Shopping, A Quest

As Carrie Bradshaw once said (and I paraphrase), one of the true tests of your foreign language ability is a day spent shopping.  This past Sunday, I decided to venture out to Causeway Bay, armed with my fresh paycheck and a few choice phrases:

"______ geido chin a?" ("How much is ______?")

"Nigo saam hou leng!" ("This dress is very pretty")

and 

"taai gwai" ("too expensive")

Causeway is one of, oh, about 735 shopping hubs in Hong Kong, but I thought I'd give it a try since it had everything from Prada to Probably-I-Can-Afford-It.  I hopped off the MTR into, surprisingly, a mall, and ventured around the various make-up and face care counters for a bit as I tried to find a zen place amongst the hordes of Sunday shoppers.  I found my way outside and ran across the street, right into the first shop I spotted with dresses in the window, a little place called "Moiselle."  It was a dream - it smelled like roses, the decor exuded a soft pink glow, and I was suddenly surrounded by dozens of dresses featuring various combinations of rhinestones and ostrich feathers.  A salesgirl with eyeshadow that can only be described as the cosmetic embodiment of a bird of paradise came up and inquired where I was from, if this was my first time to Hong Kong, etc, and we chatted a bit as I casually thumbed through the dresses.  It was only when she went to greet another customer that I glanced at the price tag for a particularly fabulous frock - $19,999 HKD.  Suddenly it looked like this wasn't quite the store for me.  After a few more wistful looks at the gowns in the back, I sauntered back out to the crowded street, ready to find a few shops a bit more on my level (though this did not stop me from sneaking into Hermes later in the day).  

I walked about, from store to store, alternating larger chain stores with smaller, cute boutiques, but for the life of me, I could not find anything.  Most of the clothes were free-flowing, not very body-conscious, and were either not very exciting (blah colors, uninteresting cuts) or a bit too interesting, following the idea that if a few sequins are good, than a lot of sequins are great.  After walking out of the eighth or ninth store, I was losing motivation and just about ready to call it quits for the day when I wandered into a boutique called Charcoal, which seemed to have a larger selection and some interesting window offerings.  Thinking that one more browse-through couldn't hurt, I stepped inside to take a look.  Almost immediately, one of the salesgirls came up and offered a few outfits to try on, but I smiled and declined, just wanting to look.  She then said, "No, you try on for us!"  So, of course I said ok!  

I spent the next hour trying on a vast array of outfits that the salesgirls kept bringing to me, each slightly more outrageous than the last.  With each new outfit, they would bring over a new pair of shoes and new accessories to dress it up a bit.  I tried on everything from blue sequin minidresses to black lacy shirts with bedazzled Las Vegas logos to super tight black snakeskin leggings to gigantic thigh-high black leather boots.  Whatever they brought me, I put on.  They had me walk up and down the length of the store like I was on the runway, saying "Hou leng!  Hou leng!" ("very pretty!") or "Pretty teacher!" or "Many, many boy will love you!"  They also continually complimented my skin, my legs, my hair - either the nicest salesgirls ever or one hell of a sales tactic.  Was I absolutely eating this up and loving every minute of it?  Was this exactly like a shopping montage in some chick flick?  Did this totally make my day and boost my ego after a month of feeling like an ugly sweaty mess?  Did this sales tactic result in the purchase of new clothes?  Um, YES.  

So I collected my new black, red, and white dress from the store (its usefulness for both work and play and its convertability from dress to top justify the cost) and walked out in the sun.  It just seemed like a brighter day after that!  After initially thinking that Hong Kong shopping just would not get along, I'm now happy to report that I think we'll be good friends over these next two years!  But hopefully not too good... :)  

And on this very vapid and materialistic note (the best kind, really), I'm happy to report that I'll be starting teacher training on Sunday!  That's right, kids, two weeks from today, I will be ready and qualified to be a college professor!  *Insert hysterical laughing here*  As everyone starts to arrive and we get to learn the joys of teaching, I'll hopefully have some more good stories for you.  For now, I'm going to go enjoy my waning days of summer!

XOXO,

Jenny