Hanging with Pedro in Chengdu
Didn't do much today; I just hung out with Pedro.
We had breakfast buns, talked with the obnoxious Canadian and her husband, then had hotpot. The spicy Sichuan food did a number on Pedro's stomach, and he didn't eat more than a few bites before he disappeared to find a restroom. He never came back.
I ran around trying to find him after I finished and paid for the meal. It turns out he ran to the hostel to poo but didn't make it past the door. He shit himself on the stairs! Poor guy!
Because he abandoned me at the restaurant at lunch, he treated me to an unspicy dinner. I winged ordering it; the menu was in Chinese, and the staff spoke no English. I thought I ordered two pork dishes, but one ended up a salty fish stew. The other was indeed what I thought it was, pork with woodear mushroom and bitter melon. We enjoyed both.
After dinner we headed to Trust Mart, which is like Carrefour, which is like Walmart with a grocery, to get Pedro some new pants. He wore his shorts to the store, and his hairy dark legs enraptured the locals. I wish I had taken a picture of their faces!
The family of 6 bothers me. I mention this because their kids are running around screeching and torturing the fish in the hostel's pond. To me, it's irresponsible to bring 4 and 5 year old kids to China when it won't benefit them and may even be to their detriment. Firstly, they won't remember it, and secondly, they ought to be in school. Lastly, the parents fail to keep control of them; the children don't respect their parents' authority because their parents never punish their kids even if they disobey them. So, "don't do that!" and "stop it!" mean nothing to these kids. I became so enraged when one of the boys began to spit into the pond that I told him to knock it off, and he just kept doing it. So I pulled his hands out of the water, looked him in the eye, and shouted, "Do you think I'm kidding?!" which made him stop. It seems the parents are just living their dream of a year of travel without much thought about how it will affect their younger children. Incredibly selfish! Kids at the mental development of a 10-year-old and older might greatly benefit from the experience here, but these kids are just neglected.
Gr...
We had breakfast buns, talked with the obnoxious Canadian and her husband, then had hotpot. The spicy Sichuan food did a number on Pedro's stomach, and he didn't eat more than a few bites before he disappeared to find a restroom. He never came back.
I ran around trying to find him after I finished and paid for the meal. It turns out he ran to the hostel to poo but didn't make it past the door. He shit himself on the stairs! Poor guy!
Because he abandoned me at the restaurant at lunch, he treated me to an unspicy dinner. I winged ordering it; the menu was in Chinese, and the staff spoke no English. I thought I ordered two pork dishes, but one ended up a salty fish stew. The other was indeed what I thought it was, pork with woodear mushroom and bitter melon. We enjoyed both.
After dinner we headed to Trust Mart, which is like Carrefour, which is like Walmart with a grocery, to get Pedro some new pants. He wore his shorts to the store, and his hairy dark legs enraptured the locals. I wish I had taken a picture of their faces!
The family of 6 bothers me. I mention this because their kids are running around screeching and torturing the fish in the hostel's pond. To me, it's irresponsible to bring 4 and 5 year old kids to China when it won't benefit them and may even be to their detriment. Firstly, they won't remember it, and secondly, they ought to be in school. Lastly, the parents fail to keep control of them; the children don't respect their parents' authority because their parents never punish their kids even if they disobey them. So, "don't do that!" and "stop it!" mean nothing to these kids. I became so enraged when one of the boys began to spit into the pond that I told him to knock it off, and he just kept doing it. So I pulled his hands out of the water, looked him in the eye, and shouted, "Do you think I'm kidding?!" which made him stop. It seems the parents are just living their dream of a year of travel without much thought about how it will affect their younger children. Incredibly selfish! Kids at the mental development of a 10-year-old and older might greatly benefit from the experience here, but these kids are just neglected.
Gr...