To market, to market

Today I had the pleasure of celebrating Thanksgiving by practicing and rehearsing with Ellen, followed by a great lunch at the Central Beijing Conservatory. I took a taxi from the Conservatory back to my hotel, and had a delightful conversation with Bob about something we discussed at our Morning Prayer. Followed by this, he reminded me that I had aspired that afternoon to explore one of Beijing's famous street markets, where you can buy everything and anything. His question to me was:

"Kristin, do you think those grilled spiders are going to wait?"

So, I got re-dressed to brave the outdoors (today was a bit nippy) and trekked off to find this market. I walked around and found all sorts of shops - McDonalds, KFC, Rolex, Casio. And then ... a walkway that probably is the original inspiration for any major US city's "Chinatown."

Wow.

Before I left the US, people had told me to "find and eat the maggots." Maggots were not found today, but this is what I DID find ...

Snake (grilled on a stick, skinned and scaled, but you could still see the corpus). And, the proprietor of the snake-shack offered to let me have the snake for free.

Monkey (I had to ask what animal it was. My response included pantomime.).

Baby scorpions (By the way, if you want to eat a baby scorpion in China, you order it while it is still alive. They grill it for you while you wait. This does not take long. Apparently, it is bad form to eat "stale scorpion.").

Tarantula. (Recommended by Zhong at lunch, reminded by Bob via afternoon chat.).

Frozen cherries on a stick. These seem to be very popular, based on the lines near this stand.

Osama bin Laden playing cards (complete with jokers - a deck of 54 cards).

Plenty of people that are willing to barter.
Jasmine tea ice cream. (I had some of this, despite the temperature. It's great!).

People selling pot-stickers and dumplings which looked REALLY amazing. I almost got one, and thought ... Hmmmm ... If I was Mr. Grilled Scorpion Man (let's call him GSM), I would not want to take home scorpions and bring them back the next day. I, as GSM, new capitalist and businessman, would instead sell them to Mr. Pot Sticker for a "special price." And then, today's scorpions would be tomorrow's pot-stickers. I asked Mr. PS what was in his dumplings and other products, and he looked at me and said, "vegetable." (He was right in-between the tarantulas and sea urchins).

This wonderful journey continues to be incredible for all senses - for the scope of the imagination, for the ears, for the spirit. Zhong asked me today if, "I am always laughing and smiling." My response is, "I think so." He said, "You are a teacher. You are supposed to be serious." (This he said while giggling, by the way). That may be true, but, I think there is terrific authority in both happiness and an inexorable sense of humor.