One of those weeks...

So things are humming along pretty well for us here in Shanghai as we close in on the one year mark. We have gotten used to a lot of the things that are different here, but it is an ongoing process and there are always new issues cropping up.

This morning, Russ was out running along the canal near our house when he got hit from behind by a guy on a motor scooter. He's okay, but pretty scraped up. This is not the first time he's been clipped (I think once he got hit by a pig carcass that was slung along the back of a bicycle), but this time was much worse - lots of road rash and a big bruise on his ankle where his sock actually got caught in the guy's wheel. The Chinses do have a tendency to drive close, both in cars and on two-wheeled vehicles, and sometimes it seems like there are no discernible road rules (they think it is perfectly acceptable to run a red light as long as they blare their horn on the way through).

But to hit a pedestrian like that, you have to wonder: what the hell? Russ thinks the guy was asleep because he looked kind of out of it. I totally believe that could be the case. I've seen passengers on the back of a bicycle, perched on a little cargo rack and leaning on the person pedaling, completely zonked out. On more that one occasion I've caught my own driver nodding off at the wheel. I don't know why this sleeping and driving/riding seems to be such an epidemic here - I'll do some investigating and get back to you.

So anyway, Russ says the guy just scooped up his stuff that spilled during the accident and took off. I'm sure he wanted to avoid any police, but he didn't get away without Russ yelling at him and another witness chasing after him.

Poor Russ was also the victim in my next story. He has a subscription to The Economist news magazine and last week's issue arrived a couple days late and was sealed in a different envelope than usual. When he opened it up, he immediately noticed there was a page ripped out. He looked at the table of contents and discovered that the missing page an article on the anniversary of the Tianamen Square incident in 1989. It was one of those moments when all of a sudden, something that only happens far away to somebody else is now happening to you. A little eerie.

[Post script note: I wrote this blog on June 10th, but was unable to post it until now because China was also blocking my blogging website as part of this crackdown. As far as I know it is still blocked - I'm writing this from the US while I'm here for a home visit.]