King of the Road or Baby, You Can Drive My Car

Look out, China! After being here for 3 months, I am now free to drive my car about Beijing. It arrived well after we did, but it took 3 weeks once it got here to go through the registration process. Driving here is madness, but it is slow madness. While 90% of drivers follow no known traffic laws, at least they drive relatively slowly.

I like the traffic signs that have been translated, usually imperfectly, into english with a cartoon illustration. I will try to get some photos soon. My favorite translation is "Don't Drive Tiredly."

Look at me! Look at me! I've got a blog! My opinion counts...

So now that I am a professional world traveler, I plan on putting up updates of my experiences and observations . In January of 2005, my family moved to Beijing, China. Our oldest son is in 5th grade and is quickly adapting to life at one of the international schools. Our youngest son is loving the attention that the locals like to lavish upon western toddlers. (Much to our discomfort) My wife will be delivering our daughter here at a Western hospital in late May.

Until recently, the weather had been bitterly cold. It was usually between 15 and 35 degrees F. When the Mongolian winds sweep through or the smog blocks out the sun, it can be much colder than the forecasted weather. I've also decided that Yahoo and CNN just make up numbers in their weather reports. I've found Weather Underground to be more reliable, particularly when it comes to precipitation.

I did not receive any language training prior to arriving here, but I'm working on expanding my vocabulary. It's hard because of the use of tones. The same word with different tones means many different things and invariably, one of them will be insulting or make you look like an idiot when you use the wrong tone. For example the phrase for "please let me ask" only varies in tone from "please kiss." Be careful where you use this.

That's enough for now.