Trip to China

Well, it was not a real trip to China. We stepped into the Chinese culture on the weekend by going down the street. We live in the Greater Toronto area which is very diverse in cultures. All of us went to a local Chinese grocery store. We stepped into the store and were welcomed with the smell of Chinese food cooking at a cafe area. The grocery store was the size of other large grocery stores except the produce area was twice as big and filled with produce unique to the Chinese culture. We ventured into the produce area with my baby in an Ergo baby carrier and holding on to a hand of one son. My husband had the cart and another son. Just making a way down the aisles was an adventure. It was nearly wall to wall people with people bumping each other and moving carts out of the way. There were no "excuse-mes" or "sorry" for bumps - it was something that was normal. My husband described it as chaotic much like some places he has visited in Asia.

My boys were able to walk through the store and see many different kinds of food that they had never seen before. They were able to hear people speaking Chinese around them and see Chinese characters everywhere. They ventured into the meat section of the store where they could see a roasted pig's head, cow's feet, and raw fish sitting out in the open. The smell of the fish market section of the store made one aware that they were not in a western grocery store.

I'm thankful that we live in an area where the boys can be exposed to the Chinese culture. Toronto also has a China town which we do plan on visiting in the future. I had thought we were visiting a small grocery store, but didn't realize the treasure we would find. I'll go back again. While we weren't "brave" enough to buy the meat, the produce variety is worth the trip.