Asian Death Flowers

Well, my apologies again! I had every intention of completely getting you all up to date over the long weekend but instead I managed to catch an icky little cold. Maybe it is the pollution, which is excessive, or maybe as Trent's Chinese tutor suggested it was the Spider Chrysanthemums that I bought at the Bird and Flower Market our first week here. Hua Wai, Trent's tutor, was appalled because he thought my students gave them to me for teachers day, but the reality was that I had mixed them in with the roses from my students. Hua Wai suggested that I was sick because we have the death flowers in the house. I'm feeling much better today and caught a lucky little break with not only a 4 day week but I also only have to teach half days which has helped tremendously in my recovery process. My last class is technically Shanghai Institute of Technology Students and they have the week off so I get to start my 1.5 hour journey home at noon. The only downfall is how absolutely, swelteringly hot it is at noon.

I read about the Bird and Flower market at The Bean and Tea Leaf at Thumb Plaza our first weekend here and was dying to go. It sounded way too perfect to pass up. It was a truly interesting experience. We went to a smaller one, yes there are multiple Bird and Flower markets throughout Shanghai, and they had more than just birds and flowers. They had fish and turtles of every shape and size. They also had crickets of varying sizes and cages for keeping them in, I'm serious there was a cricket the size of a mouse! We ended up buying an orchid and a little leafy plant for the kitchen, I think the people working at the market were just as interested to see us as we were to see them and their wares. Needless to say, we will be going back I loved it and we were lucky that it wasn't one with too many animals crammed uncomfortably into cages which is unfortunately quite common at other markets.

The first photo is the first look I had of the market it was kind of U-shaped with little stalls crammed on both sides full to the gills with randomness. You can also see the buckets of yellow and white Spider Mums or flowers of death on the right, beware! The black birds with the colorful beaks were all over the place at the market, they were the closest thing to parrots for sale and as one shop owner demonstrated they can be trained to speak. She called out "ni-hao" in a high pitched voice and a chorus of "ni-haos" screeched back in response. It was a very memorable experience, and you can see me with the beautiful white orchid that now lives in our bedroom. Hopefully, white orchids aren't the symbol of something else death or illness related, if so please advise!