Given the recent SARS scares, the streets weren't nearly as crowded as what we were used to, but it still doesn't look anything like Kansas.
You can still get a Big Mac and large fries at McDonald's, but the ice cream cones were the equivalent of 25 cents and you can't find a single McDonald's in Kansas where they will serve you a bowl of vegetable fish soup.
It was originally brought about due to the SARS scares, but proved to be so popular that it will probably remain. Women afraid of SARS were reluctant to venture out to the marketplaces, so a truck was hired to bring in vegetables each afternoon at 4:00 PM. Jacqueline patted our shoulders understandingly as we unashamedly demonstrated our complete lack of sophistication in getting so excited about a bunch of--well--vegetables. "That's right," she said, "You just enjoy yourselves out there."
But, you see, we're from Hays, where we rarely get to see anything much more exotic than a head of broccoli, and every time we try to get the bok choy at Wal Mart, the cashier gets flustered and nervous and starts flipping pages of her vegetable book to get the ID number, and finally has to call for a price check before we can get home with our prize. So frankly, if we could find plastic bins of Japanese eggplants at home, we'd think we'd died and gone to vegetable heaven.
