I set my alarm to 8:30 because I hate myself, and I woke up feeling really tired. I did force myself to stay awake though, and somehow, that actually helped get me more energized. For the good part of an hour and a half, I just laid in bed playing on my phone before Korey told me I should get on Runescape.
We did that for a while until Korey, Kevin, and I started complaining about being hungry. We were waiting for Hannah, who, for some reason, decided to wake up at 10:45. (Absolutely unacceptable.)
Hannah, Korey, and I headed to the 餐厅 for breakfast/lunch, and we ran into Mike, so the clan was all there minus Kevin. I bought two sandwiches because I thought I could eat them all, but that turned out to be a lie. I decided to save one for later, but as I am typing this on a Sunday morning, that clearly didn’t happen because the sandwich is still sitting on my desk oops.
Kevin did join us 30 minutes after we had already eaten, and we made plans to go to 回民街 after we finished eating lunch.
The four of us walked to the metro and took a short ride to 钟楼. We actually had no idea which exit we were supposed to go out of, so we sort of just guessed. It wasn’t bad because we just had to walk about five minutes left before we found it.
It. Was. Hot.
We actually ended up stopping in a convenient store to escape the heat. (We did also look around though.) They had a lot of shadow boxes and other trinkets, but I wanted to save my money for the actual street vendors. We also looked at some of the food they had, but we weren’t interested.
While we were walking, Kevin told us that his teacher was telling him that the food at 回民街 used to be really good, but when it started becoming more of a tourist area, the vendors realized they could sell shittier food at a higher cost since they knew people would buy it. The further down the street you get, the better the food is. I’m guessing it’s because most people don’t feel like walking that far.
We found a split in the road and turned left to find more vendors. The main part of the street that I was on with my roommate and yuban was just food, so finding the vendors was good because I still need to buy presents for people back home.
I ended up buying a terracotta warrior for Tom (art history teacher), and a finger painting of 华山 for Kristin. I just need to get some Chinese snacks for Brady (art teacher who fed me lol) and Irene.
You can haggle at 回民街, but I chose not to because the terracotta warrior was only 10 kuai, so I didn’t really see any reason to try and get him cheaper. And two, I can’t haggle with artists because it feels insulting to be like “oh you want 50 for your art? How about 25?” It’s their livelihood, and, unlike someone who’s just selling goods, these people are actually making what they are selling.
I know this is a very American mindset and you’re supposed to haggle with them in the same way you do a regular vendor, but I didn’t really want to.
Hannah did try to haggle for a shadow box, but it didn’t really work. She asked how much it was for three, and the woman told her 23 kuai. She wanted them cheaper, but she didn’t really give the woman context, so she just said 15. We think what happened was the woman just thought Hannah was misunderstanding the price because she looked at her confused and was like: “What? No, 23.” So, Hannah tried again and asked for 20 and we got the same confused look. She ended up taking them for 23, but in retrospect, that’s not bad at all.
We lost Kevin and Korey, so we ended up waiting for them by the entrance. At one point, I saw them walking while Hannah and I were looking at the things we bought, but when I looked back up, we managed to lose them again. We kept making jokes like “oh how hard can it be to find two tall white boys in China?” I then remembered that Hannah and I blend in with everyone, which is probably why they didn’t see us when I saw them.
They did end up finding us though. They went to get some blended fruit drink, which wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t expecting the texture. Long story short I got low key roasted for “not liking fruit” even though that is not the case.
After 回民街, we went to 小寨 because Korey, Hannah, and I wanted to go to the clothing market to look for supreme shirts, and Korey wanted a 叫爸爸 shirt.
Again, we know how to get places via the metro, but none of us actually know what exit we’re supposed to take. We ended up running into this fancy ass mall. We weren’t sure what was happening, but the assumption was a KPOP concert because there were girls crowded in the middle of the mall, cell phones everywhere, and a lot of screaming.
We noped the fuck out of there real fast. It was kind of interesting looking around the mall, but we had a mission to find the clothing market. It took us maybe 10 minutes since Hannah actually knows where she’s going.
Halfway through looking for the supreme shirts, I realized that I actually wanted a hat (because ngl, I think I look pretty decent in them lol.) I wasn’t going to give up on the supreme shirt just yet though, because I remember seeing a black and white stripped supreme shirt last time I was there, and I wanted that one. Hannah just wanted a regular white one.
We walked around the whole area unsuccessful in our attempt to find the shirt I wanted, so I went for the hat. I managed to haggle it down from 35 to 25, and I probably could have gone lower, but I’ll settle for 25.
Hannah ended up finding a supreme crop top and decided to go for that one. When we asked how much it was, and she said “50” I almost laughed. Like it’s a crop top made of cheapish fabric. I looked at her and said, “how about 25?” She looked at me like I was crazy and countered back with 45. We decided that was a no, so we started to walk away. She stopped us and was like “wait, which shirt do you want again?”
