Crazy Carrefour

I went to Carrefour this morning. For those who aren't familiar with it, it is a big chain story (kind of like Walmart). I shopped at them on my mission in Spain, and I've seen them all over China. I don't go there to often since I prefer to buy produce and vegetables at a wet market where they are fresher. This morning though I needed a few cleaning supplies, so I walked over.

I was standing in line to checkout and heard a funny noise. I looked at the woman in the line next to me, and then into her cart. She had a huge fish in there that was flopping around violently. It's head was stuck into a plastic bag, but it wasn't closed off at all and its tail extended way out the back of the bag. She just looked at it and grabbed a metal spatula she was going to buy and started beating it on the head. Hard. She must have hit the fish 15 times. The bag around its head started to get bloody, but the fish just kept wiggling so she kept whacking it. I don't think I would be able to eat that fish after that.

It was crazy to me how fast I've gotten used to crazy scenes like that here in China. I used to cringe at buying meat here. It's all left out on the counter all day long, but I've gotten used to it. I still can't shop some places (Walmart is too crazy for me), but I'm nowhere near as queasy as I used to be. I've learned that to really be happy here in China there are some things I just can't think about too much. If I did I would probably never eat. Out of sight, out of mind helps me deal with a lot of things I would normally find strange/uncomfortable/not the most sanitary.

Soon I will post pictures of the market where I like to shop. (I just need to remember my camera). I promise it's not as bad as it sounds. The market I shop at supplies food for a lot of foreign restaurants here so it actually has a really good selection, and it is one of the cleanest wet markets I've been too. Our house is in a great location so that I can walk to all these places. We have definitely been eating at home more than we ever did in Dalian because everything is so much more available.