There's a wal-mart in this city. We don't go super often. Mostly because wal-mart has done an amazing job of catering to the people who actually live here and that results in a lot of products we don't necessarily need or use. But it's always nice to see a familiar brand and some english once in awhile. Take a look...

A few other interesting things: papaya jelly, dried starfish, brown sugar in solid form, and pizza that doesn't taste like any pizza I've ever had before (and not in a good way).

Onto the meat section...

more dried fish (local people love their dried fish apparently)

turtles (still in the meat section, sadly not the pet section)

your guess is as good as ours (frozen dumplings maybe?)

Some things are the same the world around. Hopefully every wal-mart features devoted fathers, decent chocolate, favorite snacks, and seasonal decor.

packaged, preserved  eggs — packaged, preserved eggs

dragon boat festival decor from over the summer

And last but not least, the deli. How I wish the internet could transmit smells, although I think S's facial expressions communicate the same message quite clearly.

This went on for awhile. You get the point. :)

Anyways, whenever we come to wal-mart it's always nice to see a few familiar things but I often find myself feeling homesick and judgemental. It's easy to look around and see all the things I think are "missing" or "weird." So last time I tried to ask myself what I would say if I a local friend asked me what was in my wal-mart back home. Only one word came to mind: waste.

For me, wal-mart means an enormous aisle of disposable paper products, over-sized boxes of cereal, and gallons of milk in plastic containers. In this wal-mart canned goods are virtually non-existent and you'd be hard pressed to find anything resembling paper towels. I haven't bought paper plates once since we moved back here. I can still hear a local friend asking with astonishment why anyone would spend money on something they would throw away after using just one time. That's not to say I haven't wanted to and if you ask me what I want mailed over in a package, the first thing I would say every single time is ziploc bags but that's not the point of this story.

The truth is I have no plans to eat duck tongue (great value brand or otherwise) and heaven knows, I miss my over-sized boxes of breakfast cereal. But I'm learning to see things differently, to step away from the way I've always done things and away from the things that make me comfortable. To look at my own culture with more discernment. To look at other's, with more grace. I will never love eating chicken feet but I'm growing to genuinely love the people who do.

And when all else fails, there's always dove chocolate. ;)