Grass is greener on the other side

I forgot to add the interesting part about the new carpet we bought. We went to the local mall behind the corner where there is a carpet store on the upper floor. We were trying to negotiate a decent price when all the sudden the salesman tried to convince us by saying “the carpet is made in Europe”. “Belgian quality,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. Where is it from?” as there was still the possibility we misheard the fraudulent carpet vendor saying Belgian instead of Persian. “Carpet is made in Belgium. Very good quality”. We barely made it to the door muttering that we needed to think about his bargain.

We were convinced it was a scam and decided to ask for a second opinion in a less local environment. So we went to a furniture mall where visitors look like they are familiar with European quality and Ikea, but we were told again that the rugs were Belgian. Since they were cheaper in the first shop we visited, we had to go back and begged for the discount we were given the first time.

In Belgium I would only settle for an oriental rug but in Singapore I gladly rest my feet on Belgian cotton. So anyone in Europe who thinks that oriental rugs are of high quality might want to rethink the assumption as the grass is always greener on the other side.