Saturday in the center of the city

Jim, me, and Cookie in Tianfu Square in front of the statue of Chairman Mao.

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before or not, but on Wednesday afternoons I give ophthalmology lessons in English to the Residents. We always have a lot of fun, and I try to get them to participate (most do!)

Well, weekends can be kind of isolating here, so this week I told my English class that I was going to go to Tianfu Square (THE center of the city) on Saturday. I invited all of them to come along. I told them if no one wanted to go, I would go by my lonesome!

Luckily Cookie, her husband Leo, and Jim wanted to spend Saturday out and about. We met up in Tianfu Square at 11a.m. and, per my request, we headed to Starbucks. I treated them all to coffee. (Other than the pizza last night and Starbucks today, I have avoided all things American).

Starbucks!
Me, Jim, Leo, and Cookie

We walked around Tianfu Square and took photos with the giant statue of Mao Tse-tung ("Chairman Mao").

Chairman Mao. The Chinese have differing opinions about him.

Next, we walked through People's Park, had a delicious lunch of dumplings (so delicious!!!), and then we walked down two "famous" streets translated as Wide Alley and Narrow Alley. I got to see lots of interesting things...

Spiced duck necks...

Chicken feet in the foreground and duck heads in the background (yes, look closely, you can see the duck bills...)

Chicken or duck hearts on a stick...

Live frogs for purchase. Frog is a common food in Chengdu.

Eeels for sale. I have not tried eel here (but ate it often in Japan when we would have sushi or sashimi).

I call this photo "The Innards".  Stomach, intestine, etc.

Roast duck. My favorite part is the worker taking a rest while waiting for customers.

We ducked into McDonald's because I wanted to compare the menu with the American McDonald's (honestly not too different). I was surprised to see the Tibetan Monks (left side) eating at the local Mickey D's!

Walking along Narrow Alley

I had forewarned my friends that I was slated to read in church at 4pm. I had to be there by 3:30. They wanted to walk me to church, and on the way they asked if they could sit in and listen. I said sure! So they came to English Mass and then we had dinner at a spicy noodle restaurant.

By this time it was about 6:30 pm, and I was pretty tired. But Cookie and Leo wanted to have me and Jim over for tea (they drink tea CONSTANTLY here). We headed over to their apartment and lo and behold, we discovered that one of their two new puppies was ill. So, Jim and I helped them get the puppies to the veterinarian, and then we waited, and waited, and waited... Cookie was appreciative that we stuck around while the vet treated the puppies. I finally got home at 10:30pm! We walked almost ten miles today! Never a dull moment in China...

Consulting with the vet late on a Saturday evening.