Like okay, I’m not sure what tactic you’re trying to pull here, but you clearly know which shirt we want.
I told her we wanted the supreme shirt, but it was too expensive, so we started to leave again. She called us back and was like “oh that’s 35” as if she didn’t just say it was 50 two seconds ago. I looked at her and said, “how about 30?” She took that, and I take that as a successful bartering. That was my first time actually haggling with someone, and I’m very proud of myself.
Okay, so side note. Hannah and I both can’t read. Obliviously, there are misspelled English shirts everywhere in China, and Supreme shirts are no exceptions. We’ve found “Suprome” shirts if that’s any indication. When we bought the shirt, neither of us realized it was spelled “Superme.” So that in itself just means a bitch wanted to sell us a misspelled shirt for 50 kuai.
Second of all, Korey pointed out the misspelling to Hannah and me several times, but we legit thought he was just messing with us because he teases both of us a lot. So, at like, midnight, when we were riding the bikes back to the dorms (more context later), Korey made another joke about the misspelling of the shirt, and that’s when Hannah and I both realized he was being serious the past three times he had made a joke about the misspelling.
That was so bad on our part lol. He asked if we were just dyslexic, to which I responded with “actually yeah I might have a mild form of dyslexia; I’ve just never been tested.” I love it when these opportunities present themselves.
We met back up with Korey and Kevin, and unfortunately, Korey was unsuccessful in finding in a 叫爸爸 shirt. Hannah and I did actually find one, but we weren’t too sure if it was fit him. We went back to the store where we found it, and he told us to not go directly to it because he didn’t want the shop owner to think he was actually looking for it.
Long story short, it was too small. The woman tried to tell him that it was both a men’s and women’s shirt and that he could fit into it. Okay.
I didn’t even realize how late it was, but by the time we left, it was around four. We hopped back on the metro to go back to campus but stopped for ice cream and drinks. Hannah and I got Sundays, and Korey and Kevin got some fruit drinks.
10/10 would recommend the Sundays because they’re only 4 kuai. (And it’s not a small amount of ice cream. I love this country.)
We weren’t sure if we were going to be doing KTV tonight because Korey’s roommate said that he made plans for them to do something, but he wasn’t entirely sure. Half of these conversations took place Runescape and the other half on wechat, so I’m not really sure where the conversation went, but the end plan was 6:15 dinner, 7:00 KTV.
The three of us met in the lobby, grabbed din din, and tried to figure out who else was going to go to KTV with us. The three of us hung in Korey’s room as we searched for people. None of the yubans could go, so that plan was out. We ended up having Korey’s roommate text his friends.
Since Hannah and Korey have never done KTV, they didn’t really know what to expect/how many people should go. Korey wanted to put it in the big group chat with all the language partners and yubans, and I tried to explain why he shouldn’t do that, but there was no good way to do it without sounding like an asshole.
In my opinion, KTV is most fun with a group of around 5-7 people who aren’t afraid to sing badly/just have fun with it. It’s also really fun with a group of people who can sing. The point is, you need people who will get into it. The other thing to mention is that KTV is more fun when you’re with people who share the same music taste as you and/or at least know some of the same songs as you.
So, not to shit on the Chinese roommates and yubans, but obliviously they’re going to want to sing their songs, and we’re going to want to sing ours. They will know some American songs, but we really don’t know any Chinese ones. It’s really boring to sit through other people’s songs unless they’re really good singers.
Long story short, I wouldn’t have minded bringing the yubans along, but I think just inviting a bunch of other Chinese people wouldn’t have made it as fun. (Fun fact, at the end of the night, Korey and Kevin said it would have been more fun if we didn’t have to sit through their songs, so I was right.)
Again, it’s not that their songs were bad, but they were all slow. It was kind of funny because we did “Gives You Hell” and they followed it was a ballad. Like we were screaming and kind of dancing to the song, and then they got to theirs and it was just really mellow.
Nothing wrong with that at all; I did some slow songs too, but all of theirs were slow. Oh whale. I kept making jokes with Kevin that we should just give them some 白酒 to loosen them up.
I think Kevin was the one who said this to me, but every time he’s been to China, he's managed to avoid KTV. He did pop in for a hot second last week while we were in 华山, which did surprise me. CLS had changed him lol. But, I think Kevin did have a really good time. He and Korey did some rap songs, and that was an amazing thing to witness.
Also, Kevin and I did Humble, and that was pretty awesome. Thanks 南京 for making a big deal out of that song.
We didn’t leave KTV until 12:30, and we probably didn’t get back to the dorms until around 1:00. Since it was so late, we had to ride bikes back to school since the metro and buses were done for the night. I wasn’t sure how I felt about riding a bike in China, but it wasn’t so bad. The steering is just weird on those bikes. Also, I need everyone to stop being fit, because even on a bike, I can’t keep up with everyone. Like goddamn, let’s just go slow lol.
I stayed up until 2:00 just watching all the videos I took. It’s been a really awesome day.