Goldfish and Condoms

When people ask me why I continue to live overseas, I usually answer first that it affords us a lifestyle that we couldn't have in the U.S. We can travel. We have someone to help out around the house. Dinner is always on the table, which means more time for our family. I have to tell you, though, the other main reason is that life overseas is just plain interesting. Take yesterday, for example.

I spent the day at home with Sophia because she was sick. When the nanny arrived, I went out to run some errands. In that one walk, so many things stuck out to me as being different and interesting. First of all, walking to the dry cleaner, there is this little street vendor. She doesn't sell the normal things - soda, candy, popcorn - oh no, she sells meat parts. Don't ask me what they are, but I'm sure you can get any of them on a stick. Strange, unidentifiable dark meat parts.

Just out front of our apartment building, there are several street vendors. You can buy fruit from a cart. You can buy nuts that are roasting in some sort of black coals. A couple feet away, a man sits with a can of red sticks. He can use them to read your fortune. Yesterday, there was a goldfish seller. He had a movable cart, loaded up with goldfish and bowls. As I walked by, I noticed that there was a condom dispenser right there on the side of a building, for those times when you are walking down the street and need a condom. (Incidentally, there are condoms at every check out. Very accessible.)

There is a restaurant with a little pool outside where you can select your own fish. There are bikes everywhere. Some women even wear these visor hats with a brim that goes all the way down in front of your face like a motorcycle helmet to block the sun.

Of course, there are the not-so-nice things. The stench at our busstop where they also sell the fruit. Yesterday, on my way home, right there just a few feet off the sidewalk, a guy was going the bathroom. In not so pleasant terms, it was a big pile of waste. Nasty.

The thing we can't figure out is why there are so many bums. Maybe it's because we are in the special foreigner district. Who knows? We just thought a communist country would take care of their people. Of course, we can't even tell we're in a communist country.

So that was my walk. Just a few errands, but oh, the sights you see. It's always the little things that are really interesting.