Their are two things that you can be sure of in Beijing. Traffic and shopping malls. The shopping malls are pretty cool and so is the traffic. (at least I think it is, but Melody doesn't) The malls have almost everything you could want or need and the traffic .... well it's just cool! It's really cool if your on a bike. I mean I can get on my bike and ride from home to work and beat the bus and I love it. About the only thing you can't beat is the taxis. Those guys are awesome ..... and absolutely crazy! We had a driver the other day that was the best one we've had since we've been here. It was raining so we couldn't ride the bikes and the traffic was backed way up because no one else could ride their bikes either. He drove down the bike lane, made a right turn drove the bike again got to the place where we needed to make a left but the intersection was all jammed up with ... well ... traffic. He slowly pushed, wiggled and maneuvered his way across the intersection then did a 180 degree turn to the right and started to go back across the other way. He then did a 90 degree turn to the left and ended up on another bike lane going the wrong way. Lets just say I was sitting in front and was loving every minute of it, Melody was in the back not saying a word and he got us to work in record time. Oh Yeah!!!
Well today Melody and I spent the day riding the subway, doing a little shopping, and seeing parts Beijing that we hadn't seen yet. When all was said and done we stopped at the U Center in Wudaokuo right near where we work because we were a little tired and needed something to keep us going. This was about four o'clock and today was a work day. When we came out of the U Center it was about 6:30pm and rush hour. The intersection out in front of the mall (U Center) was jammed up with .... you guessed it ... traffic. We had all our stuff from the shopping and it was pretty heavy so we needed to get a taxi. At this point I learned that its really easy to get a taxi in the middle of a traffic jam. There were at least three of them stuck in the traffic jam just waiting for us to jump in it doesn't matter if they want to take you or not because ... well ... where are they going to go.
So I found a taxi and we jumped in. Then I realized something else. Where were we going to go? We wanted to go home and knew how to get there, but we were still in the middle of a traffic jam. We spoke to taxi driver and told him where we wanted to go and he just looked at us. I think he knew where we wanted to go, but ... we were in the middle of a traffic jam. Where were we going to go?
So we sat there. After a while the traffic would move a little and then we just sat. After a little while longer we had moved up enough into the intersection so that we could see the middle of it. And what to my wondering eyes would appear, but a one lonely cop standing in the middle using all the leadership he could muster to direct the traffic with all the fiber of his being . And he looked good doing it. He was waving his arms, yelling at people when they needed it, he was the man with the badge and he was doing his job well. Just not well enough.
Nobody was paying the slightest attention to him. He would hold his hand up and tell people to stop and they stopped. But, when he turned around to wave others on, the ones whom he told to stop just maneuvered around him and then .... well .... Where were they going to go? They were stuck in the middle of a traffic jam. It was utter hysterical.
The good thing is the taxi driver was a good guy and he really tried to get us home as soon as he could.
Well, the last thing I need to say is Happy birthday Ayden. Grammy and I miss you so much it hurts lots.
We hope you had a great birthday party and that you love your presents. I hope you thanked everyone for all the goods things you got. We love you Buddy boy!! Be good!
No comments:
Post a Comment