Red Letter Days

I am usually not a shopper. For some reason, I managed to spend a lot of money today, though. I was hanging out with my new friends, Hillary and Jaimee, and we just poked our heads in a few little shops. I actually bought some things! Wow!! That is really surprising for me, because in general I don't like to go shopping. I guess they just brought out the shopper in me. :)

I got a little tank top that's kind of fun - and good since summer is just around the corner: today was the warmest day we've had so far, and it's just the beginning! My other fun purchase was a skirt. I don't wear skirts very often, but I like to have them. I really like this one - we went into an Indian store, just to look around, of course, and we found this skirt that I just loved. It'll also be great in the summer since it's really light and cool.

We met for a picnic lunch, which was wonderful!! Of course, 3 white girls in the middle of China are pretty noticeable, and we definitely got some attention. After lunch we just hung out for a while, walked around, and eventually made it back to their place. Jaimee took me to a big fabric shop. It was *really* big - with lots of "Chinese" material. I may have to get another "Qipao" made (the traditional Chinese dress).

The most interesting story from the day: we almost witnessed (maybe almost caused?) a traffic accident. We were crossing the street on the way to my house. This white jeep-type vehicle was coming towards us pretty fast, so we stopped in the middle of the street to wait for it to go by. At the same time, a car was crossing the street the same direction that we were. I think the driver must have been looking at the three girls crossing the road instead of the traffic, because he came within inches of hitting the speeding jeep-like thing. The jeep-thing even slowed down considerably, and laid on his horn, but the little car didn't stop until he almost came into contact with the jeep. Crazy!! I'm glad nothing happened....it would've been quite an awkward situation. The drivers probably would've tried to put some blame on us and we'd have to try to explain to the police what went on. And people would've gotten hurt! Anyway, I'm glad everything turned out alright, no one was hurt, and we made it safely across the street. Crossing the street here really is like taking your life into your own hands.