Well, been awhile and that's because I was flying solo last week with the kids while Sammy was in Phoenix hitting Costco for me and going to meetings in between. :)
We are starting to settle into a routine here . . . yet it doesn't feel like a routine. Kids have homework (even Ella) and I'm usually bombarded after school with "mom can you help me" coming from 3 different directions and "waaaaa" (which also means the same) coming from a little 14 month old in the totally opposite direction. Kids are doing well in school for the most part. Chinese is proving to be their most difficult class. They seem to enjoy it but yet they come home with like 50s on their tests/quizzes. Hmmm, all hopes that they will become fluent are starting to fizzle.
We walk to school each day and it takes about 8 minutes door-to-door. It's a nice straight shot and the sidewalk has a decorative railing so it offers some comfort that when one of those crazy taxi drivers loses it, they'll at least hit the railing before they hit you. :) The drivers here are truly bad. Well, "bad" in the sense that they break every rule in the American driving handbook (seriously!). Yet, they're "good" in the sense that they are really good at driving bad. What I mean is, as harrowing as it is with a large bus coming at you from the 10 o'clock position and another bus coming at you from the 3 o'clock position, you feel thankful that your driver swerved between them so quickly and adeptly (let's face it, stopping to let them go first would've been the wussy choice). You feel like you're dropped into a scene from the movie Mission Impossible. Yes, this was literally just this morning. (I wonder what the heart attack rate is here ...)
Anyway, we walk to school and there is one intersection we have to cross. They have crosswalk lights but they don't really mean a whole lot here. It's more of a light that says "you can cross now but cars will still probably come at you if you don't get your booty out of the street". Literally it is like playing Frogger. Except sometimes, I just get so ticked at the discourtesy these drivers show, that I just put up my hand and make the universal stop sign. Ella has a Hello Kitty whistle from a birthday party goodie bag and I sadly have considered taking it with me to blow at drivers who get to close to me/us when we walk through. However, I'm trying to not let it bother me as much, as another expat speaker told us newbie expats in the seminar, that we weren't here to change their traffic laws or condone them but to just be patient as it's part of the culture. ("Purchase wine" is now at the top of my grocery list.)
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