Tuesday, May 19th
(This is being posted almost a month later because I got busy and now am posting these myself. Sorry about the long wait.)
Xi'an's meat market was the place I drew the line.
I had been open to China and its culture and enjoyed it all. I had come to understand their lesser sanitation than us. I could not look at the meat market in a positive light. There was trash everywhere on the ground, piled high in some spots. Meat lay out in the open air, carcasses hung from hooks. Scales, meat cleavers, cutting boards--they all were caked with drying blood from the previous uses. However much meat you wanted was hacked off from an uncleaned cleaver on an uncleaned cutting board, slapped onto an uncleaned scale and then you take it home and cook it. And cook it good.
Most of it was open-air, meat being sold by the street. However, there was a building. A building that displayed the internal organs and things I would choose to never eat: tongues, stomachs, hearts, heads, other things I wished to not identify. We also found a Styrofoam container of skinned rabbits.
A lot of people in the group complained about it and seemed shocked. I wasn't, in most ways. We had been prepared for this. No, I didn't like it, but I still handled it with an outlook of learning something and trying to see it from the Chinese's eyes.
Xi'an's meat market was the place I drew the line.
I had been open to China and its culture and enjoyed it all. I had come to understand their lesser sanitation than us. I could not look at the meat market in a positive light. There was trash everywhere on the ground, piled high in some spots. Meat lay out in the open air, carcasses hung from hooks. Scales, meat cleavers, cutting boards--they all were caked with drying blood from the previous uses. However much meat you wanted was hacked off from an uncleaned cleaver on an uncleaned cutting board, slapped onto an uncleaned scale and then you take it home and cook it. And cook it good.
Most of it was open-air, meat being sold by the street. However, there was a building. A building that displayed the internal organs and things I would choose to never eat: tongues, stomachs, hearts, heads, other things I wished to not identify. We also found a Styrofoam container of skinned rabbits.
A lot of people in the group complained about it and seemed shocked. I wasn't, in most ways. We had been prepared for this. No, I didn't like it, but I still handled it with an outlook of learning something and trying to see it from the Chinese's eyes.
The train we take to Beijing is a mass of chaos in the beginning because we have to pack our luggage on the car with us and other people are trying to get seated and telling us we're in wrong seats.
Some people in our group were eager to take the "sit where you want" advice from faculty when someone not in our group had the seat they took. Huh.
However, finally we get going. The train was supposed to reach a max speed of 325 kph(201 mph) though I don't know if we ever got to that point. The ride was smooth; I didn't get motion sickness thanks to the patches. The scenery--beautiful. I did not know China had so much mountainous terrain and greenery. Some parts looked like the Midwest to me, a little piece of home.
We entertained ourselves with Uno and eventually crossed over a riveting game of Hangman. That was one of the moments I actually interacted with members of the group and hung out. It was actually quite enjoyable and we got laughs out of it.
--What you are about read is a segment from my handwritten journal shortly after I had a mental breakdown. What had been a decent day turned for the worst when I attempted to be social. This is something that has never worked for me; forgive the major pity-party I throw here.--
Today, I hit the travelers low. I should be used to not fitting in, but when you're promised you're going to become like a family and you witness that from the outside...it can kinda hurt. Bawled my eyes out for about half an hour, threw a pity party and wondered why I'm so different. Finally assured myself that in the end, I needed to achieve my goal of being successful, not popular. You can't wish for something that's not meant to be--fitting in. Decided to quit openly interacting with others; it gets me no where and they all find me annoying and strange. It's better to just stay to myself the rest of the trip.
--I did take this advice for the most part. Still didn't feel like "a family" to me, but I did make some--what I hope I can say--"friends".
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