I want that shirt!!

I have always said that shopping here is an experience in and of itself! If you are not bargaining, you are running back and forth between cashiers, located out of the store, trying to buy your items - it is not easy!! Therefore, I rarely buy clothes for myself here. Plus, the quality is not always up to my standards, I would like to wear something more than once before it falls apart!! That being said, Karen and I went on a little girls shopping morning today in search of some spring clothes for ourselves.

We first went to Espirit because we both know the brand and we can usually find the right size that we need! I found some cute shirts, but one of them I couldn't find the right size. I asked the sales lady first if they had it in the size I wanted, she said no. I didn't believe her so I went to the mannequin and looked at the size. Sure enough, it was the one I wanted. I pointed to it and told her I wanted that one (remember, all of this is in my broken Chinese!!). She told me to wait and gave me a different size. I went ahead and tried on the different size, but decided I wanted the bigger one because my ayi tends to shrink our clothes! I told her again that I wanted the one on the mannequin. She handed me the largest shirt - obviously too big for me. I told her that it was too big and I wanted the one on the mannequin. For goodness sake, I'm trying to buy a shirt from a store that is probably not doing really well right now and the woman will not take it off the mannequin. Finally, I walked over to the mannequin and started removing the shirt myself. At this point, she realized that I did not want a shirt that was too small or one that was too big, I wanted the one that would fit me!! She got it off for me (I felt a little bit bad because the mannequin's arm fell off in the process!!) and gave me my receipt.

Paying is always interesting for me, but I'm getting used to it here! I took my receipt to a cashier located outside of the store. I decided I would pay with a credit card because they had the VISA sign, which is rare. The lady studied my card for a bit and then decided I needed to go to a different cashier because it was not a Chinese VISA card. I get to the other cashier and she studies my card and then gets on the phone. She proceeds to tell me that I can't use it - the sign is right in front of me...how frustrating, but I really wanted the ordeal to be over with so I gave her the cash and went back to the store!

Almost 45 minutes later, I had my shirt!!!!! I plan on wearing the shirt a lot after the mafan (trouble) I went through to get it!!