Hey, this is kinda small!

If you've been reading the blog, you know that I bought a new hoodie sweatshirt last night. Size Large.

Well, today I put it on, after I had taken off the tags, and it's tight. I figure it's perhaps just the way it's supposed to fit.

It's not too tight to wear, but let's just say that it's somewhat form fitting. I'm probably not going to do much more shopping (explanation below) while I'm here in China, and I don't feel like going back to the Super Brand Mall anyways.

Today I spent the entire day shopping. I went looking for a cheap guitar that I could play here in the hotel. On one road, Jinling Road, there are probably 20 music stores. No cheap guitars that were actually worth anything.

I also shopped on Nanjing Rd. which is one of the main pedestrian zones. I got tired of people asking if they could speak English with me and go get some coffee and be friends. There's always some angle to it. I got some good photos which I may or may not upload. My last post took me way too much time to add the pictures. I did contribute to the various blind musicians that were busking for money. Most of them were playing what's called an 'erhu'.

I also went to an area where they supposedly have good knock-off clothing and luggage and what-not. I actually bought a watch there after much negotiating and insisting that I didn't want one with the dealer. He started the deal at 800 RMB, which is about 107$. I told him 250 RMB. He made it sound like I was going to take food out of his baby's mouth. At the time, the second hand wasn't moving. I did like the design (it was a knock-off TAG Heuer) with day of the week and date function - very sleek - which is unlike most of the knock-offs that they have which are honking huge Rolex and Breitling and other brands I haven't heard of.

So I pointed out that the second hand had stopped and I wanted out of the back room (you are locked in basically - there is an electronic lock on the door that only seems to be openable by the person in the main shop.

He replaces the battery and throws in an extra battery, and I start knocking on the door to let me out. He shouts to the person on the outside to ignore my knock. They ignore. I knock some more. At that point he brings the deal down to 380, and I'm knocking harder. Then he pulls me aside (there are other people in the back room at the time and tells me 'deal for special friend, 320 RMB, I countered that with 280, and he counters with 300 RMB and I pull out the money.

Well, I get about 100 steps away from the place and started to set the time to the right time (5:00 at that point) and I notice that when I put the minute hand at 12, the hour hand is 1/2-way between 4 and 5! He said there was a 1-year warranty and I figured it was time to see how good that warranty was. I marched right back to the store.

His associate calls him out of the back room - I tell him I want my 300 RMB back. He says he'll get me another one one that works. I tell him I don't trust that I'll get a better one. He takes the watch and tries adjusting it - he thinks he's going to show me how it can be fixed and then I see him try to set it to an hour and he gets just a slight look of frustration on his face. I point at my hand and say '300, now' and reluctantly pulls the cash out of his pocket and peels off 300 and places it into my hand.

I'm done with the shopping I'm afraid. That experience has soured me to it. What a waste of time. At least I won't be visiting these types of places again on this trip. I did get a cool little tripod for the camera for 10$ so my nighttime photos won't be as blurry. That was a decent deal. They go for a little more than that (at least the type I bought) on eBay, and it smoothed over the bad deal on the watch a little bit.

I met with some other GM people for dinner at a decent Italian restaurant. Most of them are ISP (on a few year assignments at GM in China) folks. It was nice to be able to speak English without slowing down or repeating myself for a few hours. Got back to the hotel at 11:00 pm.

Going to bed.