15 April 2012
Been living the everyday life lately. Not to much to write in the sense of travel and exploration but let me tell you just what everyday life is in China.
I walked through a food market on the way back from the bank and heading to get grocery at Walmart. Instead of getting excited by all the options around I was nearly sickened by the smell and sights. Take in a smell of raw meat open on tables and surrounding you. Then you've got fresh kill fish for the picking. Mix fleshy blood meat with fishy smell. Alright lots and lots of vegetables, but I dare say in a place like this there is probably salomonela, ecoli or other bacterias just festering. Then you've got lines of who knows what kind of mushrooms, pickeled items and dried soemthing or others. Can't forget the back wall line of water tanks in case you want to pick out the live crawfish or fish you'd like. Enough for me, i'm outta here. Oh look cage of pigeons and chickens; that are being chopped dead right there in the back end of that van. Sigh, sometimes I just prefer not to know how my food got on the grilled stick I'm about to eat.
It's not my first time to Walmart here, but given the name I feel a little better trusting than that open market. Well, same stuff inside walmart only mass quantities so it sits around all day and is visited by hundreds of people. I don't really know that sanitary conditions exsist for fresh food. That being said I'm headed to the dry packaged goods aisles.
China is not a coffee culture. Sure, it is not hard to find a coffee shop around but you'll pay about as much as a cab ride half across the city. So on the occasion that I want to spend the $6 do I stick with the Americano or can I trust that their milk is safe enough steamed to make a cappuccino?
Come to think of it, it is about time for another Airborne dosage. My stomach has been feeling a bit quesy lately. Probably just a bit of worry.
So off the subject of food, the cat I live with has gone outside and not returned for 5 days now. Walked in the house Saturday night and cats home, limping. He's got a few ruff scratches on him and a nickle size open wound tear on his hind leg. Ren tried cleaning it for a day but got very worried about him. She doesn't want to pay 1000Yuan to take him to the hospital so she found an animal rescue that will take him for 100Yuan. She drug me to go along and take the cat to this place. No bad thoughts walking in and up the elevator until wait, this just looks like an apartment complex or something. Room 8010 door opens, HOLY what is that smell! 10X12 room with stacked cages of dogs, cats, kittens, rabbit and more dogs. It smells like crowded animal, urine, food and uh-I just don't know. I have to go to the window for a little air. These animals are in tough shape, two dogs missing paws, another has non-stop regurgitation spasms but isn't throwing up. The one cat has an infection so bad its eyes are pussed shut. The other animals just lay their quitely looking sad. I can't believe Ren is signing a paper and letting her loving kitty stay here. His wound will probably get infected more than it will heal. I guess we'll see in a week or something what happens. But I excused myself to the hall because the smell and the sights were turning my tummy. Yuk.
The water is unable to be consumed without boiling or trusted bottling so i've taken to Sprite as much as I don't usually drink soda. Bottle water is daily as well but in variety I add orange juice and Sprite.
MMM, smoking how I've not missed you. In China you can smoke pretty much anywhere you please. Always glad to have a nice puff trail ahead of me on the escalator out of the metro, or in the office. O.k. China, i've gotten a 2 week full immersion of your culture and I lack to see the charm. Please show yourself anytime now.
Get by all that and living otherwise is more or less the same as usually expected.
Zaijian,
Niko
