Chinese Market Gang, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.
We visited the Chinese Market today over in New Belgrade. It was a cold, rainy day but we braved the elements and headed over in a taxi. We met our friends, Tim/Janna, and Jennie and their children. The photo above was taken in between the buildings of the market.
I was expecting something a bit more “Chinese,” something like Chinatown. A place where you could buy Asian spices and there would be an old Chinese man with a noodle shop. Instead, it was a like the market Barrio Lindo in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Yes, there were plenty of Chinese salespeople manning the stalls. The market was filled with cheap merchandise. It was mostly clothes and houseware. Everything was of very low quality. The only thing I found I liked was bee-bee guns that looked like M 16 US military rifles. I was tempted to buy two for the boys, but they are a bit too young for those. We did buy them plastic guns and transformer masks. We also got a pair of shoes for Oliver. Nadia was really bothered by the smoke and the crowds. I guess if you combine Chinese (heavy smokers) and Serbians (also heavy smokers) you get a lot of smoke. There were thousands of people there. New Belgrade is full of huge Communist era apartment buildings. The low prices probably attract the locals.
We then went grocery shopping at IDEA, a mega-store like Wal-Mart. The chain is out of Croatia and it was a very nice store. You can buy in bulk there so we stocked up on the essentials. We had some excellent bread, a whole wheat with other nuts and grains.
We took a short nap in the late afternoon and played football in the yard with the boys. We were loving the cold weather! It will be so different to experience the changed of seasons. Our mudroom is full of jackets, something foreign to us.
I skyped with Andy today. My brother is enjoying teaching at Academy Cotopaxi in Quito, Ecuador. Great to talk with him.
All is finally quiet here tonight. Tomorrow we have a UBD workshop so no classes.
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