Why I no longer suck at buying pirated goods

Silk Street
Sadly, it’s our last week here at CET. Surprisingly I’m not all that busy, and because Christmas is quickly approaching and I hadn’t gotten any gifts for people back home, I figured last Sunday was a prime opportunity to hit up the Silk Market (aka Silk Street, Silk Street Market, Xiùshuǐjiē, and 秀水街) and try my hand at bargaining. (If you remember, my last experience was some what of a failure.) I’m happy to say that I was successful, but only after going back again on Wednesday. Here’s why it took 2 attempts.
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Because people are more willing to give you gifts when you’re about to leave the country

There's a striking resemblance between me and the big man in red
After the success of last years’ “
The Study Abroader’s Post-Christmas List“, I decided I’m going to make it a yearly thing. I did realize that it’s more beneficial to publish it
before Christmas, so that’s one big improvement over last year’s list. It’s basically going to be a compilation of things I used, thought might be useful, or wish I had bought before I went abroad all together in one easy-to-email to friends and relatives list. While some things will remain on the list from year to year, I’ll do my best to keep it as up to date as possible. So here’s this year’s, The Study Abroad Student’s 2011 Christmas List.
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The beginning of the end here at CET

Me and my group of kids
We have a language practicum almost every Wednesday – basically an activity that helps/forces us to use our Chinese (interviewing elderly people about their life at a park was one of these activities). Last Friday, as a sort of final practicum “test”, we all went to the Pugongying Middle School to give short presentations in Chinese, answer some questions, and just hang out with the kids.
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Friday of Fall Break at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City

Me, Mao, and some random woman
This is the long-delayed ending to the photo documentary of my Fall break in Beijing – Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. I guess you could say I saved the best for last, although I had just as good of a time at the Olympic Park and Liulichang. The one thing Tiananmen and the Forbidden City had over everything I’ve done in Beijing, except for maybe the Great Wall, was the shear size of it. It was almost overwhelming, and not just because of the crowds.
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How to see the best of Xi’an in two days

Just mingling with the ladies of Xi'an
This past weekend was our last CET organized excursion, the Xi’an Historical Trip. In Chinese, the characters “西安” in Xi’an literally mean “Western Peace”. I’ll admit I was a bad traveler, and neglected to do any research beforehand. I associate any place in Western China with the desert, comparatively spicy food, Islam, and rock cut cave dwellings. Needless to say I was a little surprised when we arrived in a place that had a pretty strong resemblance to Beijing (bad traffic, polluted air, high rises built next to ancient architecture, family run butcher shops next to McDonald’s, all of which can be called the best attempt at preserving culture while promoting modernity).
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