Radio Silence

Sorry for the hiatus, guys. Jessie’s been super busy running around Beijing.
I really appreciated everyone who said they like my blog. You guys are super sweet, and I definitely want to keep updating now. Yay!

So this weekend, what a weekend. I did, as promised, purchase a camera. In order to attain said camera, I road through the streets of Beijing at breakneck speed on the back of a tiny scooter capable of going 70 miles an hour. Harrowing? Death defying? Thrill of a lifetime? Oh, all those rolled into one, plus convenient and economical! In addition, I made it out to the silk district with liz. We hopped a bus, then the subway, and made it (without incident!) to the silk market.

Oh, you wanted details? And pictures? Well, I guess we can do that.

So, to start off with. Camera shopping at the technological center of Beijing. 7 towers filled with floor after floor of electronics. Matt Damon (real name: Matt Diemer. Reason for nickname: coordinator of our group cannot pronounce his name and refers to him, in all seriousness, as Matt Damon) started off the day by picking me up from my bus stop with his scooter. Note; this scooter could kick some serious ass. I’m not talking little moped vroom vroom beep beep type thing, I’m talking just short of a racing motorcycle type vehicle.

[warning: you might learn something in the next paragraph]

Lets talk for a minute about the layout of the city of Beijing and how this affects the transportation situation (haha, I rhymed!) There is a lot of traffic here, a lot, and a significant lack of traffic law. Beijing is built in a series of rings, with the innermost being where the Forbbiden City is located. The districts of Beijing then radiate outward from this ring in concentric rings- as of right now there are five rings (with more, as the city expands). The pattern is as though you dropped a stone into a pond, with the radiating ripples being the main districts of Beijing. Each of these rings is delineated by a huge highway called a ring road- I live directly on the third ring road. Each ring road is such that if you hop on in front of my university you can go all the way around and come back to where you started- cause it’s a ring. Just thought I’d clarify that. Of course, Beijing is so huge that within each ring road there are many different districts, but we don’t care about that right now. What we care about is the traffic law. There is some, and it obeyed mostly (kind of…sort of..) on the ring roads, but when it comes down to side streets its every woman for herself. Cars go where they want, people cross where they want, bikes bike where they want…you get the picture. There are traffic lights and lanes and crosswalks, but in all honesty none of it matters. As long as you’ve got a bigger clit (that’s right, I didn’t say bigger balls, cause why should I? down with the patriarchy!) than the drivers, and can tell which ones really would run you over, you’ll do fine.

[we now return to our regularly scheduled program]

So theres a large number of bikes and scooters that wind their way daringly through the haphazard cars. More specifically, I was going to comment on Matt Damon’s scooter and the way it winds, with me on the back, in and out of this seemingly careless jumble of vehicles. The thing about the whole thing is that there is a definitive method to the madness. For all of the incredibly close calls I’ve witnessed (and been part of) No one has actually hit anyone. Cars go on reds, people cross against signals, bikes dart into the middle of moving traffic, and it all occurs with a kind of common understanding. It amazes me, like a symphony moving just ahead of the beat, you sit on the edge of your seat waiting for the inevitable train wreck but it doesn’t quite come.

As I’m reading over what I’ve written, I’ve come to the conclusion that I lied to you guys when I said I’d elaborate on my escapades and provide pictures in this post. This has already gotten longer than I anticipated and in order to elaborate adequately I’d have to more than double it.
So we’ll leave it till next time.

For now, ponder the city layout of Beijing. (I promise I’ll update in the morning)


love&luz

ps. i just tried to tack some pictures on to the bottom of this, but m internet is being funny. sorry!