HoliDAY 2

Another eventful day thanks to the Dragon Boat Festival holiday!

 

Woke up yesterday morning and went walking with Denise. It felt so good to be out in the fresh morning air. Worked a bit more on my Chinese tan! It was nice though; I had a wonderful conversation with Denise about life and marriage, priorities and goals, and the power of thoughts. A great way to start a day, indeed!

 

In the afternoon we went to the oldest library in China, located right in Ningbo. It wasn't really a library, though. More like a museum; it reminded me of an old monastery. It was the old stone buildings midst vast, gorgeous gardens. Inside were tons of ancient, hand-bound books and stone-carved records. There was even a black bird in a cage saying "ni hao" and "hello" to the visitors! The grounds, of course, were my favorite. Just like in Europe. I love imagining people from hundreds of years ago, in the traditional Chinese dress, walking around those grounds, scrolls in hand. It really was beautiful. I'll see if I can post some pictures later on... most of them have the girls in them, and I don't want to go posting pictures of other people's children on the Internet.

 

After the library, we all piled in the van and took off to an antique market. (As in cheap, dirty things trying to pass as antique.) There are a TON of trinkets and beads lined up on the outdoor carts. And if you touch it, they are gonna do their best to get you to buy it. They put things in your hands, hand things to you, try to put on necklaces and bracelets, call after you...anything to make a sell. They'll start really high with their price, and then you barter down. We were able to bargain things down to below 60% what was originally offered. And even then they are still getting a good deal out of it. What makes it hard is that they are really good actors. They know they can get people to pay more by making them feel bad, especially tourists. It's kind of a dilemma, because since you don't know how much things are actually worth and what they paid, you don't want to rip the sellers off. They are trying to make a living, and I'm just glad I don't have to barter trinkets and junk to feed my family. But at the same time you shouldn't pay any more than what you're willing, 'cuz even when you do get the price low, they are still making minimum of 100-200% margins. It was fun though, I got to practice my bartering just a little. Hopefully I'll get the chance to fine tune my skills even more!

 

We headed home with our treasures, and relaxed for the rest of the evening. I spent it with the girls while Denise and Troy met up with some friends for dinner. We went on a bike ride to pick up Izzy, and played around all evening. Even got Haley asleep and in bed before they got home from dinner. Now that is talent!