Grocery shopping. Honestly, I am still figuring this one out. I was spoiled in years past, having lived on a university campus, I just ate in the cafeteria with everyone else. Now I have to figure out where, how, and what to buy to feed a non-veggite and a toddler! I've learned that cooking from scratch usually ends one of two ways... with a great sense of accomplishment, OR tears and a great sense of time and energy wasted! Sometimes I even think I've done well, only to get home and find out that the beautiful "cheese" I'm shredding is actually frozen butter. He's a nice old man who didn't know what he had in his freezer. He honestly thought it was cheese, and sold it to me as such. All in all though, it was a great price for 5 pounds of butter. So, PTL and pass the butter!
I've also learned that the only way to get chicken tender enough to chew is to have them kill it right in front of you. They don't understand why westerners wouldn't want to take the feet and head home too, but they'll gladly keep them for you.


So, the air here is not really known for being clean anyways, but the other night when our living room began to smell like an amazingly smokey campground, we looked out the windows, and 8 stories down saw scenes like this in all directions.
I know it looks like Rack, Shack and Benny in the fiery furnace.... but it's just the locals burning fake money to their ancestors. They believe they should provide them with money for whatever they may be needing in the afterlife. Good news is, our building and the rest of the city still stand. It's an old holiday that people all over the country celebrate on that day. The next day I asked a local friend about it. She asked me "don't people in the US take care of their dead ancestors?".