This American Life!

Our friends in China were sad to see the end of the blog, and I realized that I could use this medium to show them some of our American life.  So in this blog I tried to see things through Chinese eyes, and show some things that I think the Chinese would think are strange.

Today, Sophie and I went to the grocery store, where she "helped" me shop.  This is the local health food store that sells everything organic, pesticide free, chemical free, etc.  Sophie is helping me choose some nuts and granolas, of which there are so many types to choose from!


Of course going to and from the store requires a car, rather than a bicycle.  We have had a lot of rains lately, and no rain-poncho was required!  My car is a Toyota Prius, a hybrid gas/electric car that gets about 21 KM per liter of gas.  Notice the traffic - TWO cars going by during this shot.


Sophie sits in the back in her US Dept. of Transportation approved safety car seat!  Children up to about 22kg must  be in an approved car seat or you can get a big fine!  The U.S. is  much more safety conscious than China.  Before now, Sophie hasn't been in a car seat for a whole year!  Peter loves being in my car because it is very clean, especially compared to some of the taxis we were in in Hangzhou!   "Dad, there's no cigarette butts in the cup-holder!"

Shopping for veggies at the store.  No individual wet market merchants here, just rows of produce!  Where are all of the people??  Who do I bargain with over the price of lettuce?
 

So many times in China I would go to the local market and there would be no milk, or I would buy the last carton available.  The biggest size there was about a quart.  Here there are SO many milk choices and sizes.  Non-fat, 1%, 2%, whole milk, soy milk, vanilla soy, from a pint to a gallon!  I can't imagine them ever being sold out of milk!

To my Chinese friends - I hope you enjoy!!