Bra shopping in China

I had a great day today! School went well and I was in a good mood for no apparent reason. All my kids seemed smart too, which made me feel like the bestest teach ever. Woohoo!

After I finished classes and tutoring I decided to wander through Parkson, a big department store nearby. When I hit the 2nd floor, I couldn't help but notice the big lingerie sale. Now I just can't resist going into lingerie stores and looking at all those pretty undies and other goodies, even though I rarely find something that fits. So I mosied on over, just to take a gander at what they had. There were a lot of nice things, but all I could see were As or Bs. So I finally got up the courage to ask a sales assistant for help.

"D?" I asked. She didn't seem to understand. "a, b, c....D," I explained. It clicked.

"D? Mayo" (= don't have.) But she pointed to a girl in another area. So I asked her the same simple question, followed by the alphabet for clarification. "D!" she understood. But unfortunately, I had to continue."Liang ge D" I told her. Roughly translated: "Two Ds." The shock was easy to see. Damn those tiny little Chinese bodies!

She sized me up with her eyes. Then reached out and felt my boobs. Yup, she nodded. Another girl came over for a quick feel. Honestly, I felt like I was being weighed! I was starting to laugh a bit, this really seemed quite funny. She rummaged through a few bras as I told her which ones I did or didn't like. Finally there was one that was okay.

Did I get sent to a change room? Oh no! She lifted it up to my chest and proceeded to put it on over my t-shirt! I was laughing pretty hard by this point, and I'm sure my face must have been a little rosy, but it was just too ridiculous not to laugh. So there I was, in the middle of the department store, with a bra fastened overtop of my clothes. Nice.

Eventually I did take a few to the changeroom, only to be followed in by the salesgirl, who put them on me. Tuck tuck, poke poke, pull pull. It's a good thing I'm not that shy! I did manage to carry on a small conversation with her in Chinese, which always makes me proud. Just about what colours I liked or didn't, too small etc. A lot of what she said was just made clear through gestures, the only word I really caught was piao liang (beautiful). Ah, salespeople are the same everywhere!

In the end, I didn't take anything, and I don't know if I'll be trying again any time soon. But what a funny experience!