Having grown up in a Midwestern suburb where there’s no such thing as a traffic jam (well, now with that crazy Super Walmart that’s not the case any more…), it’s been crazy getting used to the traffic here, both in the city and the countryside. In both places it seems like the official traffic rules are obsolete, and neither pedestrian nor driver is willing to yield to the other, but people seem to get where they’re going all the same, so I know there’s method to this madness, but I have yet to crack the code. I’m sure that if I were from New York City I’d have gotten used to it already.

As a pedestrian, I adhere to the strict discipline of looking left and right that my mom instilled in me , but after that, you have to throw caution to the wind, or you will NEVER get across the street. So far, I haven’t figured out how to stop being a nuisance to other people when crossing streets. I’m a lot more suave about it  than I was at first, but I still can’t help hesitating when I wonder whether I should make a run for it or not, and inevitably I end up with that deer-in-front-of-headlights look. Little gestures of courtesy end up being nuisances that might cause wrecks, so instead of stopping to let that bike, motorcycle, or car go before you keep crossing, just go! You hardly ever get a chance to make it across all 6 lanes at once, so you just put yourself out there and wait between lanes- it’s actually sort of exciting. When I was little and spent so much time playing Atari, I never knew that “Frogger” was helping me prepare for crossing the city streets here! Radar Rat Race has yet to prove its practical educational value, but I’m keeping my eyes open…
As a passenger, things never get dull either, at least for a country bumpkin. Maybe its because the traffic is getting heavier with all of the people who want their own car in the city and it’s sort of “survival of the fittest,” or maybe they’re living out their fantasy of the Indy 500, but the bus drivers are constantly pulling crazy maneuvers like it’s a piece of cake, zigzagging between the rest of the traffic, which is usually a mess of 4 or more lanes on a road with 2 distinct lines for a 3-lane street! It seems like they are both accelerator- and brake-happy at the same time, if that’s possible, and they lurch right up behind the next bus or car so I cringe every time I’m brave enough to watch. There often aren’t seats available, and with some drivers you really get flung back and forth a lot. One of the most impressive things it me is how all women adhering to fashion wear these really pointy high heels and manage to stay more stable than me, with my dilapidated tennis shoes, which are gigantic in proportion by the way! Maybe it’s a lower center of gravity… Anyways, while we’re working with metaphors, I am Frogger when crossing the street and a passenger on Luke Skywalker’s spacecraft on the buses.

Even though the traffic is considerably less in the countryside, you still have to be really careful walking on the roads. The buses and motorcycles rip out of nowhere, and you can never be sure which side of the road they’ll be barreling down. It reminds me of Mr. Toad on The Wind and the Willows. It scares me to see little kids playing in the streets or the adults balancing their bamboo poles to carry their products to the market, and it always looks like the bus just barely misses them. One time I was taking a motorcycle to the bus station, and we passed a fatal motorcycle crash and had to stop for awhile there, and it was so traumatic to have to ride that motorcycle the rest of the way to the station. I try to stick to the motorcycle buggies now, which we call “pa pa che” (in the picture) in the village. Even though it’s not really very sturdy, it makes me feel a little more secure having that extra layer of metal protection. The neighborhood only has bumpy dirt paths, but whenever I go to the market or go jogging I use the bigger paved roads, and being a pedestrian is hilarious. Motorcyclists or buses driving through on their way to a bigger town always crank their neck 180 degrees back to make sure they weren’t seeing things—there aren’t any other foreigners in the township or surrounding towns. My friends say that I have a 100% 回头率huitoulü (“turn head rate”).
Anyways, it’s kind of interesting how these weird metaphors come to mind over things as silly as traffic, and it makes me realize again how important our cultural backgrounds and upbringings are in interpreting new environments and other cultures. I wonder what sorts of images or experiences come to mind for Chinese visitors in my own hometown…