I Found My Dirty Farmers' Market

---

Katie and I met for lunch last Thursday. She is a God-send. It is soooooo nice to have a girl around to spend time with. I feel like I am literally drowning in testosterone. We met at FLS so she could say "hi" to some of the teachers she worked with the year before last, then we started walking. We went south past my school...and that's when I found it. There was a huge open-air market that was built into a giant warehouse. People were selling all kinds of colorful, exotic fruits and vegetables, rice wine and nuts...and there was a meat section that sold everything from cooked roast duck, to freshly-slaughtered and feathered chickens, fresh-cut beef and even live bullfrogs. I can not wait to cook.

After that, we decided that we needed to eat somewhere a little less "authentic." There was something about the way the chickens' strangled necks dangled over the counters that turned my stomach a little bit. Katie took me to her favorite Chinese restaurant here in Guilin. It's a bit pricier than the regular street food, but they sold food like fried rice, sizzling beef and sweet and sour pork. It's the closest thing I have had to American-style Chinese food since arriving here in China a month ago. We sat at the restaurant for 2 hours talking and eating. By the time we pulled ourselves out of the conversation, we were the last two guests in the restaurant and all the servers were standing expectantly near our table. We called an end to our afternoon, but vowed to have girl-time often to give us a break from our respective men.

---

Comments

[anonymous]

clare... yes, katie does sound like a good friend to confide in. Glad you have her support, and friendship. tried skyping you this am at 8ish our time, to no avail..... another time. have a great day/eve. :) love, aunt annie

[mama]

want to see the market
I am sending 2 new camera batteries today with your package. I hope it arrives soon so you can take pictures of the dirty market -- my kind of place. Rick Leisowitz said "don't throw away your bum battery!" since he will be able to return it for credit (about $40) from Canon that you can apply to some other purchase. We'll bring the battery home with us in February if it is too much hassle to ship or mail it.