Silence

Mary had a little flock. And I ate it. And the flock's distant relatives. Ningxia, the province where I am, thinks it's famous for its lamb. And I've been fed lamb every day since being here two weeks ago. Yipee?

Speaking of pee, if you take a good whiff in any Chinese city, that's what you'd smell. Except maybe Shanghai and Beijing. And if you take a good whiff of the rural parts, you'd most likely smell manure. Not sure which I prefer. Public urination among the young seems to be quite encouraged here, and it's all so convenient, because for young toddlers, they all have a butt crack in their pants so they can go whenever they bend over. I so wish I was making all this up. In the bushes in front of the apartment building. Atop the Great Wall. And in the MIDDLE OF THE FREAKING TILED PARK. All likely places to find urinating children. Because why bother climb those two flights of stairs home? Or why bother hide in some corner, when you can just go right there? Do you know what happens to the pool of pee in the middle of the park? It does not get absorbed into the ground, because it's tiled, but baked by the sun for full smellerfertation. And then there's my cousin's kid. Who just goes anywhere in the apartment I'm staying in. Lovely. I know, there are lots of cultural differences and differences in standards of sanitation and I shouldn't impose my cultural views on practices here. I know the soc talk. And I try not to judge. But restraining our children from peeing in public? I'd like to think that that's something we've learned in the past 5,000 years, people.