Voice of Will: Adjusting

2004-09-17 - 9:15 a.m.
One of the biggest things I have had to adjust to is the bathrooms. China does not use US toilets (unless you are lucky). Their bathroom facilities are a trench in the floor, you squat over it, and use it. You bring your own TP, and you do not flush it (it goes in the trash). This takes some serious getting used to.

the other big difference is the current traffic laws.... there don't seem to be any. When you drive you take your life into your hands. Yes there are lines and lanes on the road. No one follows them. Yes there are road signs, but no one follows them. Stop lights, stop signs, traffic signals are all just *suggestions* I have seen a slow moving bicycle cart on the right, being passed by a motorcycle on the left, with a car passing in the oncoming traffic lane, with a motorcycle passing that car on the opposite sidewalk. All of them blaring down the road, honking their horns at each other. I'll be they should have some major accidents....

And the last major thing I have noticed is the level of pollution. You can actually taste it in the air somedays. Yesterday for example, you could only see about 500 yards total. and you only had about 200 yards of clear vision. the rest was a sort of hazy bluriness. Now couple that with driving, and imagine how things just JUMP out at you

Will