for stuff. Susan (my fellow exchange student, from Harvard) also has this flaw, and she explained it well. The flaw is that we get too attached to the item we want, so it's difficult to walk away from the deal or offer too low a price, for fear that we won't be able to buy the item. When I went to Silk Street last week, I did pretty well, because I didn't get attached to the stuff I wanted to buy, so I offered very low prices and walked away if they weren't willing to initially bargain, only to get called back when they finally agreed to sell. Today, however, I got nervous that I wouldn't be able to find any other hair pins/clips/chopsticks, so I think - no, am certain - that I got cheated quite a bit. I bought everything from one seller, when I could and should have left to walk around, look some more, and do some comparisons. However, I reverted from my cool, confident buyer alter-ego back to my weaksauce n00b form =( =( Oh well. I think it's worth it when you're trying to make a friend happy. =)

The rest of this week will be spent eating at a couple more places that I haven't tried, seeing my friend from Beida, and running a couple more errands before I leave. Oh yea, and packing. =(