Walmart, McDonald’s, and Stop n Shop’s do not exist here (although Narodnie is an excellent little grocery store) in K-Stan. So, when I want to buy something not of designer quality, I head to the bazaar – a place I love, a place I hate… a place I simply love to hate!
Shopping at the bazaar used to be an insanely overwhelming experience, but now that normalcy has set in after a few months in Central Asia, I find them quite pleasurable (I’ll go there when I’m bored just to look around), and sometimes very amusing. Here I would like to share a few of the amazing finds that just make me giggle:
I’m an XXL?!
When wanting to add a pair of underwear to my wardrobe, I went to the underwear aisle to find a suitable piece. When the lady asked me my size I told her I was American and did not know for sure according to their labels. She pulled out a Large and said it was the normal size here.
I stood there for a few minutes looking at the very tiny piece of material held in front of my eyes. That’s normal?! It was at that moment that I looked around and quickly addressed the fact that these Asian and Russian girls have NO HIPS whatsoever, and I with my American-sized caboose am a bazaar panties size XXL. Go me.
The best T-shirt ever!
Since I only arrived in Bishkek with 2 t-shirts, I desperately needed more to add to my tiny wardrobe, especially when it started getting warm outside. I just couldn’t pass this one up when I found it.
“It’s timeta take your heart on the thing for dry cleaning. The dry cleaning service vanderful your winter clohets. Your dry cleaning service wonderful suggestions.”
My new kicks!
Yes, these shoes are on my feet. I simply couldn’t take my eyes off of them – just look at all the colors!
Toothpaste or propaganda?
While browsing through the Chinese market, I came across this toothpaste. Instead of it reading “Whitening Power”, it simply states “White Power”. I have since seen this brand in the normal supermarkets so it is not indigenous to just the bazaars, but still deserves a shout-out.
Cheap Tupperware!
I just love all the Chinese products that make it over here with horrible English on it. Just take a look at this Tupperware.
“Cook should use convenient and smart kitchenware. Because good tool bring great pleasure in cooking. And cooking with pleasure bring delicious food.”
Well it is good to know that my cooking will be good when I use these!
And so conclude my bizarre bazaar finds thus far, but don’t you worry… There’s plenty more where that came from.
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Friday, August 8th, 2008, 4:34 pm | 
Kyrgyzstan | 
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August 9, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Hi Brooke, I enjoyed reading this post! Funny stuff. I had a similar experience when I tried to buy underwear in Thailand! They were so tiny.
Are people in K-stan into the Olympics and their athletes? I can imagine that might be an interesting experience.
August 12, 2008 at 2:02 pm
howdy!
For some reason i did not get RSS feeds on either of these posts but I was thinking there would be something new!
This post is so funny. I love language translations. That tupperware must be what’s been lacking in my cooking skills all these years!