Aug. 7, 2008

Ni hao from the Westin Hotel Beijing where I have barely seen the light of day for four, maybe five days. I honestly don't remember. This ticket thing is no joke. Wait, I did walk to Pizza Hut for lunch on Monday.

So not only have we been burning the candle at both ends (as my college basketball coach used to say) to get ready for our first "wave" of 400 guests who arrive tomorrow, but I have been under the weather the last few days as well. I have been sick before, but being sick in a foreign country is distressing as it is exhausting.

This leads me to my only story of this journal entry-I had made an appointment to go to the medical clinic to see a doctor, and needed to take a 40-minute taxi ride to get there. By the way, a 40-minute cab ride here ends up costing about 5 bucks (and you don't tip anyone here). Good luck trying to go four blocks in Philly for that much.

Anyway, I felt this ride to the doctor would be a good time to acutely observe the driving tendencies of the Chinese, which ended up being not too dissimilar to the crazies in other parts of the world. While the drivers here don't tend to speed, they are constantly moving lane to lane and cutting one another off. Surprisingly, though, there isn't a lot of honking or yelling to be heard, or rude gestures to be seen-it's kind of like they expect to cut-off and be cut-off. It was like a 35 mph bob-and-weave dance that I ended up really kind of enjoying - and hoping I that wouldn't be a witness to a motor vehicle accident. But my driver never changed expression as he furiously changed lanes all the while effortlessly shifting in and out of first, second and third gears. My dad would have been proud of his stick-shifting skills.

Another funny, and somewhat unsafe, part of the driving experience here is the seatbelt situation. All of the taxis have very nice, colorful neoprene seat covers to protect the original upholstery of the cars. These seat covers completely cover the seat belt "receivers" on the back seat-there are no holes for them to stick through-so it is actually impossible to put your seat belt on. Now I am as guilty as anyone of remembering to put my seat belt on each and every time I get in a car, but to not even have the option? It's kind of scary.

Well that's all the energy I have for now, but I definitely have some more good stories and candid observations to share from this strange and very cool place--even though I spend virtually all of my waking hours in this ticket office in our hotel. I will get to the Bird's Nest, Water Cube, Olympic Green, Tiananmen Square, Great Wall and Forbidden City! Hopefully some combination thereof.

Zai jian,
-Nino