The Shopping Spree

     This week is International Week at school which requires every staff member to wear something Mongolian on the Monday.  This was the incentive to go now and acquire some stylish traditional (or maybe not) garb, continue to practice my Mongolian and sharpen my bargaining skills.  I arranged to meet a Mongolian friend of mine, Bold, to show me what to look for so that I could develop critical eyeballs.  Two other colleagues joined us in the quest at the Black Market.
     As we made our way past the caged dogs and cats, leather jackets, jeans, camel wool garments and clothing knockoffs, we looked like ducklings following the mother duck.  Bold is a BIG guy who's been a wrestler in the past.  We snaked our way to the deel section and eyeballed a kaleidoscope of colors, fabrics and styles that ranged from the very traditional to short jackets and vests.  As soon as we stopped to look at one, a helpful person began to pull the article off the hanger and motion for us to put it on.  As the deel's final buttons were fastened and the hand held mirror put in front of us, Mongolian passerbys would stare and often times give a thumb's up.  The Mongolian clothing row is a continual line of items, so it's very difficult to determine who owns how many meters of clothing in the row.  The sight of the foreigners trying on deels became even more interesting as our numbers increased when 2 more colleagues showed up.  Bold was great as he clarified prices and negotiated.  There was never any lack of people giving their opinion of how we looked.
     When we all had our items in hand, it was off to the hat section of the market.  The mother duck headed out and the dutiful ducklings followed in a row jostling through the crowds trying to keep Bold in sight.  The hat purchases were almost a replay of the deel shopping experience.  As we tried on the hats, many eyes fixed themselves on us followed by a number of smiles.
     The final stop was to purchase the proper length of non-slick material to use as a belt with our deels.  The 5 foreigners stood around as Bold surveyed the massive amounts of material and listened to each owner laud their goods.  Bold pointed out the differences in the various materials and then sized us up as to how many meters each of us would need.  A short conversation with one of the sellers brought out the scissors quickly, and we were on our way ready to give our best impression of Chinggis Khan or see if we could blend in with the locals.
     Pam was busy during this excursion so, having had the experience, the next weekend I led her and a group of friends to the Black Market to get prepared for Mongolian day at school.  The weather was about 20 degrees colder, so the process was a bit faster but with the same results; everyone ended up with some great looking clothing.

 My buddy Bold

       ISU staff members, Sheena (Ireland), Denze and Toocksa