Archive for April, 2006

Kai Che? Driver’s License?

license.jpgToday, I got my Chinese Driver’s License.

First I had to go get a physical. That entailed giving the guy in the doctors suit 12 RMB and signing my name. He wrote out a paper that said my hearing was excellent, I can see perfectly, not colorblind, and in good health. He managed to collect all that information by.. not looking at me and smoking a cigarette and asking me for the 12 bucks.

So then I went into a room with 50 other Chinese people who needed to take the test on a computer. They give the white-man (…me) a stack of paper with 100 questions in the most obscure, broken English available.

Example question: “When you move to front to pass along cross, you need require: A) don’t stop pedestrian first B) continue move front with cautious C) In the PRC all auto-vehicles must obide by the laws”

(No, really, I shit you not.)

I guessed on about half the questions because I could not decipher this Chinese-English code language. Not to mention the questions like, “What does this sign mean?” and they show a sign with Chinese characters on it.

I finished after about 25 minutes, took the test to the front, the lady glanced at the paper, and said, “Hao le.” She quickly pulled out a blue stamp and imprinted “90″ (which, by the way, was the minimum score before failing) on the face of the test, laminated me a license, now I can drive. Un-fuckin-believable. The whole process (which actually took about 4 hours because of the lunch break) cost me $2 USD.

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Kunming House Video

button.jpgTake a tour of our house in Kunming.

I used my Canon digital for the pictures and the Panasonic video camera with iTunes HD to make this tour. I discovered it takes a long time to make videos, especially when you use film.

I redesigned the blog a little bit, now you can see the time and the weather on the sidebar (right) and I’ll be changing the header image and text soon.

Bob

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Happy Birthday Apple!

images.jpgToday is Apple’s 30th Birthday, help support Apple by buying something.

Okay I’m just trying to copy Eric’s blog.

Routine
Wake up at 7 am and take the dog outside for a poo-poo. He’s good, he almost gets to the outside of the building before he lets one loose. Never eliminates for the house!

Eat at 8:45, then training for 45 minutes with Chun Mei. She is better than I am. I have no power and complain like a little girl. I am going to fix the “hearts” (you’ll see later) and post a video of out house in Kunming, should be up in a few hours.

Bob

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