Bird and Flower Market - Take #3

11/20/11

            Should Tylenol Cold & Cough cost $1.50? Hmmm… I learned an important lesson yesterday: never go alone to get your haircut in a foreign city where you don’t speak the language. When I showed the man that I just wants a small amount off (just to get the dead ends,) he took that to mean just a small amount off the shortest pieces, and even everything else out. Now all of my hair is the length it was in the front, a little below the shoulders. I just keep telling myself, “hair grows, hair grows, hair grows.”

            Yesterday was Saturday, and I spent my morning off exploring the area around my apartment. It was a beautiful day for just wandering. At home I never realized how wonderful wandering by yourself could be.

            When I got home my mother signaled to me to put on shoes, and I blindly followed her and her sister to the bus stop. This is what my life is like now; I never have any idea of where I’m going until I get there. We ended up at the Bird and Flower Market. At this market you can buy anything from flowers, to birds, to tourist trinkets, to expensive jade, to minority treasures, to teacup pigs. It probably would have been slightly more exciting for me if I hadn’t been twice in the last week. The first time was by choice; the second I ended up there on a scavenger hunt. Oh well, I do enjoying seeing teacup pigs and the most splendid birdcages imaginable. I would by a bird just so I could own one of those birdcages. But I’m not sure how my host family would react if I showed up with a bird… I did by a beautiful Miao (a Chinese minority) hairpin.

When I went to the market with Sara and Allison (my first trip,) we ended up eating this horrible sugary gelatinous goop for dinner. This time, my mother knew a slightly better place to go. She took me to a dinner and a show type restaurant. As we were eating, three teenage girls in ill-fitting costumes performed various minority dances. Yunnan just loves its minorities. Only one of the girls seemed to really know the dances, and no one paid them much attention. Apparently the specialty of the restaurant was make-your-own soup in giant bowls. Seriously, I could have fit my entire head in one of those bowls! Then again, I do have a small head. As for the make-your-own part, all the fixings came to our table on a plate, and my mother simply poured them all in. It tasted fine. My mother and her sister did not order it. I think they just wanted me to have the experience, which was sweet of them.

Love,

Katherine