The other day I was having lunch at the little hole in the wall place off campus, the one where the cook has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth at all times. Well, they have gotten a puppy, a cute little bugger. He kept wandering out where the tables were, begging for food from the patrons, and the owner kept shooing him back where he belonged: in the kitchen. Now, my Western mind thinks a public restaurant kitchen is no place for a dog, but the living-in-China part of me knows the food is cooked at such high temperature, there's little chance of me getting sick.
I wonder if I will miss dogs in the kitchen when I return to America. Really, he is a cute puppy.
By the way, many of these places are family owned and children stay with their parents all day before they start school, so the children spend their early years surrounded by the dirt and grease and grime and germs. I have a theory that if we ever do have a plague, cockroaches and Chinese kids are going to survive. They have got to be immune to every germ imaginable.
And on the other hand...there's a reason all the big epidemics start in the far east...because when they come across a new variant, it's a doozy.
ReplyDeleteBTW, if you've never read Guns, Germs, and Steel...utterly fascinating read.
LOL that is so true... we live in a way too sterilized industrialised country and looks what happened... allergies to oxygen, FFS.
ReplyDeleteI hope the puppy doesn't end up in a dish :-(
Wow, that would be a culture shock for sure. I love to read all the new things you are experincing and learning about. It is teaching me something new as well. Thanks!
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