HKG175: Super Sized

one of two cute little blue-jean skirts we got for livie to wear until her large collection of navy blue skorts arrives

today, we headed into kowloon to find the uniform shop someone from livie's school office recommended as a place to find a navy blue skort. i don't really even know where to begin with this story, but i will say that my normally patient and polite self took a holiday today. i was rude and pissed off. i do feel slightly bad for my behavior b/c it was misdirected, but i am STILL pissed off.

it turns out that the uniform shop carries ONLY uniforms ordered for specific schools. did livie's school order uniforms? no. did they do any research about this shop before sending me (and i am assuming others) on a mission to find a skort here? no. was it possible to adequately communicate my needs to the poor, unsuspecting shop ladies? no. did i embarrass myself? YES!!!!

it took a lot of back and forth and fits and starts and me getting madder and madder and madder that these ladies were refusing to sell me a frickin' navy blue skort before one of them recalled the term "logo" in english. once she remembered the term, it became clear that she COULD NOT sell me a skort that did not have some other school's logo on it. 900 apologies, thanks, and embarrassed smiles later, the kids and i left the store with me seething at the ridiculousness of this situation. i have to say that i am getting a little worried about how well organized and put-together olivia's class will be this year. this is the first year the school is offering this class/level, and it doesn't seem to be coming together smoothly. it's taken me more than a week to track down orientation information, we still have not been informed of what time class will start and end, and we do not know whether there will be a bus run. i am assuming we will get these details in orientation, which is on thursday. school starts on monday. this does not leave much time for planning things like transportation (in the event there is not a bus run).

i will be interested to see if livie's school gives us trouble for the blue jean skirt...i am guessing they might be too disorganized to notice it does not fit the uniform description. hopefully, the umpteen navy blue skorts we ordered from the u.s. will be here by the end of next week.

while we were on this great (and doomed) skort mission, i passed a plus sized clothing shop and started salivating. in the u.s., i am an average sized person. here, i am super plus sized (as in a triple XL does not fit me). i cannot find clothes to fit me in 90% of the stores here, and considering how badly i needed a couple new pairs of shorts/capris, this has been driving me CRAZY. i found a lot of beautiful items in this shop and came away with two new pairs of capris and several pretty blouses for under 60 USD. this made my day!!

the highlight of the day for all of us was being accosted by a large group of college students outside an MTR station on our way home from the clothing adventures. a very polite boy approached us to ask if his group could take a picture with us, sing their school song with us, and then get a pic of a kiss with us. i thought we were just props, but after some prodding, it became apparent we were supposed to sing WITH them. i learned part of hong kong university's school song today. when the request for a kiss was made, i offered up quinn...one of the kids air kissed quinn's cheek while another student took a picture. it was hilarious, if a little strange and uncomfortable. if nothing else, it gave us a good laugh at the end of a rather stressful outing.