It was the hottest day in August of 2003. My mom, my brother, and I had just gotten off the bus; cart in my hand ready for our first shopping experience in New York City. Then it began to rain. It was not just droplets of rain, but buckets of pouring rain. I head into one store to pick an umbrella and a few wraps for my hair. I was certainly not going to let this ruin my day.
Our first shopping adventure was on Canal Street. It was like a feast for the eyes. There were so many vendors to choose from and so little time. As we were approaching an alley we noticed something weird. We noticed a crowd gathering at a car, people starring, and walking pass the car as if they had seen something horrible. As I began to wonder what they were looking at and I spotted a man covered in blood from head to toe. I asked my mom and brother if they saw the injured man. They said no. Since New York is a movie town I thought perhaps there was a movie being shot, but I did not see any cameras. I took a deep breath and kept moving. We had more shopping to do.
The next shopping adventure came when we went into one of the small vendor stores on Canal Street to look at sunglasses. A sweet old lady came up to me and asked if I wanted to see a Prada purse. I was shocked at her question and before I knew it she had pressed a button and the walls opened to a smaller store. I could not believe what just happened. She actually had fake designer purses behind a wall. It was like a scene out of a movie. I refused her offer. Thankfully my mom and brother were with me at the time or I may have been tempted to indulge in the shopper’s paradise that laid within the store walls.
During our last stop of our shopping adventure for the day we got hungry and decided to stop for a quick snack. I spotted a man selling mangos on a stick. Since it was hot and muggy I figure this would be a nice cool treat. I watched as he cut the mango into a shape of a flower. When he finished and handed me the mango on the stick I pondered for a second as to where to start eating. My 
mom and brother grab a hotdog and chips and water for all of us. We walked a long as we ate and spotted a very cute outfit in the window of a small store. And since I had been relatively unsuccessful so far today, I decided I had to have it. After some time, I convinced my mom to buy me the outfit; she hurried to finish her snack and then entered the store while I happily watched her buy it, content with my mango on a stick. As she was exiting the store I yelled for her to run. Behind us were two young men coming out of the store next to it fighting. It was a close call because a crowd of people were running towards us trying to get away from the fight. We would have been trampled (or at least my little brother).
Needless to say, I had enough shopping for one day and we decided to turn it in after a quick dinner. I will never forget my first shopping experience in New York City and thankfully most of them since then have been a little more relaxed.
