Driving School and Scenic Routes

I'm pretty sure that if we were to attend a driving class here in China this would be how it would go…

Instructor: Hello Class

Class: HONK!!!!!!!

Instructor: Well, I see that you have already learned the first major lesson in driving.

Class: HONK! HONK!!!!!!!!

Instructor: There are many different ways to use your horn but the first thing you need to know is that you must ALWAYS blow your horn constantly or else you may die.

Class: HONK HONK HONK HONK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Instructor: You can send many different messages with your horn. 1. GET OUT OF MY WAY! 2. I'm coming through whether you want me to or not. 3. I said GET OUT OF MY WAY. 4. A friendly hello honk. 5. GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!! 6. I'm right behind you and am trying to make you pee your pants by scaring you to death. And finally…7. GET OUT OF MY WAY!

CLASS: HONK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

INSTRUCTOR: Very good…you all passed the driving class. Now go and honk your horns!

Well, that may not be EXACTLY how the class would go…but that's what my mind tends to think. Goodness knows that horns are being blown every second and from all directions. Craziness. I think though that they love noise here. They will shoot off fireworks at all times of the day and I haven't fully figured out why. Now, you are talking to a girl who LOVES fireworks with everything in me! Maybe that's why I'm a July 5^th baby…I love celebrating July 4^th with LOTS OF FIREWORKSJ!!!! But here there is no real purpose, especially when they shoot them off in the middle of the day… you can't see them! So all it does is just make really loud noise…maybe to cover up the sound of the honking horns, who knows! Maybe that will be my job here…teach them what good fireworks are and when to shoot them off. If any of my followers live in South Carolina, you may be called upon to ship some over here for training purposes. J

Well…our air shipment finally arrived on Friday so we have at least a few more of our things! YEA!!!!!! So we spent most of the day on Friday and Saturday cleaning the apartment and getting that stuff organized. Then we also learned that the slow boat to China containing our Sea Shipment has docked!! WHOO HOO!!!! And that was at least 5 days ahead of schedule…now just waiting for customs to clear it so we can move on it and finally be settled. I told Jeffrey as we were walking the apartment trying to envision where to put our stuff that I honestly couldn't remember what all we brought since its been almost 2 months since I've seen our furniture…well it may not be that bad, but in my hotel tired mind it is!

Our wonderful driver here, Joe, is so sweet and a very safe driver…but he has no idea where anything is. That has been an interesting challenge and has really made Jeffrey and I want to learn Chinese much faster so we don't always have to call someone to ask them to translate for us! Aren't we just a sorry pair! But we finally did order Rosetta Stone to work on and then beginning in the summer we will have an instructor come out to the house for some one on one training.

As Joe was taking us to Metro (a big store like Sams or Costco) on Friday we started to get a little worried on our way back. We were definitely taking the "scenic route" and were on a road that I don't think many cars travel down. He stopped to ask directions of a lady carrying a basket down the road. Even though I couldn't understand what they were saying her message was clearly that she thought we were idiots for being where we were! But hey…he got us back to the apartment in half the time it took to get there…so bring on the scenic route! Pictures will follow later.

Aiden is starting to get better about sleeping, but he still has those wonderful screaming moments. Mostly they are when he doesn't get his proper naps in a day…so we are working on that slowly but surely. I just think he is about as hotel tired as we are and ready for a real home with his own room.

Time marches on and we are slowly getting accustomed to life here. We bought ourselves our house shoes this week and now we just have to remember to always take them with us when we go to visit our friends in the area. Mine are bright yellow Crocs that Jeffrey laughs at but says that it is totally my personality…not sure what he means by that but…J!

Excited to see what fun this week brings. Our plans are to go visit one of our new friends who just had a baby and keep her company as her husband goes back to work for a day or two, get together with Julie and her precious 3 girls and Aiden's new friend Noah for lunch and shop at the furniture mall for some rugs for our apartment. Then, if the men will keep the kids, Julie and I need to go to the mall downtown and check out their baby store there to see what all kind of goodies we can find!

Until next time…thanks for joining us in our journey. We are excited to have you along the way!