Finally getting some alterations

   This week has been very frustrating as I have been searching for a place to alter my dress for Matt and Lily's wedding. At the beginning of the week I looked up "alterations" on a couple of the expat websites for Shanghai and a bunch of places in my neighborhood came on (all down Maoming Road, about a 20min walk from my apartment). I was excited about the prospect of having a place do the changes that is located near my apartment so that it is easier for me to pick the dress back up. Also, these shops stayed open until 10pm. My other choice was the fabric market but there wasn't a guarantee that any of the shops would do it w/o other business from me (you know, like having them knock the dress off but in a different fabric) and they close at 6pm everyday. The plan was for me to come home after work on Tuesday and grab my bike to ride up to Maoming Rd but it was pouring rain all day so I decided to wait another day. On Wednesday I woke up to yet another very wet day so I packed the dress and took it with me to work so that I could just take the subway to the area to get this dress taken care of...time is ticking at this point. So after work, off I went. I'm walked around Moaming Rd and went in 7 different shops asking about alterations. They all said no b/c they only do M's clothing or they only alter clothes that they originally made...well, that's not true, one guy was a dick to me and offered to to the dress alterations for 600rmb (that's $100!! More then I paid for the dress. In my mind I gave him the middle finger and just walked away). Most places didn't speak any English so in each store I was pulling out the dress and gesturing what I wanted them to do...I finally came across one guy who spoke a little English and since his shop wouldn't do the work for me I asked where he thought that I should go. Of course he said the fabric markets...I should have just gone there in the first place. 

   So that's what I did this yesterday. After getting a late start I grabbed the dress and headed for the subway to get to the fabric mart. Once in the subway station I noticed that the TV screens that usually tell me when to expect the next train were showing that there were NO trains on the track! I was a little concerned, then a announcement was made to everyone waiting for the train (I assume explaining that something was wrong), a couple ppl left and the rest of the people continued to wait so I did too...I really didn't feel like taking taxi at that point. So I waited and waited and finally a train came. YAY! I didn't know what the issue had been but at this point it didn't really matter since there was a train in front of me.

See where it says 00:00? That's usually where it says 3:00 mins
until the next train, and 6:00 mins until the train after that.

    The trick at the fabric market (i'm learning more every time I go) is to find stalls with items that are similar to what you want to have done. And, never go to the stalls right by the entrances or escalators b/c they get the most traffic and have the highest prices. So up to the second floor I went and found a secluded stall that had tons of dresses hanging around. I ended up showing the dress to the lady, who spoke a little English and she said she could do it "no problem". I had decided before heading into the market that I would not pay more then 80-100rmb to get the alterations done. Now it was time to ask for price...she whipped out her calculator and punched in 80rmb. She instantly became my hero and I told her that I thought it was fair and would accept the price (I didn't have it in me to haggle b/c this dress if very important and I want her to do a good job on it).

Here's the little stall that I left my dress with, it's tucked in some

back corner of the second floor. Hope I can find it again in a week! :)

   I was SO happy to have that errand done (or started, i guess it will be done when I pick the dress back up). The other errand that I wanted to get out of the way was getting my weekly produce for the Avocado Lady (mainly onions, herbs and dates). I headed back to the French Concession neighborhood via the subway got everything I needed then stopped next store to get a sweet pastry. I finally remembered to get a picture of the stall to share with you guys...

   I've even learned the characters for the flavor that I like so now I don't have to buy 2 or 3 in hopes to get the one that I really want! I can just buy one for 2rmb and be satisfied! By the time I was back to the Metro line I had talked myself into doing a little bit of exploring before heading back home. I had heard previously that below one of the famous hotels on West Nanjing Rd that there was a great grocery store with western items. I was curious about their selection and prices and thought that I should go hunt it down. On my way I came across this underground food court called Reel, it's connected to one of the metro stations. I'd seen it before but have never stopped and since I wasn't in a hurry yesterday, in I went! There was lots of food/drink choices, sweet and savory. I found a business that was doing all fresh juices, my kind of place. I stared at the menu for about 5 minutes...one, because the menu had 92 choices on it and two, because it had choices like Tomato/Sugarcane and durian/Pear and Aloe/Cucumber. I got my favorite banana/milk then headed back to ground level to find that grocery store.

In the right photo you can see the escalators that are part of the

 Metro and the entrance to the Reel food court.

The drink stand and it comprehensive menu!

You can see the entrance to the hotel and the escalators heading down to

the grocer. The hotel and grocer are all integrated into a mall. This is very

common here in China. Hotels are rarely stand-alone like they are in the states.

The grocery store did not have anything special that I can't find closer to me.

Part of the mall was this shop that I had heard about from the Jiashan
Market that is by my apartment. Rumor has it that they sell Bragg Products.
I stopped in and sure enough, I got a vinegar drink and noted that I can come
back when I run out of Apple Cider Vinegar with "the mother". Thank you
World Health Store :)

    This past week I had also heard from co-workers about another food street. They are taking me there for lunch this coming Tuesday (I have to ride my bike into work so that we can get there and back in our allotted lunch hour) and just happened to be in the area yesterday. And since I was told that I would like the atmosphere I trekked the 6 blocks over there to see what it was all about. It was getting later in the evening and could even use a snack so a food street would be perfect. Turns out that Wujiang Road was not what I thought it would be.

It was all chain restaurants so unless I missed something it was not all that interesting.
I even opted to stay hungry and just go home to make food. It was too bad b/c I
was really wanted to try some fried stinky tofu. I guess it would just have to be another time.