Creeper or Keeper?
On Tuesday and I the kids had a great fun adventure and came home with our very first pet. Growing up we usually had a pet of some sort; fish, hamsters, rabbits, dogs, and even some chickens came and went through our home at various stages. As a child I always liked animals, and aside from my allergies/aversion to cats, I always thought when I grew up I would want a pet, preferably a dog. But now that we have kids and live in China, I have decided it is for sure not worth the effort. I am not the most patient person on earth, and I use up most of my patience keeping my husband and children alive and thriving in this strange piece of the world we live in. I'm fairly positive I don't have enough time/energy/patience left to keep alive anything non-human :-) My one plant only lives because my sweet ayi remembers to water it. If she is gone for a long period of time the plant visibly suffers. I even refuse to get fish mostly because I'm afraid I would forget to feed them and it would be traumatic for my kids to watch them die.
So last night the kids and I embarked upon an adventure to my friend Cindy's house for dinner. I had no idea where she lived, but had the address written down so I handed it to the taxi driver and he seemed to understand. It was a good 40 minute taxi ride until we arrived in a district of our city that I have never seen before. It looked like an old section of the city and not the type of place that would draw foreigners or other expats. Cindy's family lives in a tiny apartment tucked away in a forest of buildings. I don't think I could have found my way back out again alone :-) We were welcomed by her lovely mother and a her very excited dog. He consequently terrified Maddie who practically climbed up the wall to get away from him. Then we began the dinner ritual which is quite the challenge with 2 small children. Shoes must come off and slippers donned. We passed the tiny kitchen only big enough for one person to stand inside and the squatty potty. We entered the main room which serves as both bedroom/living room/and dining room. From there it was an hour long adventure of trying to keep my kids from spilling the tea and rice all over the floor, convincing them to attempt the various array of seafood for dinner, de-heading the shrimp, trying not to look at the baby octopus before I swallowed them, and taking them back and forth from the squatty potty. The first time I held Maddie over top of it, she screamed in terror, but 15 minutes later she was still doing the pee-pee dance and was desperate enough to try again. She succeeded even with previously mentioned yippy dog as an audience. Boys are definitely at an advantage with the squatty potty, but Robbie had his own adventure later that night :-)
Cindy and her mother were SO sweet and kind and were wonderful hosts. Like mostly all Chinese people they try their very hardest to show wonderful hospitality and give their guests the very best. I do SO love that aspect of the culture. It is done from very warm hearts. With my 2 preschoolers in tow I am a difficult guest to accomodate.
After dinner we went on a walk to the local market where her parents run a small manto shop (Manto is Chinese bread, it's like a big doughy ball with no flavor, doesn't taste bad, doesn't taste good in my opinion). This was where we met our first ever pet :-) We were introduced to Cindy's father and admired the manto and Chinese bread he offered. His shop was located in an outdoor market and immediately next to him the lady was selling assorted seafood including many of the things we had enjoyed for dinner. Maddie was particularly enthralled by a tank of water containing giant tiger shrimp. She was entranced by the bubbling on the waters surface. I don't know if she was even paying attention to it's contents. However, the Chinese crowd gathering round determined that she was in love with the giant creepy tiger shrimp it contained and it was the general concensus that we should be able to take one home. I was horrified by this idea and tried my best to offer every polite excuse I could manage. But who am I to argue with the desires of a blonde haired, blue eyed little girl with pigtails (or at least her percieved desires)? So, to my horror a large creeping tiger shrimp was caught and placed into a black plastic bag (equivalent of a grocery store bag) with lots of water, and it was tied off at the top. Inside I could feel the squiggling and wiggling of our new best friend. They then escorted us to a taxi and we (me, my 2 preschoolers, and our giant tiger shrimp) began our 40 minute journey home. It was dark outside and rather late when we got our taxi. The way home was lots of fun. I was fighting being totally creeped out by thoughts of a possible shrimp escapee crawling on my toes if one of my wiggly preschoolers kicked the bag. Meanwhile Robbie decided that he had to go pee-pee RIGHT NOW! He was practically in tears, and could not be distracted so we had to pull over the taxi for a private moment on the side of the road. He was not kidding! 5 minutes later we were back on the way home. Once we arrived we emptied our special friend into a glass vase, enjoyed watching him flip and crawl all over and then we voted to put him out of his misery outside the house. It was a short lived adventure and fun for all. We are DEFINITELY NOT getting a real pet.
