Brazen negotiations

After 9 pm, I can’t use internet property. Neither the Wifi nor my 4G connection works well. I don’t know how to survive this the next months because I’m addicted to the internet to work efficiently. That’s also the reason why my images are delayed every day. Uploading them in the morning works perfectly, but as soon as there are too many users online, the network is totally overloaded – what a shit.

Anyway, I got the same breakfast as every day. Maybe I should try something different tomorrow as it’s limited in variety and it’s getting boring. Today, I spend the whole day with my roommate. By the way, my other roommate (Tim) went with some of his friends somewhere to China for sightseeing for a longer time. Thus, we share a 4-Bed room by ourselves.

The first thing we’ve done was organization stuff. We got some money from the credit card and withdrew it in our Chinese bank account. Then we bought some fruits. Next, Semir needed new shoes. A friend of him recommended a shopping mall, where we went by with a Mobike, of course. But this shopping mall was expensive. It was a shopping mall full of original brands. Instead of going to a costly mall, we wanted to go to a place where we can buy faked products and dumb the price as low as possible. To do so, we asked a Chinese person having no idea what we’re talking about. We searched on our own and finally found a place. We did go by subway, which was a 45 minute way. I used for first-time apple maps turning out as ridiculous useful. The subway system is perfectly integrated – so convenient.

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As soon as we reached our destination, we found the first shop. It is called “New Barlun” and it’s exactly how I imagined it – a shop full of perfect copies! We were absolutely right here! We went further and entered another mall. It is a mall where you have to trade. So, we went to the shoes and then it already started. A waitress came and helped us. We tried some shoes on, and we wanted to buy them. She started at a high price like 1200元 (=150 Euro) for old Nike Frees. You need to know that there is always a calculator where the trading, and thus the numbers happen. So, I said it is too expensive and typed a much smaller price of 400元 in. She said it is way too much. I continued by saying that in Germany, we pay much less for Nike Frees. She did not believe me (or at least she pretended like that), so I showed her. She said it’s not the same model because it’s an older one. Then I said that the shoes I’m wearing are also an old model. She dismissed and turned back to Semir as he was more serious than me buying shoes. He has liked the shoes and also wanted to buy them. In contrast to me, he started his price at 100元 (She showed him before 1200元). Of course, she was always saying things like “You are my friend, I give you a nice discount”. By saying this, she typed in numbers like 1800元, removed it, and replaced it by 1200元. On the other side, Semir didn’t give a shit. I can’t put it right back together, but he continued with typing 120元 in. She was like “you mean in Euro, right?”. Later, she dropped the price already to 1000元. He was saying that this price is just too much. So he kept saying that he wants to visit other shops first. Saying this was dropping the price every time by 100元. She really wanted that he buys the shoes. She also grabbed him and was begging! Nevertheless, he was so brazenly that she dropped the price to 200元. It was just amazing. I just laughed the whole time. You really have to keep your nerves. But in the end, he still didn’t buy those shoes, haha. We also negotiate in other shoe shops, doing the same procedure. This time the waitress was a man. His starting price for the same shoes was around 600元, but because it’s his first time (blablabla), he offered it for 400元. This price was for Semir, of course, just too high. This time, he dropped the price using the “leave” strategy. Every meter leaving the shop, the man dropped his price by 20元. The last offer was now 220元. Again, we left the shop, doing the round, and visited that shop again. Noticeably pissed off, he got his shoes for 190元. What a great price! But in the end, it wasn’t fun anymore. It’s a dirty, brutal business.

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The shoes, by the way, seem to have are all high quality. I heard the shoes are probably out of the same factory as the originals, but just for the Chinese market.

Next, we ate something. It was again (how could it else be) rice! With chicken! But it was nice. I love rice. There were also plenty of other restaurants where you can eat pizza and döner (which are extremely rare here in China).

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Sufficiently strengthened, I also tried my luck in the mall. I wanted to buy tea and a bottle. I didn’t do well because I choose tea before talking about the price. That means, she did fill the tea into a bag (Two teas for 128元/50g). I also picked a bottle with a starting price of 380元. I always said that I’m a poor student, so I started with 100元. She was coming towards me, but as I said that I want to take everything for 200元 (the tea and the bottle), she said that tea is not negotiable. And that was my mistake. I should have negotiated the price of the tea before, but I “already bought” it with the given price. So, I couldn’t say anything against it. I also couldn’t leave the store as she already filled the tea in the bag. Finally, I got everything for 350元.

Using the subway, we headed back in the direction of the university. Do you remember my non-existent mattress? I really had to buy something for better sleep, so we went to that supermarket again where we were on the first day. I also did buy a pillow and some other little stuff. Using Mobike, we finally arrived back in our dorm.

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I restructured my bed and moved my sleeping location to the bed under me. After joining the girls for a walk, I ate something in a dining hall, where I have not been to before. It was really excellent as you have a fast ordering system there. I will explain it on another day. One hour later, Semir and I did do some training like pull-ups, push-ups, and abs training. We look forward to doing this every second day. Tomorrow, I’ll set up my gym account. The plan is to do running, going to the gym, playing badminton, and doing these outdoor things. I should have enough time to do this. One semester to prioritize my body!

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Write to you tomorrow, guys!