SHOPPING!!!

Today I felt as though I was at home in one of the big cities of the US (most of the time...). Pratheeba, her mother and I spent the ENTIRE afternoon shopping in one of the biggest malls I've ever been to in my life- the mall was called Spencer's Plaza, and it was three buildings, all of which had more than the number of stores at the Rogue Valley Mall in Medford that I'm used to! We went to only a few stores, the stores that Pratheeba knew to be good, and we spent a few hours browsing through all kinds of things to buy for me. The first part of the trip was spent in the "Western" section of a store where I bought a pair of skinny jeans (very in style here), a short dress, and a T-shirt. The fashion here in India is moving quickly towards the western influence, and so you see many young girls wearing jeans and tops that you could buy anywhere in the US (boys can pretty much wear whatever they want)! Even the kurtas and salwaars (Indian style dress) is becoming westernized by the patterns.
After finishing up with the western section, we all went into the section where the same store sold kurtas and salwaars, tights, churidars (loose straight pants), gathering pants (cotton pants that are tight and gather at the ankle), salwaar pants, and patialas (big Alladin style pants). We spent a few minutes there, they didn't have too much of a selection, but I did find a short kurta and a pair of gathering pants that match.
We all then went to another shop called "Pantaloons" that sold the same items, but different colors and styles. We shopped around there for a while, all trying on a few things, looking at the jewelry, and sorting through the many colored options of churidars that were on sale for a good price. I left the store with one more kurta, that matched my gathering pants, to add to my growing closet.
After finishing up with our clothes shopping, we all rested for a few minutes and had ice-cream from a shop that I've seen everywhere called Arrun Ice-creams. Pratheeba got an almond flavored, her mother butterscotch, and I tried something new (I've only eaten vanilla and strawberry ice-cream since I've been here) called creamy cookie. It was a vanilla flavor with a chocolate flavor mixed in. I also got chocolate chips to put on top. YUM!
After leaving the mall, we spent a few minutes in a jewelry shop. The jewelry is AMAZING! It's all much too big and elaborate for my taste, but it was all solid gold! I liked looking at all of the pieces, but I was a little afraid to touch them...(most of the prices were WAAAYY out of my price range)!
After that our shopping concluded and we dropped Pratheeba's mom back off at her house in the city. Pratheeba and I then got into the same cab that had been driving us around all day and drove back out to Pratheeba's house in the outskirts of the city. On the way we stopped to get "pani puri" which is a north Indian specialty that my host mother had suggested. It was really good- puris are the small little shells that are round, and inside this type we had potatoes and a sweet and spicy sauce. They were delicious, and I can't wait to have them again tomorrow (Pratheeba said she knows of a shop that sells the BEST in the city, and that we'll go there tomorrow)! We also stopped to recharge my phone (add more money to the account) at a little shop where we also bought some bananas!
P.S. the photo is of the front of the mall (one of the buildings!)