Thursday, June 15, 2006
ok, i have another insane story to tell...and it deals with frogs.
Mike wanted to teach his high school classes about frog dissection and I offered to help (dumb offer)
Anyways, so he didn't know where to get live frogs, so we headed to the pet store. They were too small. So, then I came up with the seemingly brilliant idea at the time of -- whoa, Chinese people eat frogs, why don't you check in Chinatown?
This is after I call up random friends, and totally offended them going - "um, you eat frogs right? do you know where I can buy them?" I left a message on one, he kept the message because it was supremely weird.
So, we head over to the Clement area in SF - sure nuf, there were live frogs there. So, he decided to get them the DAY BEFORE the class.
Of course, waiting until the last minute always causes problems - just analyzing my life will tell you that.
But anyways, the day before he needed the frogs, he goes to the supermarket. He's the only one there, but he's not Chinese so they ignore them. He tries to get their attention, but again, he's not Chinese and continue to ignore him. He calls me but I'm at work. I get back to my desk and find all these desperate froggy messages.
So I call back, and he tries to hand his cell phone to the froggy man. He continues to ignore him. So I tell him to go to the front checkout and ask the people there. He goes there, and tells them to talk to his cell. I explain what he's trying to do, but they say, they will get in trouble if they sell them alive. (Truthfully, I'm thinking if I was Cantonese, super Fobby and there, and gave them extra money, it would be no prob)
Anyways, he leaves the store, and I start calling stores for him. PETCO's frogs are too small. So I try Ranch 99 - one has them frozen! even worse! the other doesn't understand me. She's like : "FROE?!? What's an FROE?? OK, I'll look in the back for an FROE...Sorry we don't have FROE." Then I learn that there's another word for frog in Chinese - like field chicken - it's the difference between saying DEER and VENISON.
Anyways, I forget about the froggies and go to the doc's for an appointment (my back is still a bit jacked up) but when I get back I get more desperate froggie messages from Mike about trying to go to another Chinese supermarket.
So he goes to another one on Irving. They speak even less English but at least serve him. He points to the frogs and holds out his fingers for how many. They think he's a freak for wanting so many, frog fetish maybe? Anyways, he tries to tell them, he wants them whole. They don't understand, so they proceed to chop the heads off. He freaks out, keeps saying he wants them whole, so then they fill up a separate bag with the frog heads!!!
It ends up working out the next day for the dissection, because the frog bodies still have beating hearts, and the demented kids try to figure out which head goes to which body. They go around fitting everything.
So that afternoon, I was like, okay, I'll go with you so you can get whole frogs. I go in, tell them in Chinese I want them whole and I want 12. I say it wrong and they give me 12 pounds of frogs! Meanwhile the customers next to Mike think he's weird. He has to explain again that its for a class, not that he has frog fetish.
This time, it didn't work so well in class. While he's explaining what to do, one goes ribbbit!
Mike wanted to teach his high school classes about frog dissection and I offered to help (dumb offer)
Anyways, so he didn't know where to get live frogs, so we headed to the pet store. They were too small. So, then I came up with the seemingly brilliant idea at the time of -- whoa, Chinese people eat frogs, why don't you check in Chinatown?
This is after I call up random friends, and totally offended them going - "um, you eat frogs right? do you know where I can buy them?" I left a message on one, he kept the message because it was supremely weird.
So, we head over to the Clement area in SF - sure nuf, there were live frogs there. So, he decided to get them the DAY BEFORE the class.
Of course, waiting until the last minute always causes problems - just analyzing my life will tell you that.
But anyways, the day before he needed the frogs, he goes to the supermarket. He's the only one there, but he's not Chinese so they ignore them. He tries to get their attention, but again, he's not Chinese and continue to ignore him. He calls me but I'm at work. I get back to my desk and find all these desperate froggy messages.
So I call back, and he tries to hand his cell phone to the froggy man. He continues to ignore him. So I tell him to go to the front checkout and ask the people there. He goes there, and tells them to talk to his cell. I explain what he's trying to do, but they say, they will get in trouble if they sell them alive. (Truthfully, I'm thinking if I was Cantonese, super Fobby and there, and gave them extra money, it would be no prob)
Anyways, he leaves the store, and I start calling stores for him. PETCO's frogs are too small. So I try Ranch 99 - one has them frozen! even worse! the other doesn't understand me. She's like : "FROE?!? What's an FROE?? OK, I'll look in the back for an FROE...Sorry we don't have FROE." Then I learn that there's another word for frog in Chinese - like field chicken - it's the difference between saying DEER and VENISON.
Anyways, I forget about the froggies and go to the doc's for an appointment (my back is still a bit jacked up) but when I get back I get more desperate froggie messages from Mike about trying to go to another Chinese supermarket.
So he goes to another one on Irving. They speak even less English but at least serve him. He points to the frogs and holds out his fingers for how many. They think he's a freak for wanting so many, frog fetish maybe? Anyways, he tries to tell them, he wants them whole. They don't understand, so they proceed to chop the heads off. He freaks out, keeps saying he wants them whole, so then they fill up a separate bag with the frog heads!!!
It ends up working out the next day for the dissection, because the frog bodies still have beating hearts, and the demented kids try to figure out which head goes to which body. They go around fitting everything.
So that afternoon, I was like, okay, I'll go with you so you can get whole frogs. I go in, tell them in Chinese I want them whole and I want 12. I say it wrong and they give me 12 pounds of frogs! Meanwhile the customers next to Mike think he's weird. He has to explain again that its for a class, not that he has frog fetish.
This time, it didn't work so well in class. While he's explaining what to do, one goes ribbbit!
# posted by Marian @ 6:09 PM 
