Chickening Out

In Our Same Boat (with State)

Beyond the Cornfields
Brand-new State Department family in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Love their two little girls (she just recently had a baby while being posted in Dhaka), horticulture, traveling and adventure!
Email From The Embassy
State Department family formerly in Beijing, China, and recently posted to Amman, Jordan. A trailing spouse, she's also a writer, and frequently publishes articles with major news sources. A very experienced State family, this new post is something like overseas post number six or seven for them.
Just US
A beautiful family of seven - they have arrived at their new post: Jerusalem! They just finished off an unaccompanied tour to Iraq and are very much looking forward to sightseeing around the middle east.
Our Life
State Department family on their second post...Tijuana, Mexico. It's their first overseas assignment and they have two little boys. They love Tijuana so far and post pictures frequently! They also get to enjoy the best of both worlds for they can sneak over the border into San Diego when they want to!
The Dinoia Family
State Department family formerly in California, now in DC for a DC tour. Next, the husband will do a one year unaccompanied tour. A very experienced State family (formerly in Iceland and Caracas) with a blog that has been around quite a while and has great archives. Jen has a sweet heart and a lot to give!
The Perlman Update
State Department family formerly in Chennai, India, who then did a year-long unaccompanied tour in Iraq. They are now on a DC tour and after that will do another unaccompanied tour (Afghanistan). She totally tells it like it is and doesn't sugar-coat what life is really like. Witty, snarky, funny and down-to-earth. Look elsewhere if you want fake. Read if you want REAL.
Where in the World Am I?
State Department family formerly in Bujumbura, Burundi and now in Hyderabad, India. They just had their first baby this summer - a beautiful little girl- (there's a separate blog about this) and she also eats gluten-free (with a separate blog, also).

Can't Live Without (non-State)

Crass-Pollination: An ER blog
The best ER nurse blog EVER!
Doctor Grumpy in the House
The best doctor blog EVER!
In Which...
My IRL friend, a stay-at-home, homeschooling Mama of seven. Her darling daughters are, goshdarnit, probably too young to be hoped for as my future daughters-in-law.
The Crib Chick
My IRL friend, a stay-at-home, homeschooling Mama of five. Hopefully two (Any two! I'm not picky!) of which are my future daughters-in-law.
the underwear drawer
An anesthesiologist who is possibly the most talented & entertaining writer ever. I've read her blog ever since she started medical school. No, don't know her in real life. Wish I did.
The Bloggess
This blog is both hysterically funny and hilariously irreverent. I actually let my 17 year old son read it (who loves it as much as I do!), but wouldn't even CONSIDER letting my 12 year old son read it. Which is about all the description it needs!

04/09/2013

Chickening Out

Not sure if you've heard - it's been on the news here and there - but there's some kind of flu thing going around in China and it's, like, a super big huge deal right now.

It's currently feeling pretty WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!!!! all up in this place, y'all.

So much so that just today I've gotten two emails from different places telling me not to eat chicken or eggs. And on top of that, my ayi informed that she, also, doesn't want us eating chicken or eggs.

I negotiated with her. I told her that the chicken already long ago bought and placed in our freezer is proabably fine and that I'm okay with us eating it. However, I'm thinking whatever eggs I have on hand are the end of the eggs for... I don't know how long. I will be rationing them from here on out until things calm down here, chicken-products-wise.

Sorta how it feels when you're trying to decide whether or not you want to buy and eat eggs and chicken in China right now.

On top of that, today my sons' school sent out an email saying that they have suspended serving chicken in school lunches. That they will revise the menu, and will get back to us on what the new, chicken-free menu will look like for this month.

This whole no-chicken thing is going to be hard for China. Because, seriously - chicken and chicken products are a big deal and are eaten A LOT. I mean, check it:

An awesome girlfriend of mine just took this picture of a random street here in Chengdu a week or so ago. Chickens for sale off the back of a bike - why not? Except I'm thinking this kind of chicken-selling cart (that you can see all the time, normally) won't be out and about on the streets nowadays. Or probably anytime soon.

So, you know: CHICKEN.

It's what's NOT for dinner.

~ ~ ~

What else is going on here?

James was recently in Cambodia for about a week at A Work Thing. He really, really liked Cambodia. He was in Phnom Penh, and he soaked in the sunshine and the great air. GREAT air. He got to see some good, good friends (you know who you are!!) and he got to take a couple of pictures while he was there.

An open market in Phnom Penh - lots of different food available

In Cambodia, he got to ride in a tuk-tuk for the first time, which he said was quite an adventure. He even took some video, but I can't post it because I can't get to YouTube because I don't have a VPN.

ANYWAY, he said there were tons of people all around - just like in China:

Just a few folks here and there...

And then he left Cambodia and came back to China.

JUST IN TIME for the bird flu!!

Lucky guy, LOL.

Posted on 04/09/2013 at 03:29 AM in Ayi, Chengdu, China, China in General, Complaining, Food in China, Horrifying, International School in Chengdu, James - State Department, Travel in China, Travel with State | Permalink

Comments

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Ugh! I'm sorry. We were in Jakarta for the last round of the bird flu, and the paranoia wasn't quite that bad, but I do seem to remember the city rounding up and killing all the chili kens and ducks. Stay safe.

Posted by: Shannon | 04/09/2013 at 11:18 PM

Man, when one doesn't eat pork, and one can't eat chicken, what else is left? Air? Oh, wait, polluted, so I can't eat that, either. Guess the local Xinjiang restaurant and I will become very well acquainted, since they mostly serve lamb.

Posted by: Diplogeek | 04/09/2013 at 11:37 PM