My New Wheels

So, as you know, I have a driver. And for those of you who imagine a man in uniform with a driving cap who clicks his heels when at your beck and call (which I admit I envisioned when I found out we had to have a driver while living in China) let me set the record straight -- it's nothing like that. It is a nuisance.

It is so inconvenient just like everything else is in China. It is inconvenient to share a driver with your husband who works 30 minutes away from your home. It is inconvenient to be stuck without a car when you realize you forgot to buy eggs. It is inconvenient when your kid's dance class begins at 4:30 but you haven't used the driver the whole day so you make him come in from his home an hour away just to take her on a 5 minute drive. It is inconvenient that there is one "NON-DRIVE DAY" per week (thanks to the Chinese government's efforts to reduce traffic) so you have to reschedule your son's doctor appointment and find another day to go search for the alarm clock and the vacuum (the two last items on my original "Need Now" list.) And not only is it inconvenient -- it's annoying. It makes you dependent on one more person which means one more person to schedule around, to coordinate with, to endure. There are 2 things that I am finding hard to get accustomed to here in China -- #1 the driver and #2 the money. (Don't worry, I will dedicate 2 more blog posts on those separate subjects later.) But this is not about the inconvenient, annoying, make-you-feel-like-a-15 yr old girl-being-driven-to-the-mall driver-situation, this is about the way I snubbed my nose at the shackles of dependency. I bought me my own set of wheels. Introducing the TUK-TUK:

Here it is in all it's glory. Since I bought it without the aid of my Chinese interpreting husband (another step toward independence) I have just a vague idea of its capabilities or how it works. I just know that it's electric, I can cram all my kids onto it, and it goes faster than the plethora of bikes and scooters I encounter on the road. I love it! Despite my efforts to call it "The Silver Bullet" by one and all, it is simply referred to as the TUK-TUK which isn't a Chinese phrase at all. It's mainly used for picking up the kids from school and it's funny to line up with the Mercedes and BMWs and the hundreds of Buick Minivans that dominate the private school parking lot. We get a lot of stares (which is typical anyway) but there is something about seeing a mom with her kids racing through a neighborhood on a souped-up electric wagon that puts a smile on one's face. And it's even better when Baby Cal joins us while strapped to me in the Baby Bjorn and the other 3 kids whooping out loud whenever we go over a speed bump. I was very ambitious the other day when the kids had a holiday from school and I thought it would be a fun treat to drive them to the local McDonald's. Well, I underestimated the distance and the windchill factor so by the time we got there we were windblown, chapped, human popsicles that not even a Happy Meal could cheer up. Thankfully I was wise enough to leave the baby at home. But I have a feeling that if I love it now in the spring-but-feels-like-winter weather I am going to adore it when it gets a tad bit warmer.

Fortune Cookie say: May life throw you a pleasant curve!