Thursday 17 July, 2008
Despite a bit of a sore head from the night before, I managed to drag myself out of bed to go to the markets with Lauren and Jess N. Everyone else had to go to training so I thank my lucky stars it was not me, or else I think I would have been struggling. We spent the entire day at Silk Road bargaining with the shopkeepers and insulting their honour by insisting that it was not real leather that they were selling, but a cheap ripoff. “No no no, it’s real, it’s real” they would insist as they whipped out their lighter and started running the flame over the ‘leather’ to prove their point – which is a fallacy anyway. But even though it was tiring at times, it was lots of fun and I got plenty of bargains and presents for myself and my friends. I’m nearly finished my present shopping, so that shows how much I’ve spent haha! Before we knew it it was 6pm and we were still haggling with the shopkeepers, so we hightailed it out of there and caught a cab home. Dinner was at a dingy little Xishuan restaurant in the backstreets, which was pretty delicious. The only complaint I had was when a chicken foot turned up in our fried chicken and Paul made rude gestures with it before Josh chased me out of the restaurant with it. Good day all in all – I’m really beginning to love Beijing.
