Shopping.

We had to go shopping again and this time I remembered to take my phone out and get some pictures. After working all morning from 8:20 to 11:30 I felt like taking a nap after lunch before going shopping. Usually if we wait to go shopping until late afternoon the store is very busy. Today there was only two or three thousand Chinese shopping instead of the normal ten or twelve. After you come in the entrance and take the moving sidewalk underground into the store you must first place any purses or other bags into a security bag with a lock the store puts on the bag which they remove when checking out. The first part of the store is all the clothes and things that are not food. Each different department of the store has a place where your selections are weighed and price tagged. The hardest place to get around in the store is the produce section because of this system. The meat department doesn't sell meat in packages. Instead the meats are slaughtered fresh daily right behind the counter for all to see and the different cuts placed out front for everyone to look at using tongs. They do grind some meat up before putting it out or you can ask for a roast you select to be ground. Then they 'bag it and tag it'. The different kinds of meats such as poultry, beef, pork or other small animals like lamb, are kept seperate from each other. The fish and seafood section has too many types of fish and seafood to name and is all fresh. There is also a section that sells dried fish. There are sections that sell spices, nuts, candy and dried goods. There is a large bakery and seperate stalls that sell fresh cooked foods ready to eat. For right now we generally steer clear of the traditional Chinese foods since we don't know what they are and they don't look or smell good to us. We did pick-up some roast chicken, or maybe it was duck. Either way it was very good. Something that we have had that wasn't any good is corn on the cob. It is not the same as in the states. It is very firm and wax like in texture and flavor. There are isles of food including one whole isle for dry noodle soups but not many canned foods. After you check out you leave by passing many booths trying to sell things. I am very proud of myself that I was able to tell the taxi driver where we live without him having to read the little card the school provided me.