4

Hey everybody. Massage went better last night, got a different girl, and she seemed better. Kept my grungies on too so no chance of exposure. That helped me relax. Today the group went on another optional tour so I have been by myself all day. I got up and ate breakfast in my pajamas with the group at 7am. Then I went back to my room and watched TV and slept until about 10:30, and got up and showered and went out for the day. I took a cab to the Pearl Market, where you can get real pearls for cheap cheap cheap. They are imperfect, slighly lopsided pearls so that's why they are inexpensive. I bought a necklace, a bracelet, earrings and a strand of pearls. I negotiated hard and got a good price. The lady laughed at my first offer, but I think I did OK in the end. Especially since I'm not much of a jewelry wearer and will probably never wear the stuff. Joke's on me.
If your name is on the following list, add yourself to the people I bought presents for:
Miyo

haha that's it. But Kasey, you're going to die when you see what I got her. I am SO excited to show you.



After the pearl market I ventured out into the Hutongs, or shanty-town type neighborhoods where people live in cramped conditions. I took several pictures. This one guy followed me the entire time I was in there and it made me very nervous because I was alone. He kept stamping his feet. I would turn around, make eye contact with him, and then STAMP! He pointed at my camera once. I could NOT figure out what he was doing. But he stayed near me the entire time I was in the Hutongs. So I only stuck around for about an hour, especially since I was so hungry and there was no way I was going to eat at a street vendor in the ghetto of Beijing. A student aged kid came up to me and said, 'Excuse me, are you American? Welcome to China' in the CUTEST most broken English I have ever heard. I thought that was so cool. A beggar asked me for money, and I pulled what I thought was small change out of my pocket, and I went for the wrong pocket, so he got my cab fare. 20 Yuan. ($2.50 US) I was like, crap how am I going to get home now? But I hailed a cab anyway and made the driver wait at my hotel while I changed some money. Of course there were ten people in line at the changing table. Eventually the cabbie came in the hotel looking for me so I gave him a 10 Yuan tip because I felt so bad.



These emails are a little boring right now I know. It's because I have internet in my hotel, so I'm writing more often, and not much happens in between visits to the computer. I will tell you that I washed all of my laundry in the tub today. I felt very do-it-yourself-y. The laundry service at my hotel is insane crazy expensive (50 Yuan for one pair of pants. 18 Yuan for one pair of underwear. 8 Yuan per dollar.) So I washed them myself. But the joke's on me again, because we have to have our luggage ready by 10PM tonight for our flight to Xi'an and there's no way all my stuff will be dry by then, so I'll be wasting valuable shopping time blow drying my socks.
Oh well.

Love to all,
More later

Kady Tsang Tse Yang