It's 3 AM...

Last night I dreamed about a bee that was trying to sting me. I killed it my quickly by smashing it between my head and shoulder. It was an awkward bee killing position and I woke up....screaming. Tonight I dreamed about a cockroach. But I won't go into detail because stories about cockroaches should be banned from blogs everywhere. Except for the story about PK, formerly PP who married well when it comes to stepping up the initial ladder if you ask me, and the cockroach that played hide and seek one night in our apartment. Hilarious. But that's another story...

The problem is now I can't sleep because my head is swimming with thoughts. In an effort to go back to sleep here are those thoughts, in no particular order:

1) I owe LM 7 kuai for Ma La Tong two weeks ago. Embarrassing, I don't know her that well and already I'm forgetting to pay her back.

2) Ma La Tong is delicious. I am so excited that I'm finally getting my "sea legs" when it comes to eating spicy food around this town. I hope CL will want to try some when she gets here.

3) I wonder if the wikianswers page that states "Dreams about bugs symbolize small parts of daily life that are bothersome and nagging..." might actually be correct.

4) I wonder if I cut up too much bread for the stuffing I was going to make when I woke up at a reasonable time later today.

5) Today I saw approximately 14 sheep butchered, skinned and de-gutted in the courtyard of our apartment complex. Is this part of the small part of daily life that is bothersome and nagging?

6) I've heard it said that people in this country don't like to talk about the weather, that it's just an American thing. But I don't think it's true. Every time I practice my weather vocabulary everyone seems to like talking about the weather. Taxi drivers, ladies selling house supplies at the small shops, neighbors passing by, my tutor. The only person who doesn't seem that excited to talk about it would be M Laoshi. But I think that might have more to do with my placing objects before verbs in my sentence structures. Dangit...I hate grammar.

7) I would like to take back my former tirade on the bags of milk and their disgusting aftertaste. Recently I have begun to consume milk bags in various forms: with granola, heated in the middle of the night to warm my stomach and help me fall back asleep, in mashed potatoes. Really, they aren't so bad.

8) Recently I started missing Real Simple magazine. That's when I discovered that you could get all kinds of daily or weekly emails from Real Simple sent to your inbox. Jackpot! I've subscribed to daily thoughts and holiday cookie recipes. I love the daily thoughts! I love the cookie pictures! The Captain might like it if I would actually make the cookies. I just like to sit around looking at the pictures. I feel Christmasy inside.

9) I wonder if I should be worried that I've adjusted to the milk bag aftertaste or if I should just go and heat another bag....

10) Tomorrow, or today depending on what time you are awake in the middle of the night, is the first day of Advent. Last year was the first year I've been part of a fellowship that did not build up to Christmas by celebrating Advent with the lighting of the candles. I was really sad. I didn't like it. The Captain said we should just make it a family tradition if it was that important to me. So we are. I bought a Kindle brochure on Advent and tomorrow/today we are lighting our first candle. I'm excited!

You drive a tough bargain laowai...

So one part of living here that I have yet to master, and possibly may never, is the fine art of bargaining.  Perhaps I'm lazy.  Perhaps I feel like 50 cents US is a really good price for four potatoes and a yellow onion and I'm more then willing to part with it for a delicious dinner. Who knows.  Whatever it is I really do not like bargaining.  When the items are a little larger then vegetables I'm a little more likely to give it a shot, but even when I try my bargaining techniques are not that well developed.  Usually it looks something like this:

shou huo yuan: 28 kuai.

wo: 25 kuai, hao bu hao?

shou huo yuan: hao da.

You can see I'm not getting that great of a bargain.  Although in that example I just gave I did walk away with a free bag of q-tips which I have previously purchased for 1 kuai.  Haha...so really I saved 4 kuai.  

Recently my bargaining skills plunged to an all time low when I made this mistake:

wo: Na ge dongxi dou shao qian.

shou huo yuan: Da ge 16 kuai, zhong ge 12 kuai.

wo: Hao da, wo yao san ge. (1 big plastic container, 2 medium plastic containers)  30 kuai, hao bu hao?

shou huo yuan: sanshisi kuai.

wo: sanshiwu

shou huo yuan: A...Wo shuo sanshisi, ni shuo sanshiwu.  Laughs hysterically.

To recap, I wanted to buy three plastic containers for leftovers so we could quit using up the plastic wrap and save the earth.  In all they should have cost 40 kuai, I tried to ask for 30 kuai.  The shopkeeper blocked my price and asked for 34 kuai.  I drove a hard bargain and said, "No way, I'm paying 35 kuai and not a penny less."  Or something like that.  

If you know of any good bargaining tips let me know...I need help out here!  If you also know how to make your husband quit listening to Cher that information might also come in handy.  For a friend of course, not for me.