ma’am. ma’am? MA’AM! MA’AM!!!!!!

if you watch the tv show ‘family guy’, you know exactly how i feel when i am in the market.  remember the episode where stewie griffin, for about 5 minutes, says to his mom lois: “mom. mommy. mommy. ma. ma. ma. mum. mum. mummy. mummy. mom. mom. MOM. MOM (ad infinitum for about 4.5 more minutes)” and lois eventually turns to him and goes: “WHAT!?”

yeah, well when im getting constantly harassed with “ma’am” stewie-style at the market, i feel like turning to them and doing just that.

so despite this highly annoying reality, today after work i invited myself out to gariahat – the market near-ish to my house – with a few female colleagues. they’re nice girls, although i’m 75% sure sure they talk crap in front of me and say i’m a stupid white girl and my clothes are weird. (or as one of them says: “those canadian clothes”)

regardless, the girls have been seriously intrigued that i have been getting shirts at gariahat for just Rps 100 when apparently the best price they know is Rps 120-130.  so they wanted to go hunting around for my awesome cheap shirt-seller man. (and i’ll tell you up front that there really is no secret, i just look for the sign that says Rps 100. duh, girls.)

as we headed on our way, about 10 minutes from work my gap sandals broke apart:

fail.

so i walked back to my house with no shoes,  and if you read saturday’s post , you know that was a feat of bravery. the girls surprisingly waited while i walked back with my tail between my legs.

shoe catastrophe aside, we eventually made it down to gariahat via the city  bus – an experience in itself.  tons of people, no doors, jolting stop and highly acceptable levels of pushing.

and after all of this drama – inviting myself out, breaking my shoes and being the newbie on the bus – we couldn’t find the guy who has been selling me the cheap shirts! i went up and down the street secretly praying to the elephant gods – or whoever – that the guy would show up and make me a hero.

sadly, not. and now i’m preeeeeetty sure they think i was lying.

so whatever, bitches be frontin’, but i’m over it. if i can get through high school, i can get through this.  i actually think they’re generally nice girls, but just highly suspicious of me. and fair enough – i guess we can all agree that i can be a little weird.

so here is the bounty i’ve been getting from my mysterious shirt-seller man:

what do you think?

it has become really important to quickly adopt indian dress because of the heat.  my “canadian clothes” really aren’t cutting it here – so i’ve been trying to buy up things when i can. and even though i have to deal with the constant attention when i’m out shopping  (ma’am. ma’am? MA’AM! MA’AM!!!!!) – i know i always have an out thanks to lois griffin:

WHAT!