Turtles are everywhere in China. Just like goldfish, turtles
of varying sizes sit in the markets and wait to be bought as either food or
pets. The whole thing feels a bit wrong, and I wait with eager anticipation for
when PETA members burst through the doors and pile all the turtles into an
unlabelled van and speed off. Recommended not to give children turtles as pets,
it would seem that the same is true for foreigners.
Greeting Erati in the hall between classes, he informed me
of his great plan. Having bought one of the market turtles the previous night,
he planned to act as a savior for the turtle population- freeing it into the
nearby river. Never mind that the water in the river would probably kill the turtle
faster than a restaurant ever could…
Mid-way through his explanation of his grand plan, Erati’s face
shifted- to a look of slight horror and panic.
“Oh god, the turtle
is still sitting in my jacket pocket. I forgot to take it out! Shit.”
On closer inspection, as expected, the turtle had in fact
died. Who knew that turtles need to actually be taken out of their plastic bag
of air and water after being purchased? Perhaps our joint longing for pets in
the hotel is a little farfetched, and should remain as a distant dream as
opposed to a reality. A very lifeless reality.
