Tàitai Terror

If I ever wondered about Tammy becoming acclimated to living in China, the question was answered this weekend by two “incidents”.

First, we spent Friday on Walking Street just for awhile to look around and see what was happening there. We needed to go to UTown to find a spare battery for the camera and a few other small errands on this trip to the shopping area. It was very crowded since this is a big holiday period in China, National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. It was extremely crowded on Walking Street but we made it through okay as long as we weren’t in a hurry and took our time. We found the “sugared fruit” kebob that we had seen before on TV (during the Olympics), Jacob had said he wanted to try but when it came to stepping up to the challenge….he backed down. The sugared fruit kebob contained a cherry tomato, a slice of melon, a purple grape, a slice of kiwi, a green grape, a section of orange and one other fruit that we had no idea what it was. All of this was on a wooden skewer coated in a thick glaze of sugar (see the photos). It was okay, perhaps just a little too much of the sugar coating but we ate it anyhow for the quick burst of energy. We went to UTown and found the battery we were looking for but it was too expensive and we settled for a knock off version of the battery for about 20% of the price of the original battery. What was most interesting was that the first Nikon place we stopped at actually opened the camera box and was going to sell us the battery that was supposed to go with the camera in the box. Interesting, anything for a sale I guess. Anyhow this isn’t the story; I’m trying to set the mood. After UTown, we stopped in a TGI Fridays for a mid-day snack. We came out and then headed to the corner to find a taxi. It’s a bad spot and usually takes a little more time to get a cab in this area but we weren’t in a hurry. After about 15 minutes, we see one coming and Tammy signals to the driver. The driver turns on his blinker and slows down to pick us up. All of a sudden, from our left comes a young Chinese couple. The young guy waves his hand and cuts us off as he heads for the taxi pickup point. This is when Tammy shows that she understands how things work here. She dodges to his right, out on to the street and hits the jets as she goes by the guy and gives him a little, light bump as she moves past him (just to let him know that it’s OUR taxi). Keep in mind that I was behind this action so I got to watch it in real time. I saw the guy and was thinking, “are they trying to steal our cab?” when she made the move (obviously, she picked it up a lot faster than I did). The guy just stepped back and didn’t say a word; he just accepted that he had been beaten at his own game. I was surprised but she just did what had to be done. They were going to take our taxi because they would get to it first, not because they flagged it down. At least that’s what they thought, but we flagged it and we were going to get it. Now they understand that although we will be polite and friendly, it doesn’t mean that you can walk over us, not when we have Tammy on our side.

Today (Sunday), we went to a small, shopping street just off Bar Street to look at jackets. Warren can wear the North Face jacket I picked up earlier this year but Tammy and Jacob both needed a good rain combo winter jacket before the cold rainy weather arrives. We stopped at several places to look and left without buying anything. In the final store, Tammy found a jacket but she could not come to agreement over the price. The store owner wanted 450, she offered 150. They haggled a little bit with Tammy not moving off the 150 price, which surprised him since he figured she would come off her price and be closer to his price (isn’t that how it supposed to work?). She walked out of the store without the jacket with the owner still trying to find a good price, he even offered the 150 RMB before I walked out with the kids to catch up to Tammy. He seemed a little dazed by the exchange and I gave him the look (I feel bad for you pal but you’ve got it easy….I’ve got to live with her. Of course I say this with love and because I know that she reads the blog and I don’t want to get my butt kicked.). We walked perhaps 100 yards down the street and around the corner when the shop owner ran up to us and offered the jacket at 140 RMB. So we turned around and went back to the shop to purchase the jacket, a very good knock-off jacket with a fleece zip-out liner (the best part is that she pulls out 200 RMB to pay for the jacket, I know this has got to drive them crazy). She asked if they (the shop was run by a husband and wife) had a jacket in Jacob’s size but they indicated they didn’t (I think they weren’t going to sell us another jacket at that price so they just said no, they had been beaten and they were cutting their losses. They made money on the jacket, no doubt since no one sells anything if they don’t make any money no matter how much they might fuss about it.).

After lunch at the Drunken Clam (yes I know, another bar….but the kids wanted to go! We had seen ads in the local magazines and decided to stop in and check out their sandwich menu. The sandwiches were really good and the place was empty so the kids could play pool while I watched NFL Network [Wo-hoo!!! NFL Network!!] on the big screen), we went back to Bar Street and found a jacket for Jacob for only 5 RMB different than her price but it took a lot more haggling with this shop owner. Still, she got two jackets for less than the price I paid for the jacket in April (d’oh!); I was schooled today in the art of negotiation (and so were the locals). The Chinese are just beginning to learn how my wife has adapted to living here. I can say this because I know first hand, watch out China for the Tàitai Terror (to quote Sylvester Stallone in Rambo, First Blood….I’m your worst nightmare). You can already figure out that I will work this to my advantage when I turn it over to “the closer” for all future negotiations.