So last night the kids and I embarked upon an adventure to my friend Cindy's house for dinner. I had no idea where she lived, but had the address written down so I handed it to the taxi driver and he seemed to understand. It was a good 40 minute taxi ride until we arrived in a district of our city that I have never seen before. It looked like an old section of the city and not the type of place that would draw foreigners or other expats. Cindy's family lives in a tiny apartment tucked away in a forest of buildings. I don't think I could have found my way back out again alone :-) We were welcomed by her lovely mother and a her very excited dog. He consequently terrified Maddie who practically climbed up the wall to get away from him. Then we began the dinner ritual which is quite the challenge with 2 small children. Shoes must come off and slippers donned. We passed the tiny kitchen only big enough for one person to stand inside and the squatty potty. We entered the main room which serves as both bedroom/living room/and dining room. From there it was an hour long adventure of trying to keep my kids from spilling the tea and rice all over the floor, convincing them to attempt the various array of seafood for dinner, de-heading the shrimp, trying not to look at the baby octopus before I swallowed them, and taking them back and forth from the squatty potty. The first time I held Maddie over top of it, she screamed in terror, but 15 minutes later she was still doing the pee-pee dance and was desperate enough to try again. She succeeded even with previously mentioned yippy dog as an audience. Boys are definitely at an advantage with the squatty potty, but Robbie had his own adventure later that night :-)
Cindy and her mother were SO sweet and kind and were wonderful hosts. Like mostly all Chinese people they try their very hardest to show wonderful hospitality and give their guests the very best. I do SO love that aspect of the culture. It is done from very warm hearts. With my 2 preschoolers in tow I am a difficult guest to accomodate.
After dinner we went on a walk to the local market where her parents run a small manto shop (Manto is Chinese bread, it's like a big doughy ball with no flavor, doesn't taste bad, doesn't taste good in my opinion). This was where we met our first ever pet :-) We were introduced to Cindy's father and admired the manto and Chinese bread he offered. His shop was located in an outdoor market and immediately next to him the lady was selling assorted seafood including many of the things we had enjoyed for dinner. Maddie was particularly enthralled by a tank of water containing giant tiger shrimp. She was entranced by the bubbling on the waters surface. I don't know if she was even paying attention to it's contents. However, the Chinese crowd gathering round determined that she was in love with the giant creepy tiger shrimp it contained and it was the general concensus that we should be able to take one home. I was horrified by this idea and tried my best to offer every polite excuse I could manage. But who am I to argue with the desires of a blonde haired, blue eyed little girl with pigtails (or at least her percieved desires)? So, to my horror a large creeping tiger shrimp was caught and placed into a black plastic bag (equivalent of a grocery store bag) with lots of water, and it was tied off at the top. Inside I could feel the squiggling and wiggling of our new best friend. They then escorted us to a taxi and we (me, my 2 preschoolers, and our giant tiger shrimp) began our 40 minute journey home. It was dark outside and rather late when we got our taxi. The way home was lots of fun. I was fighting being totally creeped out by thoughts of a possible shrimp escapee crawling on my toes if one of my wiggly preschoolers kicked the bag. Meanwhile Robbie decided that he had to go pee-pee RIGHT NOW! He was practically in tears, and could not be distracted so we had to pull over the taxi for a private moment on the side of the road. He was not kidding! 5 minutes later we were back on the way home. Once we arrived we emptied our special friend into a glass vase, enjoyed watching him flip and crawl all over and then we voted to put him out of his misery outside the house. It was a short lived adventure and fun for all. We are DEFINITELY NOT getting a real pet.
LOL! I laughed the whole way through. I'm still giggling, actually. I kind of wish you had kept him...
ReplyDeleteOnce our ayi gave us two goldfish...one for each of the girls. They of course, did't live long. Rachel in her five year old wisdom decided to feed them to the cat that lived at Aomen. It was creepy to me but made her feel good that our pets had gone for a good cause.
ReplyDeleteoh, that is so gross!
ReplyDelete