Visit to China

The children wouldn't work, wouldn't get along, wouldn't be nice to the mom and dad, sooooooo, it was time for a special outing.  I took Ladybug, Briz took Little Mother.  

First we donned "adventure hats." (You can't have an adventure without special adventure hats.)  Then we chose an area of the globe we wanted to visit.  Haylie chose China.  We hopped in the red Hondaish airplane and flew across the globe.  When we were almost there, we glanced at Mongolia, Korea, and Japan, other Asian countries, and Ladybug commented that they looked just like our country.  She was surprised that they had a classic skating and waterpark.  I told her it was amazing how similar we all were.  

When we entered China, most similarities ended.  We started with the art, and learned how in Asian art, man is just a small dot on the  larger canvas of nature.  We experienced dozens of different representations of Buddah, and talked about Buddist teachings of kindness, mindfulness, and reincarnation.  (Ladybug does not want to come back as a worm).  She picked a lattice work wooden fan for a souvenier.  Happily, it was only a dollar.  


We went to the drugstore and found all sorts of remedies for everything from baldness to indigestion.  We marveled at the interesting ingredients... turtles, shark teeth, tiger scent glands.  Wow.  They must be pretty powerful concoctions.  


Hungry, we ventured over to the food market.  Crispy whole ducks, bills and all, hung with crispy necks.  Roast chickens down to their toenails lay on a warmer.  Pigs head and feet awaited purchase next to pork tounge, intestine, chicken feet, and every other interesting edible animal part. 

"Chinese must be a lot like Indians." Ladybug observed.  "They don't waste anything."   The lady at the counter reccomended some steamed pork buns, fresh from the oven.  

We added a fried bread and a Taro boba tea.  Ladybug won the contest on how many tapioca pearls she could slurp out of the Boba at one time.  

We learned about many new fruits and vegetables, such as dragon fruit, jack fruit, and mangostem.  We thought about trying them... but then, we can only try so many new things at once.  Instead we settled on buying the ingredients to make our own Taro Boba Tea.  

Ladybug observed that though we were disgusted with the dried squid, and the large fish head, all those around us were buying them with great excitement.  She noted that we should not make faces at anything new because it might hurt their feelings.  We left China enlightened, and very cold.   


Ladybug is now very happy and working well on the laundry.