Beijing Traffic / 北京的交通

Here are two videos, one at night and one in the daytime, showing what the traffic is like outside my office. These are pretty typical driving habits. I’ve seen much worse.

这两个视频，一个晚上拍的，另外一个白天拍的，都给你介绍以下北京的交通怎么样。他们开车的习惯都很地道。我看见了更坏的交通。

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjM2NTIzOTE2.html

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjM1Njk4NzMy.html

祝你腊八节快乐！

Today is the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. In the lunar calendar the months don’t have names, except the twelfth month, which is called “La”. Today we drink a soup made from a whole variety of rice and a whole variety of beans. If you know what congee is, then you know roughly what I’m talking about. My teacher tells me it’s primarily a northern thing, but then the other stuff she told me about the festival doesn’t match what I found online so who knows.

Also curious for the geeks in the crowd: since my IP address originates in China, Google does their thing with the logo on the top of the search page, as you can see below.

Where’s Paul? / 郝博在哪儿？

Here are a couple of maps and a video giving you an introduction to the place I live and work. In case it’s not clear, I’m at the red ‘A’ on the map. Also, in the video, when I talk about weather, what I really mean is pollution.

这些地图和视频要给你介绍一下我住工作的地方。我在那个红色A。在视频上我说的天气，我的意思是污染。

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjM1NjkwOTg4.html

Mercedes-Benz Hates Roses?

This is an ad for the B-Class Mercedes that I keep seeing on TV here in China. I understand the basic idea. A man grows an entire field of flowers to show his love for his wife. Then when they’re in bloom, he surprises her one day and drives her to the field in a Mercedes B-Class. From this we all learn that romantic men drive a Mercedes B-Class, as opposed to manly men who drive a Dodge Ram. Or something like that.

What I don’t understand is that at the end of the commercial, the man drives his B-Class through the field, mowing down a whole bunch of roses in the process. What’s romantic about mowing down roses? Or does this mean that men who drive a B-Class don’t think far enough ahead to leave space to park the car in the field of roses? Someone needs to fix this.