The Frustration of Shopping

Today we left early to pick up our health screens so someone from Dustin's office can send it to the proper authorities. (The health screens are required as part of allowing us to stay here longer than a visitor). We made great time down there and were able to pick them up with ease. Our only mishap happened when Danny had to go to the bathroom. It of course was a squat pot and he accidentally slipped and his foot fell in the pot. Thankfully, he had not gone yet, and they kept this bathroom relatively clean. We then (soggy foot and all) headed quickly to the Bestbuy to purchase my stand mixer. I love to bake and this is the only place that sells such a thing.
We decide to park in the mall parking, as we were going to look at strollers and pick up a few things for Danny to play with from Toys r Us. We got up in the mall only to find out it was not open and that we also had no apparent way out. We finally realize what the security was trying to tell us—go down an escalator that connects to the subway and then up the subway stairs to the street. We did this and then traveled over a huge walking bridge to get to the Bestbuy. (The street is so large, they do not let you cross it, you must go over it). The interesting fact about this bridge is that there is an escalator that takes you up, but only stairs to take you down. So every time we had to go down, Dustin had to lug Josh down in the stroller. We arrived at Bestbuy to find out that it was not opened yet. Thankfully there was a McDonald’s close and we waited there (after Dustin had to lug Josh down the steps) for the Bestbuy to open. Purchasing the mixer was quite the experience. It took us two hours (this is with devoted staff helping us from minutes after we arrived to the time we left). There were three models at prices that would make you weep they were so expensive. I obviously settled on the lowest of the costing models. It comes (we believe) with many different attachments and was not in stock so it will be shipped on Friday to the house. Thankfully there was a nice man working with us that spoke limited English and was able to answer questions of how it worked (very basically—thankfully the machine had pictures on it that we could reference) Then it took another hour and a half to check out. First they had to track it down in another store, then they had the number wrong, then I have no idea what happened. Finally, we were on our way and the children amazingly, had been great throughout it all.
We headed next over to the other mall and looked for a place to have lunch. We again found our staple of Papa Johns and ordered what has become our usual. Tipping is not allowed in China and I am not sure if it is a direct result, but service is terrible. (As in it would be easier and faster for you to go into the kitchen and make it yourself and get your own drink, etc). To give them some credit I do believe our waitress may have been new, and we finally followed suit with the other customers of just calling out to anyone walking by to ask for what we needed.
After leaving the restaurant we went in search of more sippy cups and strollers. I looked at a glorified umbrella stroller that I had seen at Babies r us before we left for $60 and was shocked and dismayed to find that on sale it was well over $200. As I cannot possibly bring myself to pay that much for it, I pushed Josh out in our bright orange umbrella stroller and silently pray it will hold up until he can walk. My search for sippy cups were also frustrated as they only had ones that I know Josh will not use. I will have to try and broaden my search hopefully in a cheaper mall (i.e.--the stores in this mall are all high end as in Versace).
We were able to pick up a Thomas train for Danny and playdoh, so it was not all a loss. Overall, the day was long—we started at 7:30 and did not arrive home until 4pm, but it ends on a good note of that the boys are happy and we are able to cook a decent meal. I figure it will take us a while to get this shopping thing down. It is hard not being able to enter a super store and get what you want quickly and at a good price. All stores (even in the malls) are small shops and you are forced to go from one to another. Tomorrow is a new day, one that should be relaxing as we are not leaving the community. Dustin is traveling to Shenzen and will return on Thursday night after dinner.