josh, it is time to come home.
your beautiful girl needs pearls, a silver spoon, a smocked dress, and some fried okra.

Thanks for the kind sentiment, and don’t worry. We will go home eventually. In the meantime, we will have to wait for the spoon, the dress and the okra. But we don’t have to wait for the pearls. Artemis and her mama are dripping with pearls.

I lived in Qingdao for almost a year before I visited the pearl market. Fear of getting ripped off kept me away. Then I discovered my friend T. did extensive dealings with one pearl merchant and I asked if I could go shopping with her. T’s dealer gives me her “friends’ price” and I now have pearls for every mood.

This strand cost 50RMB (about $6.50) and I wear it a lot. The big, only slightly baroque pearls are interspersed with small, coral beads. I also have an opera-length strand and two different necklaces that combine dyed pearls and seashells. They all cost about the same.

The question that lingers is, are they real? Josh thinks they couldn’t possibly be real at those prices. Why would pearls be cheaper than beer in China yet priced like champagne in America? I have to admit, I don’t have a very good answer.

But they look real enough to me. They have imperfections that evoke an oyster, not a plastic factory.

I believe they are genuine, yet I wear them as if they were paste. I wear them everywhere, nearly everyday. I wear them when I am traipsing around the apartment in a pair of Josh’s running shorts and a T-shirt spotted with baby puke.

I am a new mom. I will take my glamour where I can get it.

Update:
We just received a care package containing Artemis’ first little, smocked dress. Now we are two for four. Thanks Great-Grandma!