11/14 Tuesday

I went exploring on my bike, realizing the true convenience of it. No more waiting for and squeezing onto buses and no more paying for taxis. I can see why there are literally several million bikes out on the streets here in Beijing.

You must be sure to get into bike lanes on the roadways, otherwise you’ll be battling cars for room, and it is always safest to go on the inside of a bus that has stopped, rather than around its outside if it happens to suddenly turn into the street again. Luckily, even if you do go on the outside, the buses are very slow to accelerate so you can usually avoid being hit.

There are all sorts of people you see when biking. There are guys on sleek road bikes that you’d find in the US, there are people that go silently by on electric powered bikes, there are school kids on mountain bikes bought by their parents, there are old women on rusty leisure bikes, there are struggling men on old flat-bed tricycles carrying enormously tall loads of trash or produce, there are delivery boys carrying boxes of food or electronics, one hand on the handlebar and one to steady the package. We are all helmet-less, on missions of varying degrees of urgency.

I stopped at a bike repair joint on the corner of a road near the music school to get my tires inflated, my brakes tightened, and an electronic noise maker installed for 10 yuan. The man was extremely nice, and impressed by my Chinese. He was especially pleased that I bought the noise make from him. In fact, he did all of my repairs for free after I bought it.

I prepared for my interview tomorrow, and looked up online how to teach a demo class of English, as they would be expecting me to teach one.