What's wrong with this picture? Ghetto Fabulous. Do you see how there's a whole portion of the bike missing? If you think driving while texting or on the phone is bad, you need to experience the Beijing bike experience. People are not watching while riding their bikes, while carrying an umbrella to block the sun, texting, listening to music, and talking on the phone all at the same time!
UPDATE: Turns out I spoke too soon. The bike in the picture above may be missing a part, but my bike just got stolen earlier with 2 days left of the program. My bike was old and broken, but apparently that's what's IN these days. Currently I know at least 6 people who have had their bikes stolen. 1 person has only been in Beijing for 2 weeks and has already had her bike stolen twice. 1 of my classmates got his bike stolen 4 times already and has since given up on replacing it. The most hilarious bike stealing case has been when the thief cut off my classmates lock and then put his own lock on the stolen bike so that it would seem as though the bike was actually his. Awesome. Note all of the stolen bikes were 2nd hand bikes in very poor condition. With 2 more days to go, I have decided just to suck it up and wake up early to wake to class. Oh well, I guess my China experience would not have been complete without it. After all, you haven't been to China until you've gotten something important stolen!
As I mourn my 2nd hand bike, I leave you with some street food.
Intestine on a stick. I actually had no clue what they were selling but it looked gross so I wanted to give it a try.
I then proceeded to another "restaurant" -- haha aka a grill on top of a bike -- and picked up more normal items like sasauage, eggplant, veggies, squid, etc.
And now I'm back to mourning my bike. I leave you with the conversation I had with my teacher once I found out my bike was stolen:
Me: "My bike got stolen right outside of our building."
Teach: "How many locks did you have on it?"
Me: "1..."
Teach: "Yeah that's not enough."
Happy Eatings!