also in Guilin i tried Dog for the first time. Dad said dog was supposed to taste like lamb, so i was really looking forward to it. But they ended up cooking it incorrectly and it tasted more like tough pork, or beef.

we also had snake. They had cages and cages of live snakes, and my dad had to go out and pick which one. I was in the restaurant with the rest of my family but there was a window so we could see it happen. Anyway, my dad didn't know what to do, so he just picked one randomly. The waitress reached in with these tongs, and lifted one out. She looked kinda scared, even though I'm sure she'd done it many times. Anyway, she struggled with it until it had calmed down. then she grabbed the snakes head, pulled out a pair of scissors, and snipped off its head! Well! she just cut it off, though you could tell she needed a lot of force to do it, but off it went, and it was just blood everywhere, all of the floor, on the waitress. They had to come in and mop it up.

Then minutes later, this lady appeared at our table with this glass of red liquid and another glass of clear liquid with something funny looking inside. She explained that it was customary to eat the snake bladder, which was so good that apparently it could prevent anything from cancer to the common cold. The clear liquid was just strong alcohol, so you could just drink it down without tasting it, cuz apparently it tastes really gross. The red glass was snakes blood, which also cures a number of diseases. The blood was also mixed with a strong alcohol, so you wouldn't taste the blood.

Well.. I stared at the blood for a long time. The bladder was pretty big and I didn't think I'd be able to swallow it. Plus I knew I couldn't hold the alcohol. So instead, i picked up the glass with the blood in it, closed my eyes and took a huge sip.

HOOOEEY!! that alcohol was strong! I mean it was strong! must've been vodka or something, i've never had vodka, but all i know was this stuff was strong! Well... you know that taste, when you cut your hand, and you suck on it to keep it from bleeding all over the place. Or if you bite your lip, same taste.. Anyway, once the initial kick of alcohol wore off, i tasted that as aftertaste. It was pretty gross.

Well, then we ate dinner. My dad scarfed down the bladder somehow. My dad complimented me on my bravery with the blood. I was THE MAN! Yeah! Even my brother said so! I kept thinking about it though, that was probably my mistake, I thought about the cutting of the poor snake's head, and then the blood everywhere. At that point my brother reminded me again that I just drank blood. Blood. That got me thinking about Christ, and then I started thinking about Old Testament stuff, the blood and the sacrificing. Then the thought occured to me: This wasn't meant to be. God didn't make snakes so we could drink their blood!!! This was just wrong!!

So then I couldn't stand it anymore and rushed off to the washroom and hurled into the squatter, which by the way, stunk really bad!!!