Misadventures in Shopping -

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Today marks four weeks since I've been in Hong Kong, and things are going remarkably well - at this point I had thought that I'd have massive culture shock and homesickness, and people would find me huddling, curled up in a ball in a darkened corner of my room by now, but surprisingly no. Getting into a routine with classes and activities, making time to study Mandarin and Cantonese every day, and being surrounded by great classmates has really made for a cozy, friendly atmosphere. Also, I listen to some music as I wind down for the evening: I've been spinning Achtung Baby by U2 lately, and it's great 'medicine' to keep any stress or homesickness away.

That being said, I've had a few minor misadventures along the way, the first being shopping for some new threads. A lot of things here, such as transportation and food, are cheaper here than in the U.S. With that in mind, I thought, 'Well then, I shouldn't have any problem finding some stylish new threads!' Blinded by excitement and naivety, I went to the TMT Shopping Plaza, a mall in the center of Tuen Mun, the 'town' where I live.

'Tuen Mun Town Shopping Plaza:' very pleasant and innocuous-sounding. I'm envisioning a decent food court, the usual preppy American clothing stores, and some mom and pop shops selling delicious street foods and Chinese herbal medicine. They call it a town, but think to yourself - what exactly qualifies as a 'town' in Hong Kong, a small region comprised of over 17 million people? Yeah, I didn't think about that. And so I wandered in like a rat wanders into a maze...

So, it turns out that this 'Shopping Plaza' is the largest shopping center in north-western Hong Kong, and on an usual day you'll rub shoulders with, oh, 300,000 customers or so. You could probably walk from one end of 'town' to another, all while still being in this massive shopping complex. And this shopping complex is made up of several different buildings and covers four floors, so that with all the excitement of the shops, crowds, sights, and sounds, you can walk into another shopping 'center' and hardly realize it until you come out of your shopping euphoria wondering where in the wide world you have wandered off to. The shopping mall itself is very upscale and has every brand name shop you can think of, while some plazas have smaller, mom-and-pop type vendors that sell bargain electronics, clothing, and Angry Birds merchandise, which may or may not be real (Angry Birds is extremely popular here - I hear them whizzing through the air on people's phones every time I ride the subway).

 'Am I still in the TMT Shopping Plaza? Hey!! That's the 7-11 I passed near the entran...wait, no, that's a different  7-11. Am I still on the 1st floor? AM I STILL IN TUEN MUN??'

I've been there a few times, determined to keep my bearings, but I have only managed to come out the way I came in ONCE. It's like the shopping mall equivalent of the Greek Labyrinth.

Here's the center's website...look at that shop directory!! http://www.tmtp.com.hk/index_en.asp

Anyway, once I went in I went looking for clothes. There's plenty of end of summer sales, but I was confused about the signs. Sure, there's '30% off!' But there's also 折. For example, 9折 means that there's a 10% discount, so it's essentially selling for 90% of original price - this threw me off for a few minutes when I read this and thought the store was having a 90% off sale (now wouldn't that be lovely?) 


Anyway, clothing here is expensive, maybe $30-40 US for a nice blouse on average. Also, the style is very Asian, in which I mean that things are either cutesy, or things that I might wear are too small, or say strange things in English on the front. A few times I thought I had a lucky break and saw what seemed like unassuming, striped shirts on the hanger. I take a look, and there's a print on the front that says, 'Smile Happy Little Cat' or "U GUT? I GUT." I finally found one shirt for about $14 US at H&M, my new shopping oasis when I need clothing, where the prices and sizes are great.


Well, I hope to write some more this weekend, so let's end the post here.