Lazy Sunday = Trip to the Eastern Market

I love our eastern market. Especially when it is this beautiful outside, and all the venders seem to be in an especially generous mood. I love the snack and champagne makers who will thrust their sample cups of sugared walnuts or apple wine to taste as you walk by. I love the loud, gaudy jewelry, the vintage photographs, the handmade greeting cards for a $1, the artists' and their splashy canvases carelessly strung up with a $700 price tag. I love my favorite bookstore--Capital Hills Used Bookstore--two tiny rooms bursting at the seams with books stacked high anywhere there is a surface. No eastern market trip is complete without a visit. I even dig the corner store vender with his red-tinted beard, and belly-shaking laugh who will--without fail--ask me to marry him, thoroughly embarassing me, before knocking of a measly five bucks for love.

Today two desi venders--both exclaimed, "For you, I will give for $20, it's normally 30, but you are Indian. I see that." Gosh. When I decided that the skirt I was eyeing was too small for me, the second guy said, "Arre, beti, yay tho moti moti log bhi payinte hai." (child, even fat fat women wear this). Completely amused, I laughed and chose to ignore his obvious irritation when I walked away without buying anything.

I had fun bartering in Hindi, and I realized with a sudden thrill that I will have to learn to haggle better in Hindi over the next few months. Problem areas identified:

• I don't know all the numbers very well, so I always say, "pacheese" (15), or "beese" (20). Things that cost more than that would be a problem. The minute I slip into English (will you knock off 5$?), I can feel my advantage also slipping quickly.
  
• I am way too conditioned to pay the amount asked of me. I am without that killer instinct, that outraged, slightly manic belief that I deserve this item for half the asking price. I fold way too easily, too happily after an initial inquiry, "is there a discount?"
  
• I have no real idea of what the actual cost of things are. Everything is expensive here, when compared to everywhere else.
  
• I actually have trouble understanding Hindi from different dialects spoken too fast. Shameful, but true. The Pakistani vender was muttering something about shirts to me, which I had to fake "nod and smile" my way through. After spending most of my days speaking English, I have the disturbing sense of Hindi sounding clunky and wrong coming out of my mouth.
  

Anyway, it was a successful trip. A pretty skirt, and an equally pretty shirt was bought. Six novels have been added to my pile of books. I have a nice shopper's high.