Walking down my street on the way to work and heard a rooster crowing. I’m afraid it was coming from the chicken vendor. I was afraid to look. A few days later I heard more commotion from the stall and looked in to see a live chicken being weighed. Poor little guy. Turns out that if you look deep into a few stalls, there are cages shoved full of chickens. Many are still yellow and fluffy. I remember now why I stopped eating meat when I was younger. When I pointed the chickens out to Nick, he was so excited. “I didn’t know those were there!” I didn’t go into explanation for him of WHY they were there. I finally got up the nerve to take a photo of the meat market. Part of the reason was because every few days they have a cow’s tail hanging there and today the tail was out! I have no idea (and don’t really want to know) what they do with this tail. So as I was aiming my camera to get a good shot of the tongues and tail, a truck pulled up to block my view. Grrr. Well, wouldn’t you know that truck was full of dead pigs. Mary has a better photo of the tail. You can just see it here behind the legs on the right hand side. I’ll try to get Mary's copy posted.
The street leading to our apartment is usually wet in the am and pm (when I’m walking to/from work) as the vendors are busy hosing down the chopping blocks, floors, etc. So last night I was walking home and had on my flip flops. I stepped in a small puddle/stream, which splashed on my leg. Ick. I was grossed out, trying to figure out which stall that water would have been from. Flowers stall, not so bad. Pigs/chicken stall – gag!! Got home to find a big mosquito bite on my leg where the water was. All I could think about was Jeanni and the boil/tapeworm/something horrible she got during her Peace Corps stint. Not sure if it was even her China adventure when she got it. But that was in my head. Well, I wake up to find a small boil-like thing where the bug bite was. And a bruise. Malaria? Tape worm? I realize it’s probably a pimple from my body lotion or something. But I’m a little freaked. If I die, tell them to look behind my right ankle for the boil/tapeworm/bird flu.
So I thought that buying produce from the vendors on the street would be so fun and fresh. But as I see the vendors every time I venture outside, I’m seeing more and more about how they operate. At night, all the produce is packed on ice and stored for the next day. Sure, they’re bringing in more fresh goods, but they’re also selling the day old stuff the next day. I’ve also seen them cutting off the browning bottoms of lettuce to make it look fresher. Hmmm. I’d rather not know. And would rather buy my produce at the City Super.
Over the weekend, we found Cat Street. Full of antique stores. So much fun to see some real and fake antiques. We stopped by a public park complete with paths, playground and koi pond. We spotted a woman doing tai chi with a sword. Or is it called something else when they have a sword? And how does one non-chalontely walk to the part with a sword? A sign greeted us at the entrance saying this is the snake’s active time and to stay out of the flower beds and shrubbery. If you see the snake, please don’t try to catch it. Not a problem. I told Nick to watch for the snake. Well, the next hour and days afterwards, we had to hear “there’s a snake. Did you see the snake? Where was the snake?”. We watched a woman skimming the leaves out of the pond. Nick spotted a turtle, which the woman promptly skimmed into her net and left with. Nick couldn’t believe this! So he chased her all the way to the building where she was taking the turtle (see last photo). I still don’t know what she was ging to do with it, as there were other turtles in the pond. Luckily a man came up and shared his fish food with Nick, which got his mind off of the stolen turtle.
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