Pet Market with Jenny and Ron

Whilst living in Gold Arch (before we moved to our house), I found myself wandering around the complex completely lost and very relieved to see a foreigner (that's what we are called here). Luckily he spoke English and was able to correctly direct me to the little grocery store about 20 feet away. His name was Trey and it is through him that I met his wife and my friend, Jenny. Jenny introduced me to Ron (another fellow American) and they both were kind enough to invite me on some of their trips about town. The following pictures are of our trip to the Pet Market to get some dog food. So contrary to popular reports, you can have a pet here. It might be a little more work here in China, but it is definitely possible and not uncommon.




Cute little rabbits, but honestly, I stayed far away because I was afraid of contracting any weird diseases.




This was a table full of little dog coats.







Thirsty little cat.




These fish are not for eating... I think.



I saw all these brass trinkets at an antique shop in the pet market. This picture shows only a small sampling of what they had there.



Me, posing. I'm going to get more creative with my poses.



Lots of gourds. I like to say the word "gourd." Gourd, gourd, gourd : )







Inside one of the little pet shops.

There are lots of little secret rooms that have long staircases just where you would never expect a door to be.




We then drove to a mall.



Got ribbon?



This is not your typical mall in the US. Here in China, some malls have themes and this one you can find store after store with things like erasers, rubber bracelets, phone cases, paper hats, tiny purses, just "junk" really, unless you need the junk for a party, then it's a find. It can be overwhelming. And if I had to give it a theme, it might be the trinket mall.







Lots of cheesy (or at least what I might consider cheesy) products for sale. Need a plastic clock? Go next door to the "clock shop."



I cannot name this church, it just looked cool nested among all the typical structures. If I could speak Chinese, I might have asked.



I have seen and been told that basically everyone in the city is very serious about having three meals a day. At lunch time the restaurants fill up and people stop to eat their noodles or lunches. Never miss a meal.




There are tons of little stores completely filled with foods like these dry squids. Tons. And I have no idea how they use them, but I can tell they are popular.




I have seen a few people carrying the baskets hanging from a stick that is being carried across the shoulders, but not really very often. Bikes are definitely used everywhere to carry all kinds of goods and other people even.




I stopped at this cart because i was soooo hungry. See the hole in the cart? They would take the stretched out dough and slap it on the inside of that hole and it would stick to the curved wall. It was kind of a dome shape on the inside. After a few minutes, when it was done, they would peel it away and then, wallah! You get a nice, warm, toasted piece of bread. I figured if there were any germs on there, they were toasted away, so I thought it would be fairly safe to eat.




Yep, warm, toasty, and yummy. And no, I did not get sick and haven't been sick (knock on wood--which I am doing right this very moment).



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