.an.organized.mess.

Lacy:
ok... so i have been thinking about writing a blog almost everyday on how to describe china.... IMPOSSIBLE! i have never had writer's block this long in writing about something. :) there is so much i want to say, but very little words in how to describe china.... one word comes to mind and that is CHAOS! lol i say it in a cute way, not being mean... but china is like an organized mess!

the very first thing i noticed about getting to china is the driving... they love their horns and they love playing chicken.... and the reason why i say "they" is since we dont have a car, we use taxis and buses, so we know how chinese people drive lol they honk 90% of the time when they pass someone walking, in a bicycle, on a scooter, and in a car; they want them to know they are there... most of the time, its not in a mean way, but sorta of their way of saying "im behind ya". they love playing chicken in 2 lane roads AND 4 lane roads! in america, its usual for people to pass eachother on 2 lane roads, BUT NOT IN TOWN OR IN THE CITY! they pass eachother in 2 lane roads where there is traffic all the time.... if they dont make it, the other car coming at them either just slows down or moves over more as much as they can. ok so 4 lane roads??? what i mean is almost every driver drives in the fast lane and when they come up on someone slow, they pass them on their LEFT! they dont pass them in the slow lane, but on the other side lol my theory is that what we call fast lane is their vehicles only lane; and the slow lane is there bicycles, scooters, and vendors only lane... that is my guess but ive only been here for bout 3 weeks :) im not complaining about their driving at all; i absolutely love it! it makes a 10 minute drive much more interesting :) usually, im conked out in the car within 15 minutes. lol thats just one example of their organized mess; what seems messy to us is organized for them...

right now, andy and i are slowly getting settled and in sort of a routine... our apartment is all set up, thanks to andy! he had everything already ready for when we got here, which was really great of him! we just had to unpack. we have already gone through 2 weeks of classes... since then we have met with several groups of students to get to know them. andy has also met with his students from last year and it was really awesome to get to meet with them! to see faces to names :) a couple of my students helped me with my chinese. oh man, it is so hard to learn! it would be easier for me if i didn't have to remember the tones that go with the words :) but i love learning the language... andy is like crazy with the language; i'm finding out that he knows more than he was admitting to. haha he says that he doesnt know much, but he certainly knows more than i understand! well, i don't want to write too much in one blog, so i will have to soon write about my classroom...

theres so much i want to write about to explain... but i have come to the conclusion that no matter how many pictures i take and how many blogs i write, you just have to come here and see for yourself to understand :) ive heard a lot about china this past year and now that i am here, i totally understand all the things that andy was trying to explain to me.... its definitely a different culture, but thats what keeps it interesting....