Xia yu

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So we are kind of in rainy season and the ground is crazy slippery all the time. My friends actually did see a motorbike get hit by a taxi the other day! Everyone was ok but we were wondering how long it would take to witness an accident in the crazy roads here. The suprises here never really end. We went to a restaurant for a friend's birthday, and the main course was entire fish served from head to tail. Apparently the eyes are a delicacy. What was even more suprising was that there was a tank near the kitchen with fish. The same fish as on our table but in the living state...

For desert we had cake, but this was no ordinary cake. There was fruit all over it, and by fruit I mean everything from peaches to tomatoes. It was a lot less sweet than American cake, but if you could get by the tomatoes it was pretty good.

Yesterday on our walk to class we saw two classes of about 40 1st grade aged kids walking along the road. Keeping forty 6 to 8 year olds together is a challenge, especially on the trafficky roads here. The solution was to give the teacher the end of a long rope, and each kid had to hold onto it at all times with one hand. It looked like a giant leash chain of children marching alongside the road, but was undoubtedly effective.

We also went to the grocery store, and one section had all the seafood and meat. LIVE seafood and meat. You could purchase a frog, turtle, or fish right out of the tank. The Chinese like to make sure their meat is very fresh, so oftentimes it is alive until you purchase it. I left that section of the store pretty quickly...

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Comments

[Valerie Odell]

Ewwww
I can't believe people would buy those turtles. What kind of dish do you make with a turtle? Turtle soup maybe? I thought that was a pretend thing! Please make sure you are really careful on the roads there, it sounds VERY dangerous!!! Oh, and what does Xia yu mean? Love you <3 Mom