Jigga

"Jigga, dough chow tien?" I pointed at the child seat I wanted, asking what it would cost to have it installed on the back of my bike. The one I wanted, and would soon use to carry Bennett around in, sat covered in a film of Beijing dust amidst other toys, bike parts, odds and ends, slippers and some baskets of fruit.

I heard, "negga leosher." ** Note that this is Koch's Chinglesh, what the real conversation should look like is below.

** Zhège duōshǎo qián

Nàgè Liù shí

or

這個多少錢

那個 六十年

It was taking me long time to process his response with my finger counting. I pointed to each digit in turn and mumbled the number in Koch-ese, "Yi, Are, San, Sir, Wo, Leo, Chi, Ba, Jo, Shur. In Pinyin, the fairly young attempt to give the traditional Chinese characters an equivalent sound in Romanized languages these numbers are Yī èr sān sì wǔ liù qī bā jiǔ shí, and in traditional characters, the only form of Chinese read by most of the locals I have encountered, 一二三四五六七八九十

He wasn't going to wait for my noodling it to end, so he resorted to writing in the dust on his table, 60, indicating that it would be 60 Yuan installed. Just under 10 USD.

I nodded in agreement, then he went to work on my bike installing the seat so that Bennett would have a safe means of transport from the house for our local excursions.

Generally we ride bikes or walk wherever we need to go, or if the journey is too far or the roads too dangerous, we call a taxi. But whenever we can, we bike. Bennett in his little seat on the back of my bike, Parker and Devon on their bikes and Joanne on her new fancy ride. She needed it because she bikes the 14 Kilometers to the embassy at least three days a week. She is brave. I biked on the major roads at midday once and was nervous, she hits is at rush hour both ways. We bike to the bus stop every morning; we also bike to the grocery store, the restaurant, the bar, the DVD shop – everywhere.

I actually went on record with many people here, including my bride, that I thought I could get by for two years without a car. "Why bother? I can get everywhere I need either on a bike or in a dirt-cheap cab, the driving here is an awful mess, the car will certainly get trashed by the crappy drivers, I'm losing weight, I mean really, I don't even think we need one."

nom nom nom nom nom nom - Eating my words!

Thanks to my friend and neighbor who conveyed on me the freedom of the car keys! They were going away for the weekend, "Dude, use the car while we are gone."

"Well, I don't wanna..."

"Bro, I'm parking it in your driveway; here is the key. Use it."

He left me his truck. Pretty kind and sympathetic gesture towards us car-less folks.  Two months with no wheels, then having the ability to get out there and go – OMG - I felt an exhilaration like I was driving for the first time. I took the truck everywhere while they were gone. "No bus today boys, I'll drive you to school." I took the truck, not because I had to, but because I could. The five minute walk to the clubhouse...Drove it! Hell, I made up things that we needed, just so that I could drive to get them, "Baby, I think we need some printer ink."

"Hey boys, you want to go check at all the DVD stores to see if they have Rango?"

"Honey, don't call the dry cleaners to come and pick it up, I'll just run it over there."

This truck was a beast too!  I loved it!  Chinese made, Great Wall  Motors, of course. It felt like you could run into or over anything without a problem.  That is a comfortable feeling considering the driving "rules" around here.  The five speed transmission clunked into gear, and it made all kinds of weird noises, squeaks and rattles, but what more do you want. How about a freakish color scheme, silver with purple Chinese words splashed on the sides, and a few panels which were mostly body filler. No back seatbelts, at least I couldn't find them. It did have a boomin' system that the ipod could dock into. So windows down, music bumping, the Koch's cruised Shunyi all weekend in The Great Wall.

While I love the biking and walking - it makes me feel great and healthy, and is good family time - I think my three little days of being back behind the wheel after two months, just driving to Jenny Lou's grocery store, the feeling that I could just GO; that feeling makes me hope that pretty soon I'll be on a Chinese car lot, kicking the tires on a weathered Great Wall of my own and asking the seller, "Jigga, Jigga, dough chow tien?"  

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Paul Koch (@pkoch9999)

http://dugahole.blogspot.com/

+151 1692-2787