Hello again and welcome back to Across the Pond with James and Anlan. Welcome back Anlan, welcome back James.

Hello.

Hi, everyone.

Now let’s move on to the next question. Again about entertainment, enjoy yourself. There is a festival on while you are out one evening. You are encouraged to dance and join in with the carnival atmosphere. They've tried to drag you to dance, being British, being American, what would you do? Let's start with James.

We join them. It's good, this is fun. This will be great pictures. I can put it on social media. Yeah~~~

It sounds great fun. So you would go with the flow. What about Anlan? What about British people?

Probably about half of what James said, we would take photos and post them on social media, but we wouldn't actually do anything ourselves. We would probably just sit there or pretend we don't understand when someone's encouraging us to dance. But we can like pretend on social media that we did take part, when in reality all we did was we sat at the side and drank a beer or had a glass of wine.

This is something I've noticed about British people is that you do have the extremes. You get people who are really letting loose to get people who get super drunk and then parting old time. But then you also get a large group of people that are being very self-conscious.

I think the key words you already mentioned there was drunk.

Good.

Alcohol is the solution to all of our problems.

Exactly. You need probably a little bit of liquor courage to dance in public.

I need a lot more than that, to be honest to dance in public.

Good good, moving on to the next. So this is towards the end of your holiday. And you wanna take home a souvenir and it's customary to haggle at the market. But when your first request for 50% discount is refused, what would you do? So for example, the thing is a hundred, and then you said 50. And they say, no. You know it's okay to haggle, but would you do? Let's start with Anlan.

I personally absolutely hate haggling. I'm really, really not good at haggling. I lived in China for an extended period of time now and I'm still not very comfortable. I think there's also something about being British as well. In last situation, I probably just go OK and then just pay the hundred.

But what if they give you an astronomical price? Because in some places in some cultures where they expect you to haggle, they will intentionally raise the price, because they have to calculate, they have to factor in the possibility of being haggled.

In the UK I think because we really don't like haggling. We always associated with being cheated. We're being tricked. In some countries, you're right. In some countries, because its expected, they actually factor that in. But in the UK, if someone gives you an astronomical price and you know it's astronomical, then you probably just wouldn't do business with them.

But sometimes in China, there sometimes those markets, for example, they say 300, but it's actually only 100. There is 300. And you walk away, they say, what about 200? What would you do? Would you turn back?

If I really, really like it, then I might turn back. I would do that now. I always remember when my parents came to Beijing for the first time, I took them to a market, a big souvenir market in south of Beijing. They really really like something. And I was haggling or trying to haggle at least. The shop owner was very friendly. She actually asked me how I would say certain things in English. So I can wrote this sentences down. But she still gave me an astronomical price. So I just said to her, I've just given you a free English lesson. And I told her how much I normally charge for private one to one tuition. And she went, oh OK, and she took that amount of money off the price.

Good. That's certainly one way to haggle. What about James, what about Americans? Are Americans more comfortable at haggling?

No, not at all. It's actually quite similar to Anlan said. They might give up and just pay that hundred like you mentioned, some would walk away.

That's easy.

I have a similar story when my family is visited. So when like one of my family's here and like they wanna buy something, we have to tell us, like if you wanna buy something, tell us. My wife will haggle for you.

Yeah. But sometimes I've got the experience of taking people to these markets where you can haggle. And then I said, let me do it. But then again, they refuse. My friends refuse to move away when I try to walk away. And they said, I really want it! All these shop owners, they do understand English and they can see the yearning in your eyes that you really want it. And then they're not gonna lower the price.

You just killed your negotiating tactic.

Exactly. All right. Moving on. But still on the topic of shopping, you have an hour to kill and money to burn in duty free. This is the last, like of your trip. You are compelled to make a purchase or two at duty free in the airport. What would you generally purchase or what would British or American tourists generally purchase? Starting with James.

Alcohol.

Alcohol.

Hands down to alcohol.

Why is that?

Like so duty free you have all the things like chocolate and cosmetics and all these things. These things are already cheap in America. So there's zero reason to buy them duty free.

