Sunday, November 18, 2012
Taxis...
Ahhh...taxis! They have been a very
interesting thing to navigate in Hong Kong. Here, they are extremely affordable
and bring so much joy to my heart! I love just getting into the car (when I know
that the driver understands me) and being taken to my destination, usually in
half the time that it would take me if I get on a bus or a train...or often
both. I get to sit on a cushioned seat, my kids are belted in and contained,
and, depending on my company, it's usually quiet. Now there is still the
erratic driving. But in my experience so far, it's not fast driving...it's
pushing the accelerator, then taking the foot off the accelerator...on, off, on,
off.
Now, with our family of seven, we have run into the issue of either squeezing in or just getting two taxis. There is a five person limit, and we try to respect that, but early on when we tried to get away with one taxi (after all, we all fit since Abby is more of a half, and we don't count Sarah since she doesn't take up her own seat, yet) we learned our lesson. We ordered by phone a taxi from the kids' school to home(about a 15 min drive, 50 min public transportation), and when the car got there, the driver was on the phone. So, we all piled in...Andy had Sarah in the carrier...and all of them were in the back...I was in the front. We were driving about two minutes, when the driver got off his phone call and started counting us in English...1,2,3,4,5...6.."Oh, no...can't do six" Then, he looked in the back one more time and realized what was in the carrier... "Seven! Oh, can't do seven!" He looked at me, and by then we were on the highway. I was wondering if he was going to leave us on the side of the road. I asked him if he could take us to an MTR station close by, and he agreed. So Abby, Emma and I got in a new taxi and the other four stayed in the old taxi and we all made it home safely. Lesson learned...but we still laugh at the driver's reaction when it comes up.
Of course, the language barrier can be a little intimidating. One of the best tools is to have our frequent destinations written down in English and Chinese. But there are advantages to not being understood. Like when your children are arguing, or asking me if we have too many people in the car, or one of them asks about the smell, or another one says they are bleeding because they itched their bug bite too much and they needed a tissue. But then again, you never know when you are being understood. This past week, Abby, Sarah and I took a taxi from the train station. Abby loves to take a taxi because then she doesn't have to walk from the shuttle stop. We got into a taxi and the driver, after driving a bit, was asking in very broken English where to go. Luckily, I have taken that trip enough I could give some directions. But the funny thing was, Abby is into making up songs, so she was singing. Well, we found ourselves behind the Hong Lok Yuen shuttle. So, Abby started singing, "Follow the bus, follow the bus, taxi, follow the bus." I started cracking up, and the driver turned around and asked, "Should I follow the bus?"
Another interesting thing is that there are two different colored taxis. Our simple understanding is that the red taxis go anywhere in Hong Kong, and the green taxis just stay in the New Territories. For the most part, we have found that to be true. But today, when I was going to my parent teacher conference for Abby, Andy and I thought that only a red taxi would take me to the school...but when Andy called there were none available. So I took a green taxi to an MTR station in the middle. Andy told me to catch a red taxi there. But when I asked a red taxi to take me to the school, the driver told me that I needed to take a green taxi-and he was right. Then, when I was done with the conference, there was only a red taxi waiting. So, I pulled out my address written in Chinese and asked the driver if he could take me home. He nodded and said sure. So, we haven't really figured things out.
Finally, one more unrelated story. As I stated earlier, I met with Abby's teacher today. She told me that Abby has fit in marvelously and she couldn't be happier. She said that the only thing she could work on was talking with confidence in front of the class, especially when she volunteers. Then she told me that Abby was in charge of the weather this week. That job entails the student to decide what the weather is and share it with the class. Well, Abby told the class that the weather was hot. Her teacher asked if she was sure....you see, all of her classmates were wearing long-sleeves and sweaters. Abby told her teacher that she was wearing short sleeves(she was the only one) and that she was hot. So her teacher agreed. I told her teacher that I agreed with her, too. It has been in the 80's all week...but people here are preparing for "cold weather". We laughed a lot. I'm sure there will be many more differences to laugh at in the future...the key is how we respond, and thank goodness the Lord has allowed us to see things with humor.
