"City Center"

Just got back from an evening shopping with my parents. We had heard rumors of a bunch of 100 fils stores, the equivalent to a dollar store. After calling around we finally got directions and took off to find the City Center shopping complex that was definitely not located in the city center.

Dad somehow managed to understand the layout of the complex, he claims it's similar to the streets here, in block formation. I was totally confused though. To me it was a labyrinth of shops. There were lots of little boutiques, and many were color coded. There were stores only selling yellow dresses, or purple, or black and grey, or blue... Some of the styles were just laughable. A lot of the stack was simply tacky and dirt cheap, but there was some cute stuff in interesting designs that of course was about 20 KD, 60+ dollars.

I saw so many knock offs tonight. There was Armani and Lacoste ugly underwear, and Burburry sweat pants. I was impressed to find perfume at cheap prices. I recognized lots of the nice name brands, and tried some of it. Dad immediately thought it was some knock off, and sure enough the perfume wore off in less than two minutes. Another store owner later explained to us they keep the knock offs in the front on display, and the shelves are filled with the real stuff that was of course outrageous prices.

Mom was running around in circles and Dad and I occasionally got left in the dust, so we enjoyed perusing the shops together. We were tempted by the Kuwaiti version of Cinnabon, but instead choose mango ice cream that was topped in pomegranate seeds. The pomegranates themselves were amazingly sweet, and the combination oft that and the delicious and refreshing mango ice cream was superb. Not only did it taste better, but I am sure it was much cheaper and healthier than the Cinnabon.

While we were shopping I made sure to check and look for any other Westerner. Nope. We were the only Westerners, and of course the only blondes. I'm still not quite totally used to being singled out. I was thankful that i wore my favorite ankle length skirt that is appropriate for almost everything here. Several times this evening we would be looking at something in a shop, and I would just get uncomfortable because all the nearby shopkeepers would be staring at me that dad and I would just keep walking. If I can keep walking I notice the staring less. It's just something I'm trying to get used to, but it's still pretty hard. We joke here that if any girl wants a self esteem boost she should just go out to a mall or something because of all the stares and smiles she'll get. But it's still uncomfortable.

The 100 fils shops were great. There were lots of them scattered about. Sure, there was tons of cheap toys and ridiculous little things but there was also lots of cute scrapbooking stuff, magnet strips, marbles, and lots of little things I picked up for my preschool. We also manged to find some really nice lipstick and eyeshadow for gifts.

It was a nice evening out and about. Much more fun than planning for preschool tomorrow, but I suppose I should get on to that soon. I love my kiddos, but they can be so much work!