Mr 152 insights into my soul!

Thank you Mama Kat, for what has proven to be a highly entertaining and kindred read...  Last week I borrowed a little book called Lost on Planet China: the strange and true story of one man's attempt to understand the world's most mystifying nation...or how he became comfortable eating live squid.  If you want to really understand my life here, and get a perspective a little more eloquently presented than this blog, I suggest you read this book.  From describing just how disgusting it is to be surrounded by the sound of 1.3 billion people hawking loogies...to pondering why it is that the world's most powerful nation can't figure out how to stop their toothpaste or milk from poisoning people...this guy gets China.  Allow me to give you a sampling:

It was after crossing a street that I came to my second observation about life in Beijing [China]: Do not play chicken with Chinese drivers.  Even if they see you, they will not slow down.  Even if the pedestrian light is green, they will not slow down.  So do not play chicken with Chinese drivers.  Or you will die.  

A moment later I made my third observation about life in Beijing [China]: Do not play chicken with Chinese cyclists.  See observation 2.  Same applies.  You will die.

How does one navigate through the mayhem that is a Chinese city?  Very, very carefully.  Crossing a street was no straightforward wander from curb to curb.  First, I'd dart through the mass of bicycles and mopeds that hugged the road near the curb.  From there, I'd cross the street one lane at a time as cars whooshed by just inches from my being, and I'd try very hard not to linger on the noteworthy fact that China has the world's highest per capita rate of vehicular fatalities.  

(Note, Shiyanites refer to street crossing as the ultimate game of Frogger.  I believe we are all somewhere around level 98 - No Hesitation!)