Tuesday, October 17 Other EAPites, Shopping

I hung out with Ro and Puran, who apparently had a phenomenal time in Goa and Kerala houseboats. Nikhil didn’t go anywhere the entire break, but told everyone he went to Kanpur even though he was seen at home, and then that the train was cancelled. I paid rent to the Jains, and they told me that Nikhil should have paid tonight, and that they are thinking of evicting him. Nick and Alan attempted to ride motorcylces to Kathmandu, Nepal, and they almost died five times. They split up somehow, and Nick came back with a bloody arm, sun blotches, and full beard. Mariel and Kim almost got attacked in Kashmir when some man was demanding to know their religion. I spent today writing my journal and going through the 1200 (2 GB worth of) photos I took over the last two weeks. Then I spent the evening shopping at Palika Bazaar, the underground market. I got a watch since I’m not going to get another phone. I was thinking about it, and I don’t really use my phone enough. This is the typical conversation: “Where are you?” “Connaught Place.” “Ok, I’m on the Metro, I’ll meet you at McDonalds in 15 minutes.” “Ok, bye”. I was going to buy watches, but not one worked. And I was going to buy these really fake-looking Lacoste shirts, but the salesman wouldn’t take them out of the plastic bag so I could check the size, and I told him I couldn’t buy them. He got scared and let me, and then he didn’t have a mirror, so he escorted me to the filthy public bathroom to look. He refused to let me take them each out of the plastic bags (they weren’t even sealed) and so I walked away. He followed me out of the store, but this time not lowering the price and trying to entice me to buy them. A first in India, he yelled at me, demanding I buy them because I had wasted his time showing me all his shirts. I’m sorry but I thought that’s your job, and if you don’t want to show customers what they’re buying, I’ll go to the next guy who is willing to take every shirt out of plastic. I got pissed and yelled really loud so all the customers around could hear. Although I’ve become a good and hard bargainer, I have become such a headache for salespeople. Which doesn’t really bother me because they themselves are pushy and will cheat you if you’re a novice. I ate dinner at Sarawana Bhavan. Shopping here is exhausting. What would take 15 minutes at Target, takes four hours here in Delhi. And it’s not like I was deep in the bazaars of Old Delhi. I’m all for Mom-and-Pop shops too, but there comes a point when enough is enough and you just want a Costco. I came home and Puran, Ro, and I hung out and watched iTunes Visualizations sober for 30 minutes straight. Fully satisfied.