Notes from the Mall

Yesterday afternoon I headed out to Manauara Shopping Center to get some lunch, browse around, and maybe do some shopping. I spent about four hours there and realized that "the mall" is a nice little microcosm of any city. There you can see a subset of so many demographics, i.e. the herds of teenage boys in the game center, the gaggles of teenage girls in the food court, the couples holding hands as they browse, the families, the elderly couple, and of course the tourists.
After walking through most of the first floor and surveying what was on offer, I headed up to the second floor and walked into a small botique clothing shop that sold some very cool looking jeans and shirts. The shop guy who was helping me couldn't speak English, but did his best to show me around. Eventually, an older woman (the manager, maybe) who spoke some English helped me decipher a few things. Mostly, by finding out where there was a tailor in the mall to hem the length on the jeans, which were much too long. I bought a very nice Brazilian brand of stonewashed jeans called Iodice, walked down to the first level and found the tailors. There, after they measured the hem, I was told to come back in 40 minutes. To confirm this, I ended up tapping the time into a calculator they had near the register, and the girl nodded her head, so I gave her a thumbs up, took the receipt and headed to the food court.
Again bypassing the hamburgers, I ended up going to a taco stand for their carne burrito, and another shop where I got a baked potato covered in a brown sauce, sprinkled with cheese and dabbed with sour cream. The 40 minutes passed by quickly and I could only eat half of my food, but then I headed to the tailor and my jeans were ready.
After a couple more stops--to a music shop, where I picked up a few CDs by Brazilian musicians, and a homewares store, where I picked up a little cup to use when brushing my teeth--I strolled back to the exit and the taxi stand. I showed a driver the card for my hotel that I have in my wallet, and ten minutes and $10 reais later I was back in the lobby.
I found the mall a pretty fun place to hang out, and although it's a little scary at first to try and shop without knowing Portuguese, it's the best way to get your feet wet and try and converse with people, using thumbs up, broken sentences, written notes and even calculators. And the best part is, when I got home, I slipped on my new jeans, and I must say, they are by far the softest, most comfortable pair of jeans I have ever bought. I will likely be lounging in these for the better part of the remainder of my time here.