A cold front is finally making its way through St. Petersburg! I can breathe a sigh of foggy relief. See I love the sun and warm weather but I love the cold even more. Probably because I could live in sweat pants and sweaters for the rest of my life. Plus you appreciate the sun and the warmth so much more when you get it back after weeks of cold, dark, and depressing days (thank you Maine).
Knowing that I am moving to the tropical jungle very soon makes me crave cold weather like it is nobody’s business. Gimme those sweaters.
Sunday, November 25th
After months of my family begging me to get cheap knock-off designer goods, I finally bit the bullet and made a day out of it at Peal City. I had never been to Pearl City before and was pleasantly surprised. It was just a big mall on Hong Mei Lu stuffed with hundreds of stores with small but fierce Chinese ladies taunting you with “Lady want purse? Lady want bag? Lady want shirt? Me give good price.”
Just breathing in their direction would result in loud and incessant commands for me to buy, buy, buy.
It was terrifying.
I resorted to smiling and keeping my gaze directed at the items instead of the bossy women. Boy, they are persistent. Armed with my bargaining team of Peter and Berri we found our way into one of many purse stores. A quick word between Berri and the shop guy and he whisked us down the hall and into another shop. Before we knew it, they opened the back wall and ushered us into a secret room. Then they opened another back wall into another secret room full of fake goods. Using Peter and Berri as my tough negotiators, I scored a Louis Vutton purse, Tori Burch purse, two Chanel wallets, and 3 watches all for under $200! We were psyched.
After almost 2 exhausting hours of shopping for family and friends, we decided to grab some dinner at the Hong Mei Lu Pedestrian street. Peter used to live down in this area and I really appreciate the accessibility of Western food, shopping, and people! Often I try to avoid the pedestrian street because it can be very expensive and full of obnoxious white people getting wasted on a weeknight. However, it is a nice place to go to on occasion if you are feeling homesick.
We had a wonderful soup and salad buffet at Bastiaan’s where I have had many coffee dates with fellow American ladies before. The food was delicious! I highly recommend it.
Monday, November 26th
After such an exhausting weekend I was ready to get to my Starbucks and do some work. I was also craving a big hot latte on this cold day.
That night I forced Peter to watch Merlin which I found at our neighborhood DVD store. Merlin is one of my favorite childhood movies which is weird since the movie is a little bit risque (and extremely weird).
We used to watch this movie all the time at our North Carolina cabin. We kids were a little obsessed with magic at the time so it makes sense. The movie was just as weird as I remembered but I loved it. Peter fell asleep.
Oh well. At least one of us is still trying to keep the magic alive.
Kirsten Captures 