I tagged along as a chaperone on Max's school field trip to Chinatown today. We took the number one california bus to Grant Street. We had a quick snack and play at Portsmouth Square Park which is where we met up with our tour guide Linda Lee. Linda was awesome. She was quick witted, straight forward and curtly humorous. She didn't allow comments, only questions. As the tour went on she limited the questions from as many as the group wished, to three, to two, then finally to only one. Is that a question or comment you just said, she would ask? Of course the kids had many more comments than questions. I appreciated her kindergarten explanation of Buddhism which was that Siddhartha travelled around the world until he understood everything about human existence. Then he shared what he knew and the people said he was the wisest person ever. They renamed him Buddha. Buddihsm is popluar throughout Asia. Oranges are a homonym for luck in Chinese which is why they are an offering to Buddha (in English they are a fruit and a color — hmm isn't that strange). I also liked her lesson on eating the whole animal who gave it's life for your dinner. She stressed how the Chinese eat the whole animal, the head, the feet etc. (use your imagination) leaving no part untouched or wasted —including the "butt" and yes saying duck butt got a huge laugh. I think it's a good lesson for kids to think about the animals they eat. We visited a fortune cookie factory, heard the man above play the erhu and lastly visited a buddhist temple. All in all it was a good day!