An Interesting Day at the Market.....WARNING...gross factor

Today was a nice and lazy Saturday. Jeff and I awoke around 11:00AM and I proceeded to watch the rest of Napoleon Dynamite while Jeff read a book. I quite enjoy our mornings here. We never have to wake to an alarm clock - which I thoroughly enjoy.
Around 1:30 we headed off to the market to pick up a bit of produce for our supper. Now - I had seen and been told about a Taiwanese delicacy - rice in chicken blood. It is sold all over Homei in little stands on the sides of roads. It almost looks like a piece of rice krispie square wrapped in Saran - but it is rice and it is a deep dark red - almost purple. Today, however, I had the pleasure of watching a man make fresh rice blood cakes. We were making our way around the market and checking out all of the fish, pig and veggies when Jeff said - look Michelle - that man's about to kill that chicken. Now if you have a weak stomach you might want to stop reading here. For the rest of you........
This man pulled a chicken out of the cage (I watched him do 3 but who know how many he needed). He grabbed the chicken by both wings and held them together at the chickens back - pulled the head back slit the chickens throat and allowed the blood to fall into some kind of a pan (it was behind a table so I couldn't see it). He would hold the chicken until the blood stopped draining from its neck and then throw the chicken carcass into a barrel. I moved closer to get a better look as interestingly enough I wasn't all that grossed out - just completely bewildered. People were standing around the table watching - I wondered, are rice blood cakes better when they're warm? Jeff finally told me we had to get a move on....so i didn't get to see if he made the cakes up right there and then to sell to his customers. I'm trying to be open to the food of Taiwan and try a little of each of their customary dishes- but i don't think I'll ever be able to stomach rice blood cakes......uugh!
Other than that - Jeff and I got our living room cleaned up and moved around and it feels much homeier (is that a word) and we hung out there tonight and watched a couple of movies. I'm starting to feel quite at home here and life is good. The weather was a bit colder today - nothing like our first day here though - I think that may have been their worst day of the year.
Well....I hope that I haven't completely grossed you out.
Michelle
p.s. just to clarify Jeff's previous blog.....when we were biking the other day...the intersection was so backe up with traffic that the middle was really the safest place to be. It wasn't quite as dangerous as Jeff made it out to sound....so don't worry to much mom! :)