I see. I always buy cosmetics and skin care because they're usually cheaper in the duty free.

Yeah, but in America, we don't have a VAT so they're just cheaper in a regular departments from the US. Alcohol on the other hand, but alcohols, so especially ones that are not like domestics as things like scotch whisky are much cheaper on duty free than they would be in a local liquor store. So it's alcohols what they buy.

Maybe even as presents.

And then tobacco.

Tobacco as well.

Yeah, that will be number two.

What about British tourists?

I think alcohol as well to be honest, even though in the UK duty free used to be much cheaper for alcohol. It's less so now. But people still have that sort of tradition. They still have that feelings. Like, I'll go through duty free, I'm gonna buy a bottle of spirits because spirits schenley are much more expensive in the UK. I have to admit I'm a little bit lazy. Generally when I'm in duty free, I would buy gifts for people that I completely forgot to buy for when I was actually on holiday.

Toblerone for you, toblerone for you, toblerone for you.

Pretty much.

So if you get a gift of toblerone, you know that you're the forgotten friend. They only thought of you the last minute.

My mom actually collects magnets. So every time I go to a new country, I have to buy a magnet.

Like kitchen magnet.

Kitchen magnet. You put on the fridge. She collects them. Every time I go to a new country, I have to bring one back. And generally I buy at the airport because...

Just easier.

It's just so much easier.

My mom has a similar thing for coffee cups, though.

Coffee cups, which you can also purchase in duty free. All right, so end of your journey. This is next question. During the final day of your holiday abroad, you start to think of things you are looking forward to when you get home. Most people after a few, let's say a few weeks of traveling, they get homesick. They wanna go back. But when you're thinking about home, what is the first thing that comes to mind? First let's start with British.

I think British people would really miss a cup of tea, to be honest.

Isn't that something you can get everywhere?

Not a cup of tea yet British people would like. I always remember my grandmother. My grandmother never traveled outside of the UK. One of the fears was that if she did, she wouldn't be able to find a good cup of tea. For a whole life, she only went literally to the coast of France, which was to an island that still part of the UK.

And about she's still complained about not having a decent cup of tea there.

Pretty much, but I think being for me, it's hard to say coz I've lived outside the UK so many years that when I actually do go back to the UK, it's actually a holiday.

For you, it's very different. But I guess probably for average British people, it's a decent cup of tea, like how they do it at home. What about for Americans?

Americans?

Yep.

I don't think it would be a cup of tea. And most likely be, I can see for my own bed again.

That's universal. I can sleep in my own bed. That's always what I miss.

But it also be probably more realistically. The thing that come to mind are probably the chores they realize they'll have to do again, oh I have to do all the laundry, is like I need to cut the grass. Oh...

That's not something you look forward to, though. It's just something you have to do.

But they are the first things that come to your mind.

Sure. Alright, last question. Upon returning from your holiday, you are already back home in the states, in the UK. You're starving and decide to cook your first meal since getting home. What is that first meal? Starting with James.

Cook? You pick up the phone, you order pizza, and you see if you have cold beer in the fridge.

So go home to pizza. What about Anlan? Do you guys also all go for pizza?

I think we'll definitely go for a take away. What I would normally do when I'm coming back from holiday is on the way from the airport, I pop into a fish and chip shop and just pick up some fish and chips and have that home.

I always have great respect for people who decide to cook their first meal when they get back from their holiday, I would definitely order a take away.

That's a thing. That's a real point in trying to cook your own meal.

After the long travel.

You've been gone for weeks, there's gonna be nothing in your fridge.

You can always buy grocery. I've met people like that. They decide to cook their first meal. I guess it's because they missing there home cooked meal for like a few weeks or so.

Well, what about you when you come?

I definitely order to take away, most likely to be 串儿, to be Xinjiang food. And I think that seems to be...

Nice kebabs, huh?

Nice kebabs, exactly. All right. On that note, I think we're gonna wrap up. And there are actually a lot more questions in this category that we probably will talk about in the future. But thank you again for coming to the show. Thank you, Anlan. Thank you, James.

Thanks lot.

Thank you for having me.

See you next time.

Bye.

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