Timing the Traffic Light

It's a little bit of a slow day here in the Wild East so I'll write about something fast. The traffic lights are timed here. Have I mentioned this before?

Not only are they timed going from green to red, which is reasonable, but you can also see how much time you have going from red to green. Can you imagine that on Broad Street around midnight?

This adds a whole new element to traffic navigation. When I'm riding my bike, it allows me to slow down enough so that when I get to the corner, I can achieve maximum speed as soon as the light turns green. Other people like it for the opposite reason, they can speed up just in time to make the yellow light. I witnessed what happens when the two occur simultaneously.

I was riding my bike home (from a night of poker) around 9:00 pm. The streets were less crowded, as they usually are around that time of night. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see a taxi gunning through the intersection while a construction truck passes through at the same time. They simultaneously hit their brakes as the taxi swerves around the truck, hitting a concrete support beam head-on instead. Luckily, the taxi's speed was such that the driver and girls in the taxi were able to walk away. None of them got in the ambulance I phoned for. The truck driver was also unharmed, as was his truck.

So, that's it. On the whole, it was not a terribly awful or exciting event, but one to take a lesson from nonetheless.

Rachel's Trip, Take 2

What laziness giveth...

laziness taketh away...

And on that note, the beard has been shaved. I was digging it, but it was getting a bit too long, causing me to eat mustache hairs from time to time. So, I was left with a decision:

-shave for the first time in six weeks
-or, trim the beard every few days

So, the beard is gone, but I welcome it back with open arms in about 3 weeks.

Go Phillies!

Chinese Wedding

No Dancing, Cigarettes Yes

My friend Joy got married last week. It was my first Chinese wedding and aside from the smell of flowers and optimism in the air, it was very unlike the American weddings I've been to....


There was no church or temple for the ceremony. The bride and groom were at the entrance of the restaurant to greet everyone, in their wedding attire. The wedding started at 6:30 and, at that time, the MC welcomed the bride and groom into the reception. After entering, the two exchanged vows in front of everyone. This was followed by speeches from their fathers, the groom and two people I took to be the maid of honor and best man. My Chinese is ok, but these people were talking real fast, I was catching every fifth word or so....happy....luck....life....children....

Dinner was a buffet, and it was not exclusively ours. It was part of a larger restaurant. And this was by far the largest buffet I've seen - over 50 dishes, most of which I could identify (or at least categorize as meat or vegetable).

There was light music but no dancing and no dance floor. Instead, every table was given a box of chocolates and two packs of cigarettes. SMOKE 'EM IF YOU GOT 'EM.

The bride and groom, after eating, make their rounds just as they do at American weddings. And by that, I mean they literally make the rounds. They have to do have a drink (or shot) with each table. And if they are getting too drunk too fast, it is the duty of the maid of honor and best man to drink the shots for them if they cannot.

Now, I thought Joy and her husband were pretty hammered by the time they go to me and Greta's table, but I asked Joy later and she said they were ok.

About 9:30, people started shuffling out. All in all, it was a nice time - not as lively and bustling as an American wedding, but just as festive and focused on what was most important - two people publicly declaring they're love for each other.

My good friend Jin

One of the best ways to learn a language is by doing language exchanges. Basically, the way a language exchange works is: you speak English for an hour, and then you speak Mandarin for an hour.

Jin, a Shanghai native, is a former student, but now she is a friend and we usually meet up about once per week, drink coffee, and talk. I usually show up with a bunch of Chinese words I want to practice and we sneak in some English (or Shanghainese) here and there. Our exchanges are definitely lopsided towards Mandarin, but she doesn't seem to mind. As a result, she is one of the main reasons my spoken Chinese is progressing well.

This picture was taken the other day....it's been almost a month but it never gets old...GO PHILLIES!

Beard