Sari Shopping.

Okay I am GOING to catch this up today, it wont be hard since the past few days have been relaxing shopping days. On Saturday, we went to several little stores in the mall to finish our souvenir shopping. That was the haggling mall, and you have no idea how stressful it is haggling. We hadn't done it in awhile, and it just really wears you out! Half the time the workers will tell you different prices, or they won't tell you anything until they see your finished order. If you remember the beginning of aladdin; with the street vendor, you will have a good idea of what we are dealing with. I remember because I just watched it last night :) They say, "Oh, you like this? Very beautiful, very beautiful. You want to buy this? No? I have others maam let me show you more. You see this? Beautiful piece, beautiful color. You want something different? I show you one. No this is a very good price. No maam just wait I give you a good price." It's a moment of relief when you exit a store. So Saturday was the main celebration day of the Pongal festival. Most of the stores we wanted to go into were closed, so we had to work around it. We did a little shopping here and there, and then we moved onto our big event for the day, which was sari shopping.
        We all wanted Sari's for the same reason you would want a kimono if you were staying and loving Japan. Sari's are so beautiful, and all the women wear them. Vidya leads us to a very nice sari shop (which sadly I do not have a picture of, I will live but you wont get to see it), and we were almost instantly mind boggled. There were folded Sari's everywhere. We told Vidya our price range, and she led us to which areas would have that. Four of us wanted authentic silk ones, and the other four were fine with a cotton/silk mix. We sat down on little stools and told the men what colors we were looking for, and he would pull them out. Or you could tell him to pull out a certain one. We went to look at the cotton ones upstairs, but the colors were so much less rich, and a lot darker, and the floor was empty, whereas the silk floor was crowded. Most Sari's have some sort of border, some have detailing, and most of the silk ones have different tints when they are in different lighting. There was a mirror placed under a skylight so you can try on the Sari with natural lighting. It's had shopping with other girls because the minute you put something down someone snatches it. I ended up going with my first inclination, albeit an expensive one. Well it really isn't expensive considering women are buying Sari's for 10,000 rupees, but it went a little over my budget. It is such a bright, pretty color though. And a Sari is six yards of material, plus a blouse, so I am getting a lot of material for my money! We are taking our blouses to the tailor in the next few days, because the blouse material comes attached to the Sari and you have to have someone make it for you. But we are very excited to wear ours! I won't tell you my color because it is kind of hard to explain. But I will post a picture of a Sari for you.