Any holiday here is crazy - there are people everywhere. We definitely prefer not to travel during these holidays because of all the congestion. So we just went out to an area about a five-minute walk from our place to go eat food and "treats" from the variety of street vendors that come to cater to the tourists.
We found the place where we wanted to eat, this guy was making fried noodles and egg fried rice, so we ordered one of each for a total of 8 RMB, or about $1.15. It was very good. Yes, there's always that something in the back of your mind that hopes you don't get sick from the street food, but the hope is that with the busy crowds that the food doesn't have a chance to sit around and spoil. But yes, it was very tasty food.
We are quite used to people looking at us when we go out - something about a foreign family with three small children that intrigues them. The day before on this Labor Day weekend, we actually ate at a McDonald's and had three people with nice cameras (2 Nikons and a Canon) clicking away with photos of the girls. I was actually in the market for a dSLR, so I talked with them about their cameras. I ordered our new camera that evening - the new Canon EOS Rebel XSi. It's our first dSLR and I can't wait to take pictures that actually look good. If anybody has tips on taking pictures with a dSLR, let us know!
At any rate, we sat down to eat and a couple of people stopped and watched. Then a couple of more, and a couple of more. So I got the video camera out to record our "celebrity" lifestyle. People gathered to watch and take pictures of the girls eating local food.
This video is just a minute and a half long, but you can see how quickly the crowd builds up. I wish I would have taken a picture/video of when the crowd got big, but we were too busy making sure the girls were ok with everybody wanting to take pictures with them.
The big guy in the video was our cook, and he came over to tell the on-lookers that they needed to buy his food in order to stay around there and look at us! Funny guy.
The girls got their pictures taken 100s of times in the two hours that we were out there. It was fun and we got to talk to a lot of people.
However we now are second guessing how smart it was letting the girls be touched by so many people. If you haven't heard, China is having a breakout of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (HFMD), not to be confused with the "famous" Food and Mouth Disease that affects livestock, but nonetheless, it is problematic. This disease primarily affects young children, and as of today, May 10th, China has reported 29,000 cases and 34 deaths. Here is an article from cnn.com from May 5th, about the outbreak:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/05/china.virus/index.html
For the time being, we will keep Adayla home from here Kindergarten until this outbreak stabilizes. It's just not worth it.
So as long as the kids don't get HFMD from the weekend, it was a fun, relaxing weekend!
3 comments:
Wow, that's pretty crazy! It's so strange. I don't get why they want to take pictures with your kids like that. It seems so odd. Your girls handle it really well! I was impressed she wasn't upset at all.
I hope your girls don't get hand,foot,mouth. Emma was just diagnosed with that - or Fifth's Disease. Nurse practioner said 5th, then we saw the hematologist and he said HFMD. They are pretty harmless in most people, unless you have a compromised immune system (hmm...like Emma). Her white blood cell count is lowering a bit and her ANC (ability to fight infections) is below normal, but she should be fine. It is super contagious. We have no idea how Emma got it! We've only been to church and to the store and no one we know has it. Do you like how I'm writing a blog entry for our family in your comments section? I think that is very smart to avoid the masses until it goes away. Hope your girls are able to avoid getting it, especially the baby!
I'm sorry, I just remembered something more I wanted to add to my blog entry that I wrote in the previous comment. I just read the article that you posted a link to. Yikes, that's kind of scary sounding. Is it the same thing here in the states? It seems a lot less severe here. Emma has a rash on her hands (palms) sore legs, a little rash along her arms, legs, and she keeps complaining of a sore throat. But she doesn't run a fever or anything. The doctors here don't seem concerned. I wonder if it's somehow different. I hope your girls don't catch what is going around there - sounds pretty scary!
How much do you charge per pic? You could make a fortune and I could be your manager.
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