A visit to Chinatown!

Despite the fact that my eyes are so red that K said people probably think I have a nasty hangover, we decided to take a trip to Chinatown today for the Spring festival. Yeah, um, I know it's summer now, but the Spring Festival was supposed to be on May 20th, right before we left for China. It was rained out. Today was the rain date.

We had a really great time. Other than one business dinner there about 10 years ago, we always seem to have destinations in Boston just on the edge of Chinatown, usually near South Station or the Theater District or the Ladder District. So, we decided it was time to venture there for some good food and to see where we can buy jade and silk dresses locally, 'cause, you know, I didn't shop enough in China!

Interesting, but one of the most popular things for sale today were baby turtles. They were small, maybe two inches in diameter at most. They were usually sold in pairs in a small plastic aquarium for between $13 and $16. EJ wanted to get a pair in the worst way. She would love to have a pet, but she was devastated last summer when her tryops fish died (even though we had prepped her they only live between 30 and 90 days after hatching when she bought the kit) that we don't know how she'd handle it. We satisfied her by saying we would come home and research them on the Internet to see if they would be good pets.

Well, guess what we found out?! The sale of baby turtles with shells less than four inches has been prohibited since the 70s! It mentioned that due to frequent handling by kids and then kids touching their mouths, they can actually make kids quite sick! It did say that baby turtles have been trendy for pets in some Chinatown areas and that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of education about this prohibition. So, I guess we'll have to keep thinking about a good pet. But Eloise (of the children's book fame) has a pet turtle, and it seemed like a good idea for a brief moment. Now, EJ is thinking we just need to get a bigger one.

We had lunch at a really good restaurant, Vinh Sun. We really enjoyed the dumplings in China, so we decided to have some steamed Peking dumplings as an appetizer today. They were yummy. Forget the entree, I could have just eaten a whole plate of these. Guess who else loved them? Sophie! I would break off a little piece of the noodle and she would gum it up and swallow and start pounding the table for more. And the pork filling? Even more excited for that! We haven't found anything that she won't eat yet...

I am happy to report that our chopstick skills are still up to snuff, and EJ ate her whole meal with them - she is quite proficient after two weeks in China! Of course, she was curious about the lobsters and fish in the tanks in the window of the store, and while we were eating, they rolled a cart with a whole roasted pig and some roasted chickens on it out to the window. She said "WHAT was THAT???" "Pork!" we replied. HA! No need for additional information.

EJ's best question of the day was on the way there: "Mom, can we drink the water in Chinatown?" But of course, it's Boston water! And her best comment, uttered upon entering the bathroom at the restaurant: "Oh good. No squatty potty!" I was successful in my quest not to have to use these hole-in-the-floor toilets in China, but I think EJ found them a challenge and used them successfully several times.

Speaking of the lack of clean water in China, check out http://www.a-childs-right.org/. This organization is putting water filtration systems in orphanages in China. They recently made a trip to the Jiangxi province, where Sophie is from. If you look at these pictures of that trip (click on China 2007), there is a man in these photos (he's in photo 171 and several others) who we met at our hotel in Nanchang. Another mother and I were getting breakfast, and he stopped to ask about her baby and where she was from and he told us that he had visited several orphanages in that province already. A very nice guy doing terrific work for a very basic need that we all take for granted. The lack of safe drinking water was probably the single biggest inconvenience we experienced on the trip - you never knew if your plates or silverware were sanitary and we had to use bottled water for drinking, brushing teeth, Sophie's bottles, and sterilizing bottles and utensils in our room.

On our way back through the Boston Common to the car, EJ got to pet the horses of the mounted patrol: