heat

Perhaps my body adjusted to the cold. Since when is 75-80 degrees hot!? I think it's pretty humid here, but really. I'm getting emails and letters about record breaking heat in CA and CO, in the 90's and 100's, so this is nothing. It's like my body forgot what it's like, but I guess we'll find out at Softball Camp in a few weeks. It'll be like old times, red-faced Karen playin' ball.

This morning, L and I ventured to "Arson," a big supermarket we'd heard good things about. It has big wide isles, and more checkout stands than Costco. A lot of pre-packaged stuff like meats and dried fruits that might come in handy when we don't want to elbow our way through the crowds at the bazaars. Although, I think it's growing on me. In general people here seem more used to dealing with foreigners. They stare less. Sometimes people don't even turn around when they hear us speaking English.

Did we ever tell you what it's like buying meat at the bazaar? You enter a big cement warehouse with big chunks of meat hanging on hooks or lying on newspaper all around you. It's mostly female vendors, and they shout out to you as you walk by. People are poking the meat with their bare hands or picking up chunks to smell them. When you choose your vendor, usually someone that's been recommended to you by a friend, you ask what's fresh, or tell them what you plan to make with their meat. After asking the price and agreeing, you tell them how much you want. They then select a huge chunk of meat, still attached to a large portion of the animal, and place it on a flat surface (often a tree stump or cement block). They grab an axe and smash it into your selected chunk a few times until it breaks loose, put it on the scale, punch something into the calculator and stuff your meat into a plastic bag for you. Sometimes they even double bag it.