Today's Taxi Ride

Today was another one for the "only in China" memoirs.
As usual on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, today I saw Jack and Jed off in the bus and then walked with Huck to get a taxi. As luck would have it, Mr. Dong was the one I met at the clubhouse, so he knew where we were going. When we turned onto the first main street on the way to Huck's school, though, there was terrible traffic. He talked about it and I understood the traffic part, but he continued to mumble and I am not sure what he was saying. He decided to turn on to the dirt shoulder to avoid the traffic and turn onto the next street, but did so at the same moment a bike rider tried to cut in and they collided. Yes, the taxi I was in hit a bike rider, or maybe the bike rider hit the taxi I was in, I am not sure. Mr. Dong got out of the taxi and the two exchanged mildly heated words and we were soon on our way...

Once we turned onto the next road which leads to the school, I could see that traffice was bad on the way there and worse on the way back so I pointed to the short cut home and said "Ni keyi hui jia." Which means, "you can go home." He knew what I meant, cut across traffic and we went home. I later heard from my neighbor that he took his son to school near where Huck goes and it took him an hour and a half round trip. Normally it would take about 30 minutes. I am glad I decided to keep Huck home. Huck's teacher was not pleased when I called her to say he wouldn't be there, but it's the way it goes in China. I've just learned that next week, for 4 days at least, the freeway will be closed due to some kind of summit that is taking place downtown. This will not be pretty. I guess we'll stay in our little community.