They judge us by our shoes

I finally found someplace where no one tries to speak English with me. And there are very few Latin characters.



Yes, the Russian quarter. Ever since I was mistaken for a Russian in Shijiazhuang, I have kept looking at the guidebook's description of the Russian markets. They have 'larger' sizes (because the people in my life are large), lower prices, and are much less crowded: all things that appeal to me.

The only problem with the day was that I was attempting to buy some souvenirs and 99% of the stuff here was crap. The only people with worse fashion sense than I have are the Russians.

But what a scene. I ate Russian buffet (and why, when I am in the home of Peking Duck has the best duck I've eaten been in a Russian restaurant?), wandered a block that consisted solely of fur dealers, and was slapped upside the head by the sound of two old Chinese ladies walking arm-in-arm down the street speaking fluent Russian to each other. I almost gave myself whiplash turning around to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me.

So in the market, I noticed after a while that most everyone looked at my feet before speaking to me. I think because I dress so generically, and because I look so Slavic, they had to think for a second before speaking. I think they were looking at my shoes to make a determination whether I'm American or Euro. Of course, I couldn't help them today because I was wearing my Chinese shoes. So most everyone seemed a little bit confused. About 75% started with Russian (to which I replied in Chinese "I don't understand" and in Polish "Russian." Because I don't know how to say Russian in Chinese. This got me a lot of smiles.), and the remainder tried Chinese first, then English. But I did most of my bargaining in Chinese. I bought 2 things and got one price down 50% and the other by 75%. The 50% discount came as I was well down the hallway.