Just had a new experience and felt the need to share. Most evenings when we eat at home, will run to the Shi Dong Traditional Market a block away from our place to grab some fresh veggies. Got into this habit last summer as it was so stinking hot that stuff would nearly spoil from the walk home from the store. The heat is back by the way...at 2PM yesterday afternoon, looked at the local weather website and the temp was registered at 95 degrees, but said that with the humidity, it "felt like" 105.
Anyhoo, I've talked about the Shi Dong Market before, how it sells not only veggies, but meat and fish, dumplings, flowers, house hold items, just about anything you need. I went to the Shi Dong for some garlic and broccoli today and as I was heading across the market to my coffee guy for a cup, a GAWDAMN SNAKE slithers right between my feet. And not a little one either, had to be at least 3 feet long. And I mentioned it was hot, so I'm wearing shorts and flip flops when this thing is making a run for it between the wickets. Hot on his tail were two dudes dressed in traditional Taiwanese snake handler apparel...wife beater undershirts that were once white but are now a unique shade of grey (I call it Taipei Granite)...who coral their pet in a bucket while their delightful "women" looked on.
Honestly, I played it very cool and did not scream or jump when it went by, but know that was due to the fact it happened so fast and that it was totally unexpected as I'm sure I would have freaked given a millisecond more time to process what was happening. After I got my coffee, walked past the booth where the group with the snake were sitting. The women were chatting, some of the men were playing cards, while the snake handlers were attending to the little fella who they had strung up in a noose on a pole, still very much alive. Had to stop and ask what they were going to do with it, but our mutual lack of knowledge of each other's language prevented a quick answer. After a bit of back and forth, including the international version of sign language that people of different dialects use around the globe, one of the dirty undershirt guys gets an excited look on his face and says to me, "Dinner!" and starts laughing maniacally. Good times.
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