3 Amazing Things

I temporarily interrupt these vacation posts to tell you three amazing things.

Here they are...

1. I drove to the hospital to get some stitches out. I called in the morning to find out if I had skin cancer. Their answer? "We have no idea. We can't find your files." (Files? Aren't we using a computer?) "Come to the front desk. We'll sort it out." But this is not the amazing thing. I did get my stitches out, and since I am big girl now, I did not cry, though it did hurt. This is not the amazing thing either. I do not have skin cancer. For that I am thankful, and it is amazing, but it is not the amazing thing about which this post is dedicated. That was just background. So, here it is. I drove to the hospital and stopped at a red light. There were 4 lanes of traffic going the same direction as me. On the extreme right lane of the 4 lanes, a taxi wedged by (where there really wasn't a lane at all), then darted into the intersection in front of all of us stopped there, and threw his car into a U-turn, making the oncoming cars slam on their brakes. Now, here is the amazing thing...no one around me batted an eye.

2. About 15 seconds after this feat, the light turned yellow. Now, first I must explain that in this country the light turns yellow just before it turns green. It says in its own way, "GET READY TO RUMBLE!!! YOU ARE ABOUT TO GET TO THROW IT INTO FIRST AND FLY DOWN THE ROAD." You are technically not supposed to GO on yellow, but you are supposed to get all excited about almost being able to GO. So, anyway, the light turned yellow. A literal nanosecond after it turned yellow, all the cars behind me honked. I guess that was just in case I might have glanced down at a fingernail or something and missed the pre-warning yellow light telling me it is almost time to GO. So, the amazing thing to me (this is now #2) is that the illegal U-turn putting many people's lives in danger wasn't a biggie, but the potential 1/2 second someone might have had to wait in the event that I did not see the pre-warning yellow light DID evoke extreme emotion.

3. And the #3 amazing event is that when all that happened, I smiled. I think the manual said at some point, "It may take time, but you WILL eventually adjust to the host culture." I think I'm getting there.