Taxis and IKEA

Sitting in the back of a taxi cab in china is like playing a really scary video game that you have little control of. Seatbelts are hard to come by. The communication barrier is at an all time high. Pronouncing one syllable wrong can take you on a adventure pretty quick. Some will understand where you want to go, but take you the long way around to get there because you're white. The are however dirt cheap. 3-4$ can take you most places you want to go near by. Their driving is what make them scary. Two lanes of traffic can turn into four cars wide. Our taxi driver passed two cars by driving in between them on the line. No matter what lane you're in you can turn, and pass. No blinker is needed most times, a warning honk will do. They are very comfortable driving on 8 lanes weaving in and out of traffic passing others with only 3 or 4 inches between them. There is a lot of holding your breath when you're in one, but we have rarely seen any accidents and most of the time they are only driving 60 km/h. We are beginning to trust them.

Today we took our adventure to IKEA which is really close by the school and was yet another overwhelming experience. IKEA to China is more entertaining than it is a place to shop. People will come to sleep on the beds and chairs. They come to take pictures of the show rooms. Parents bring their children there for the day to play on the game table or run around the store. The place was packed!! We purchased several organizational things for ourselves, as well as some thing to pretty up our place. We will be taking pictures of our room soon and posting them for all to see.