From Gus in China team USA‏

Hello everyone! I know that I speak for the entire team when I thank you for the support that all of you have given us as we have been away competing and touring around Asia.

Today was quite a day for us as a team and individually, as we had a great amount of success in many areas. First off this morning, USA took first place by seven points in the opening Dressage competition. All four of us put in terrific rides that gave us an advantage right from the get-go. I was first in our order of go, and put in a good score. The judges were rather stingy with their remarks and scores and the highest score of the day was a 66.7. Keep in mind we had sat on our mounts twice, and the last time that any of these horses had done anything close to what we asked of them was, well they never had done preliminary movements before in their life. Canada and Australia both tied for second, but Canada’s collective marks out did Australia’s by four points. Hong Kong came in fourth with New Zealand a close fifth. A mounted award ceremony followed the competition, and we all received our red rosettes, which at first threw us for a bit of a loop. As far as individual placing, America had the highest individual score, as well as having two riders end up in the top five places.

The second part of our day was quite different. After boarding a small bus bound for the famous shops in Shenzhen, we set off for a action packed afternoon of shopping. Shenzhen is about an hour away from Camelot, and to get there one has to drive in the famous Chinese traffic. The traffic over here is hilarious. All road signs are ignored, traffic lanes are non-existent, and pedestrians are treated with the same respect which we give to squirrels that are in our way. As we traveled down the highway at break neck speeds, buses and trucks loomed and swayed about two inches from our bus and every five minutes our bus driver slammed on his breaks and sent you flying to the front of the bus. Driving is quite an exciting experience. When we arrived at the Lo Wu Commercial Complex, we entered, and there to meet us were thousands of shops, thousands of people and thousands of deals. Instantly you are mobbed by men and women selling stuff. You are dragged to the right then to the left by merchants trying to get you to enter their shops. We were instantly accompanied by a fellow named Tony who kept asking what we wanted, because he could get it for us at a great price. It’s hard to explain exactly what this place was like but here is my take on it:

Imagine your everyday five floor shopping mall. Now instead of nice neat shops every couple yards or so, replace that with hundreds of shops jammed on top of one another, all selling basically the same thing. The merchants sit outside of the stores, and as you walk pass they grab you and yell “You want iphone? How ‘bout hand bag, sunglasses? DVD? YES you want” heaven forbid you make eye contact or else you’re done for. At first it’s horribly overwhelming but as you get used to it, the experience is quite entertaining.

When you finally find something that you want, then the real fun begins. Unlike in America, there is no set price that you pay. Here, you fight tooth and nail for the best price, which can go on for quite some time. The merchant whips out his or her calculator, and punches in their price. This is usually hugely inflated and your response is to look at it, laugh and say “no way, too much”. Then they hand the calculator to you, and you put in a price, usually you go with 1/3 of what they put in. The merchant will look at your price, get wildly offended, laugh at your price or say no way, then they put in their new price, usually ten dollars less. Then you counter. This if done right can go back and forth for quite some time, till you get close to where you think you want to spend. Then once you make your last offer and they decline, you throw your hands up in disgust and begin to walk away or towards another vendor. About ten seconds after you begin this act, they come running after you and give you the final price. All in all it’s a hilarious game and you can have quite a good laugh. I know personally I stood toe to toe with one lady and we yelled at each other at the top of our lungs for a good fifteen minutes before we came to an understanding. It’s a terrific experience.

After about four hours of this we met up at the bus and had a hair rising ride home. We had so much fun that we are going back tomorrow for more. We have a few days off from riding so I don’t know who will be blogging away next but stay tuned and thank you for your support.

Gus