Sarah found her hands
this week...and loves them!
Big sister Emma reads a
favorite to Sarah.
Josh, Grace and Abby
spending some time on a lazy Sunday afternoon
.jpg)
Red and green taxis...hmmm...which one do we
take?
Our Sarah Jane turned 3
months this past week...where has the time gone?
Now, with our family of seven, we have run into the issue of either squeezing in or just getting two taxis. There is a five person limit, and we try to respect that, but early on when we tried to get away with one taxi (after all, we all fit since Abby is more of a half, and we don't count Sarah since she doesn't take up her own seat, yet) we learned our lesson. We ordered by phone a taxi from the kids' school to home(about a 15 min drive, 50 min public transportation), and when the car got there, the driver was on the phone. So, we all piled in...Andy had Sarah in the carrier...and all of them were in the back...I was in the front. We were driving about two minutes, when the driver got off his phone call and started counting us in English...1,2,3,4,5...6.."Oh, no...can't do six" Then, he looked in the back one more time and realized what was in the carrier... "Seven! Oh, can't do seven!" He looked at me, and by then we were on the highway. I was wondering if he was going to leave us on the side of the road. I asked him if he could take us to an MTR station close by, and he agreed. So Abby, Emma and I got in a new taxi and the other four stayed in the old taxi and we all made it home safely. Lesson learned...but we still laugh at the driver's reaction when it comes up.
Of course, the language barrier can be a little intimidating. One of the best tools is to have our frequent destinations written down in English and Chinese. But there are advantages to not being understood. Like when your children are arguing, or asking me if we have too many people in the car, or one of them asks about the smell, or another one says they are bleeding because they itched their bug bite too much and they needed a tissue. But then again, you never know when you are being understood. This past week, Abby, Sarah and I took a taxi from the train station. Abby loves to take a taxi because then she doesn't have to walk from the shuttle stop. We got into a taxi and the driver, after driving a bit, was asking in very broken English where to go. Luckily, I have taken that trip enough I could give some directions. But the funny thing was, Abby is into making up songs, so she was singing. Well, we found ourselves behind the Hong Lok Yuen shuttle. So, Abby started singing, "Follow the bus, follow the bus, taxi, follow the bus." I started cracking up, and the driver turned around and asked, "Should I follow the bus?"
Another interesting thing is that there are two different colored taxis. Our simple understanding is that the red taxis go anywhere in Hong Kong, and the green taxis just stay in the New Territories. For the most part, we have found that to be true. But today, when I was going to my parent teacher conference for Abby, Andy and I thought that only a red taxi would take me to the school...but when Andy called there were none available. So I took a green taxi to an MTR station in the middle. Andy told me to catch a red taxi there. But when I asked a red taxi to take me to the school, the driver told me that I needed to take a green taxi-and he was right. Then, when I was done with the conference, there was only a red taxi waiting. So, I pulled out my address written in Chinese and asked the driver if he could take me home. He nodded and said sure. So, we haven't really figured things out.
Finally, one more unrelated story. As I stated earlier, I met with Abby's teacher today. She told me that Abby has fit in marvelously and she couldn't be happier. She said that the only thing she could work on was talking with confidence in front of the class, especially when she volunteers. Then she told me that Abby was in charge of the weather this week. That job entails the student to decide what the weather is and share it with the class. Well, Abby told the class that the weather was hot. Her teacher asked if she was sure....you see, all of her classmates were wearing long-sleeves and sweaters. Abby told her teacher that she was wearing short sleeves(she was the only one) and that she was hot. So her teacher agreed. I told her teacher that I agreed with her, too. It has been in the 80's all week...but people here are preparing for "cold weather". We laughed a lot. I'm sure there will be many more differences to laugh at in the future...the key is how we respond, and thank goodness the Lord has allowed us to see things with humor.
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