Sept 6, 2007 (by Jess)

Today was an eventful day. We had to get up at 5am to meet a "bus" or van, to drive 4 hours into a city whose name we cannot pronounce. (It was only supposed to take 3 hours, causing Brad to sing Gilligan's Island..."a 3 hour tour.") We had to make this long trip because, although Beijing is only one hour away, it is in a different province. Climbing into our "bus" was much like most other vehicles in China...it appeared to be at least 5 years too old to still be on the road. Seatbelts were only provided for the driver and as a luxury, a seatbelt was provided for the front seat passenger, but it had no buckle. Most Chinese vehicles come equipped with no seatbelts, which is quite worrisome when you consider how most of them drive. Both our escort and our driver immediately lit up a cigarette (a very common occurrence), causing all of us to holler that they please open some windows!

Leaving Langfang, we observed the many buildings with bars on the windows. Brad and I started humming "bars on the doors, and bars on my heart." In fact, few buildings lack barred windows, including our own apartment building. Aside from the bars, there were also a lot of murals on buildings, manicured hedges everywhere, mile after mile of trees planted in straight rows, and ornate stone "fences" interrupted periodically by large stone lions. The trees are all painted white 1/2 way up, and then a single ring of red tops the white section. It is quite striking to see a whole forest like this. The land was mostly flat during our drive, and covered with corn fields. Brad said that it reminded him of Iowa. There are also large park areas with what appears to be colorful children's playthings. Instead, these are public exercise equipment for adults. Even at 6am this morning the streets and parks were full of people jogging, walking, sweeping, eating, stretching, and even dancing!

The driving experience is like none other I have experienced. The horn in China is a form of communication, almost constant from vehicle to vehicle. It is like perpetually shouting "Here I am! Here I am!" Brad laughs at the signs of the side of the road that show a bugle within a circle with a line through it. "No bugle-ing!" The vehicles ignore the signs though. Some roads do not have lines up the middle to separate traffic going opposite directions. This causes driving to evolve into a daily game of "chicken" between opposing vehicles. The shoulder is not off-limits in China. A 2 lane highway easily becomes 3 lanes with vehicles passing on the lop-sided shoulder. Drivers in China make New York City drivers look like polite little old ladies. They zip through traffic, ALWAYS cutting EVERYONE off, just barely missing pedestrians, bicyclists, mopeds, electric scooters, carts, and wagons loaded with goods by mere inches. What continues to amaze me is that all the pedestrian traffic pretends as if the cars did not exist, often walking or riding across busy highways and intersections, or just stopping right in the middle of the street. There are no rules to driving that are apparent, and stop-lights and signs appear to all be optional. Vehicles swerve and lurch, honk and pull out into traffic with sudden unpredictability.

Our physical was unusual to say the least. First we were photographed again, even after providing 20 photos that we had taken recently. Then they took our blood using fresh needles. Unfortunately, they couldn't find a vein on me, so after digging around a bit, they asked for my other arm. Argh. I hate when they do that! Anyhow, then we were given cups to pee in, in a restroom lacking both toilet paper and soap. I refused, and finally someone provided toilet paper and we found some soap. I was asked to remove my blouse for a chest x-ray (I had another shirt on underneath), and then we had our ultrasounds. They smeared COLD jelly all over our bellies, and told us to puff out our stomachs. I was not pregnant, but Brad tells me he is pregnant with twins. Then we had our blood-pressure taken, and stood on a machine that I think measured our height, but it looked like a transportation device from Star Trek. Next we had our eyes examined, our mouths examined (Say "Aaaah"), and our color blindness checked. Finally we had our EKG performed, which was quite bizarre. First they smeared jelly on me. Then they took two cords that looked like jumper cables for a car and put one on my foot and one on my arm. Then the lady took 2 cords with fuzzy ends on them and she yanked up my shirt and stuck them on me! I didn't know whether to laugh or yell for Brad to come save me! With all that electric stuff, a piece of paper printed out of a machine a long zigzag line. Then she yanked it all off, and I was done. I felt so violated...like we should have at least had a conversation beforehand! :) We were all laughing about the craziness of it all afterward.

We had lunch at a hotel restaurant, where we ate some very unusual foods that were mostly unappetizing. I did discover sugar cubes though, and happily sucked on them throughout the meal. Anyhow, while I'm mentioning it, could you send us a bunch of those little instant anti-bacterial soap bottles? The ones that don't require water? Thanks! Anyhow, again, it was an eventful day. I hope you are having a clean and safe time in the cleanest and safest country in the world! :) Talk to you later. We love you!

Jessie (and Brad)