Diary from China –
Tuesday-Wednesday, July 26-27, 2005;
Excerpt from the Diary: We got home
and helped Grandma make wontons and watched her make the wonton soup for lunch (best wonton
soup I’ve had!) and then off we went again, on an adventure to get a silk dress
for Jomania (our son Paul’s wife).
There
were 6 of us, and we first went to the finest silk tailor in all of
We
had our plan ready – we would find the dress, and then the round-eyes slip out
and our Chinese friends would bargain for us.
I’m SUCH a popular person there, everyone was in my face saying “lady,
watch your bag!” while showing me pictures of bags and things that I could see
if I would just follow them down the row of stalls to their special
delight! I think they meant “LOOK at the
bag” or “Watches! Bags!” but it came out
so appropriately as “WATCH your bag”!
We
looked along several rows, wanting a dress that is lined, and finally some of
the vendors told us where we could find one, and we found what I hope is the
perfect dress! I enthused about it until
Zhang Wei quietly told me to tone it down, which I did and left. They got the price down from $50 to $21! After we got the dress, we went to a
fast-food place that had Shanghai local food, very interesting treat we had,
then started walking about a mile to an ATM machine where Stephan could get the
money to pay his landlord before we leave today.
In our long walk to the ATM
machine, we found a picturesque spot on top of one of the street-crossing
bridges. Our expedition party includes
(back row, from left to right) Zhang Wei, Zhang Mama, Ling, Uncle Michael and
Stephan (front). Mama Zhang and Ling
have their photo taken with the tailor who makes silk dresses.
Success! We found the perfect dress, and Uncle
Michael, Zhang Mama and Wei and Fan bargained for it while Stephan and I
slipped out. Later the vendor took a
photo of the intrepid shopping expedition members.
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