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well, as of yesterday one third of my time here in china has passed. reflecting on my first tri-(something) (or we could call it a 'month') here, i think of many funny stories, many odd realities, and many stark contrasts to the society and culture of home. i would classify all of my experiences here as 'good' because even the ones that were miserable or gross or frustrating were part of the 'world cultural education' that i sought when i started this thing. i think my eyes have been opened to the incredible opportunities and freedoms that i have been blessed with and how similar and yet how heart-breakingly different the worldviews of a 23 year old person in this country can be to my own. as i make more friends and deepen relationships with current friends i look forward to the exchange of ideas that will hopefully open eyes and break down walls. well, enough of this serious crud, time for a funny story!!! so i went bike riding for the first time yesterday. i don't know if i have painted a realistic picture of beijing for you, but it is important for you to know for the purposes of this story that traffic here is absolutely nuts. cars, buses, and bicycles all fight for the same roadways and there is no such thing as entitlement or right-of-way. i get incredibly frustrated with this when i am riding the bus and we slam on our brakes because some idiot on a bike pulls out in front of us, but i figure, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. we went on a pretty long ride, my new zealand and chinese friends and i, and i was given a pretty sporty mountain bike much like we would have in the states (most people here ride the more sissyfied 'grandma' bike) my chinese friend is very cautious and timid but my new zealand friend is quite the daredevil so it made for an adventure. brenden (the new zealander) and i would be jumping curbs and flying out into the street to weave through traffic and leave our poor chinese friend on his grandma bike behind. when he did catch up he would say 'you mustn't do that, it is dangerous' but you've got to live a little every now and then. no one really drives fast, and they are so used to people going in every direction that they are prepared to brake for you if you are in front of them. it was really alot of fun, figuring out ways to get from this street to this street, jumping curbs and riding on the wrong side of the road, weaving between lots of other bikers and pedestrians, and the whole thing without slowing down.* watch out lance, i'm coming for ya...

*mom: please note that though i felt i was defying death i was never even close enough to doing so that a car honked at me...wait i take that back...well, i wasn't that close to that car anyways.