Well my feet last night must have been doing a rain dance instead of a happy dance since it was pretty much a wash out today. So I gave them a rest and caught up on emails, did some laundry and just hung out and chatted with all the travel junkies hanging out at the hostel. But I did manage to get out a little. So funny story... I wanted to get some minutes added to my sim card on my cell phone (I bought a cheapo one here) so I ask at the front desk where to get it recharged. She tells me right across the street. So I go over there and of course the lady speaks no english and I'm trying to explain with hand signals and pointing what I want to no avail. So I go back over to the hostel and the girl is nice enough to come with me back to the store and be my interpreter. Well the two of them start what appears to be massive arguing and yelling. After about 5 minutes of high pitched chinese talking, I end up with my sim card recharged. When I ask the girl what was going on, it had nothing to do with me and my card. They were talking about some chinese soap opera! What a hoot. The other funny thing is you just keep forgetting how cheap everything is and since pretty much everything is paper money, you're dealing in 10's, 20' 50's, etc. So I'm just automatically thinking in dollar terms. So I run out to hit the ATM and it's pouring and I only have my rain poncho and of course being the marketing gurus that the chinese are, every corner there's someone selling umbrellas. I figured, what the heck, I'll just grab one to have for the rest of the trip. Well, everything is negotiable here and I mean really negotiable. So she initially wanted 10 yuan (their currency) for the umbrella but of course right away I'm thinking, 10 bucks for a cheapo umbrella that I'll probably toss soon, no way. So I negotiate her down to 5 yuan and walk away with an umbrella and forget that with the currency conversion of roughly 6 or 7 to 1, I just whittled her down to 80 cents for an umbrella! Too crazy. But since I was getting a little bit of cabin fever I decided to catch the acrobatic show in the evening. I had read that it was really good and this tour group tours the world and has won many awards. I know, I know, you're thinking, OK, Jeff how much did that cost you? Well this one you have to remember is a big major performance in a city larger than New York, is at a theater that is brand new and gorgeous, and is probably the equivalent of a broadway show in New York... so I decided I'd splurge and go... for the huge price of $14! LOL. Gotta love it. Well that's all for now. I'm hoping the rain will clear tomorrow and I can get back out and explore some more. This is a really cool city. Jeff PS: I don't have any really great pictures to share from today so I thought I'd a share another cool one from when I was at the Great Wall. This is a shot looking back at the Wall from one of the doorways. Enjoy!
The Wandering Italian 