Dodging Obstacles

What's it like to live in a country with a population problem?  Besides learning to wait in long lines, cut long lines, and yell at other people who cut in line, you also learn how to dodge obstacles. 

There are obstacles on the road.  I am involved in minor bike collisions once or twice a week -- usually my fault since my brakes are only effective for gradually slowing me down, not for coming to a full stop.  Luckily I've perfected my "tumble, roll, and stand up (action hero style)" technique.  The brakes are beyond repair, but I should probably get a bell for my bike. 

There are obstacles in the air.  People fly kites in the park and in the square, so runners: beware.  Certain foreigners have been known to run into kite lines that become invisible to the eye when moving through space, to the annoyance of the kite-flyers.  Chinese people really take their kites seriously.

And there are obstacles in the pool.  I've become a regular fish since coming to the desert, thanks to the Shihezi University pool.  I am proud to say that I have graduated from almost drowning halfway across the pool to swimming multiple laps.  But swimming laps in the China means you have to share your lane with 5, 6, 7, 8, even 9 other swimmers.  That's not counting the thick-waisted middle-aged men who hang out in their speedos at the end of the lane and stand conveniently in your way just as you're finishing a lap, while occasionally commenting on your foreignness and your lack of resting (it's called exercise, people!) to their equally thick-waisted bespeedoed buddies.  Just as you get in the zone, your breathing is measured, your movements are coordinated...out of the blue comes a human figure, straight at you.  I wasn't used to the crowding when I first started swimming (I wasn't used to swimming), so there were a few bumped heads, and a lot of skin grazing skin, feet brushing hands.  People don't seem to mind, because in this country your body will frequently make contact with other people in a way that would be unacceptable in America, where personal space is a right.  Here it's a privilege.

Today at the pool I really worked on dodging.  Dodging people while swimming breaks your rhythm and may also result in an excess of water splashing into your mouth if you breathe while the averted obstacle is kicking past you.  I'm definitely getting better though, and after a few more swims I think I will be able to minimize water intake and keep crawling past without batting a goggled eye. 

After China, I'll be able to dodge almost any obstacle the streets, parks, and pools of America throw at me.  Having my own lane will be such a luxury!