Thursday, March 19, 2009

Only in China

Only in China do I find myself doing things that I would never do in the USA. Take taxi rides as an example. Here in China, the only seat belt law is for the driver, and that law is rarely followed. We have been putting 6 people in a sedan size taxi with Pete up front (wearing his seat belt) and the 4 kids and I in the backseat, Kaiden rides on my lap. Can you imagine that? I'd NEVER ride like this in the USA. The drivers have never said we had too many people. They just let us pile in. We couldn't put our seat belts on in the back seat if we wanted to anyways, nor use a car seat, because the seats all have covers on them so you can't get to the belts. Today, I ventured out home on my own with Kaiden, and he laid across the backseat napping with me holding on to him with my hand. Funny thing is, accidents are very rare here. We've seen only 1 in the week that we've been here. We're told that everyone drives defensively. I can see that. I don't see how accidents don't happen but they don't. So in a very strange way, I've felt safe driving this way. Never in the USA though.

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