Shopping

Steve and I just experienced our first bustling Harbin morning! After sleeping in for the first time since we've been here (that felt good!), we got up to go to the store. It is a beautiful day out, and it's exceptionally warm (32 F right now), so Steve finally got to witness some of the China that I'd been missing... street vendors! There were people all along the streets hawking their wares, goods, and foods and just about every Chinese person was out doing their Sunday morning chores.

Actually, just about everyone was in the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket! So we fought our way through crowds to get bags for our produce, then fought our way through crowds to get our produce, then fought our way through crowds to have our produce weighed and priced, then fought our way through crowds to get the hell out of the fruit and vegetable section! We found everything we had gone to the store for and at the check out a nice college aged boy was our checker. He asked us in Chinese where we were from and Steve said, "What?" So then he asked us in English. He told us that America was a very beautiful city (yes he said city, but it was a very good try and clearly spoken). I asked him in Chinese if he had been there before and he said no. He then welcomed us to China. It was great! Since all of that was going on we barely noticed how much we paid, and then when we got back out to the street Steve said, "All of that just cost us about $12." Here's what we got:

12 pack of pocket sized tissues
1 large bottle of soy sauce
Crushed red peppers
Metal Cooking Spatula
Metal Cooking spoon
Pack of strawberries
2 onions
3 heads of garlic
5 bananas
3 pears
5 oranges
Big bag of rice
5 pack of Ramen
~2 dozen eggs

Life is good.