Friday, June 2, 2006
Paula and Maria’s Quickie China Trip
After a frustrating false start Paula and Maria arrived a day later than expected on Friday night. After much smiling and hugging, I gave them a few minutes to dump off their bags and my goody stuffed suitcase, which they had lugged here for me. To fight the swollen legs you get on long flights we walked from our Peace Hotel down busy Nanjing Rd to Pearl City. Pearl City consists of about 20 different tiny stores that sell pearls. I had gone by earlier that day and scoped out a store that seemed the least pushy and easiest to bargain with. After a lot of bargaining, (which Paula is horrible at) we gave the “Lisa Pearls” niche a good bit of business. The store girls ended up working hard for their Yuan because they had to do a lot of restringing, with included knotting between each pearl. After we warmed up our credit cards we had a late dinner at Pizza Hut and walked back to the room. I slept great because the mattress was so soft when compared to mine but Maria and Paula’s time-confused body clocks never got that nice REM sleep they needed.