"You know, if I only give you three dollars for these, then I get to keep some money for my rent, you get less income tax, and we can just call it even, yeah?" Joanna said. She wasn't quite that good at bartering, and she got the feeling that word would spread amongst the grocers of Chinatown and she'd never be able to come back here for food ever again. And dear God did she love Chinese food. it was the cause of her great weight spike in '05. Her dream was top shop for groceries in San Francisco, which might possibly be Chinese food heaven, but for now, she'd have to deal with Mr. Wu. Stubborn guy just didn't want to lower the price a few dollars (cough, six dollars, cough) so that way this dear Italian girl wouldn't be cleaned out on money, for her only crime was wanting to buy some bok choy.

No. Nine dollars, or I keep bok choy.

"Come on! You're insane, I can get bok choy for three dollars at the grocery store across the street from my building!" Joanna said in disbelief, crossing her arms and looking sternly at Mr. Wu. Now, that was a bit of an exaggeration. She could get it for three dollars, but the stuff they sold at the local grocery store tasted terrible. But her reasoning was that she grocery shopped in Chinatown because she got awesome food for cheap. Key word being cheap.

Well then buy there.

"Fine! I give up!" Joanna said, raising her arms and heading towards the door of the shop. "This is not the last you'll see of me!" she yelled back at Mr. Wu from the door, who rolled his eyes and put the bok choy next to the cash register.

As Joanna went out on the street, she squinted her eyes to look for a place to buy duck, or at least just some take-out. She was hungry, starving, actually, and all she really wanted was to eat. Rummaging around in her bag for her wallet, she bumped into quite a few people, one of which called her quite the derogatory name. In turn, she gave him a 'death glare,' which didn't turn out so successful.

This day was going lovely. Just lovely.

A squeal, much like that of a stuck pig, escaped Joanna's mouth as she bumped into yet another person. She knew she was a clutz, but this really was much to the extreme. As the woman asked if she was okay, she nodded and bit her lip, afterwards giving a small, closed-lipped smile. "Mmhm. Everything's going lovely, just lovely. Mr. I'd-rather-make-people-pay-nine-bucks-for-bok-choy over there isn't feeling generous enough to help me with saving up for rent." She said a little irritably, running a hand through her curly red hair. "Other than that, everything is amazing." She quite hoped that this woman didn't think she was some sort of bum or crazy person for this, but it was nice to vent. Venting was good for the soul.

"I mean, his prices are ridiculous, anyway!" Joanna continued. "And he should know that he's not helping anyone for having prices like that. You'd think he was selling caviar instead of vegetables." It was the truth. Maybe she could spread word about Mr. Wu's overpriced produce, and then he'd get no business. Pure spite, yes! Fantastic. But probably not... despite his money-taking ways, Mr Wu was actually a very nice man. He gave her pieces of candy sometimes. But then again, Joanna couldn't help but liek Chinese people, in hopes that they'd take her home and feed her dinner. That would be nice.