Monday

Today I went to the embassy and met Carroll and registered myself
with the US embassy. I exchanged some money with her and left. At the
street entrance to the embassy compound there is a large group of
Chinese people standing around. Once I walk out, I was swarmed by
them handing me pamphlets and brochures. Must have been about 20
people handing me things. I was laughing and people sitting outside
at the cafes right there were laughing too. So I just took all their
junk and kept it, I'll take a picture. It was quite amusing. Walking
back to the subway I passed a guy selling Polo Ralph Lauren shirts
for 25 kuai = $3. I considered it but I'll find them somewhere else
if I want some. Then I saw a guy selling a Beijing 2008 Olympics
shirt and I bought one of those for 30 kuai, almost $4. Actually kind
of expensive! Going into the subway I guess I went into the entrance
to the subway market and found myself at another Polo and Lacoste
shirt stand. I walked up to see if any prices were listed, but I
think that unless you are in a true store, they are "flexible". So I
asked how much and she said 40 or 50 kuai, 5 to 6 dollars, I can't
remember. I don't know any more Chinese so I just start English
because I wasn't interested and its kind of funny since she is firing
Chinese at me so I just start saying "I saw 25 kuai down the road!"
Then I say broken bits of Chinese like " I don't buy" or I'm sorry
and then goodbye.

I came home and then bought a cup of noodles. What is surprising is
that at Ukrops you can get those Ramen noodles for 6 cents with the
ukrops card and the cup is about 75cents. Here in China where it
seems these things are a staple, the cup of noodles was 2.30 kua,
about 30 cents. Thats not much cheaper!
I posted some pictures from my apartment on Flickr, the link is on
the right side of the blog, or its www.flickr.com/photos/gregericksen
This was a clear day since you can clearly see the crane and
mountains in some of the pictures. I didn't know there were mountains
until today and usually the crane is behind some haze.

Tomorrow I will go get my formerly lost bag from the WorldLink office.