CRASH!

Well, it was inevitable. One of us was going to get hit by a car or something! Don't worry, there is not bad ending, but read on to hear about how life really works here in Shanghai...

Wednesday started off great as my Mandarin teacher was sick (that is not what made the day good) and having a whole morning free, I decided to meet Kathy, Angie, and Ceyda for a long walk. After our healthy walk, we decided to meet for lunch. So I headed back to the house, took a shower, and jumped on my bike to head back to Hongfong lu. I had exited our villa entrance and was crossing the street at YuShan and Mingyue. The cross light showed about 5 seconds left when I was 10 feet from the bike lane entrance on the other side of the street (you have to go up a ramp to the "sidewalk" which allows for bikes and walkers to get out of the street). There happened to be quite a bit of traffic stopped on my right at the light. Unfortunately it meant that the scooter that had decided to run the red light didn't see me coming and I didn't see him until I passed the truck that was stopped at the light. CRASH! He slammed his breaks as my front tire came into view, but he still wiped me out! Luckily I partially jumped clear and only took the bike seat to my right rear thigh. He laid his scooter down, which was a pretty good size. All in all, his scooter the bulk of the wreck. It leaked some gas and the left side muffler got some dents and scrapes. But my poor bike (just the Decathlon cheap one thank god) ended up with a bent rear tire. He jumped up from his scooter immediately and I am sure was thinking "CRAP I JUST HIT A WESTERN WOMAN! I GO TO JAIL LONG TIME! But I told him no problem and being American, I apologized for not seeing him. Probably not a lot I could do about that, but that's my Midwestern values coming out! I limped the bike back to the house and parked it. The funny thing was that I had to change bikes and head to lunch! And no, I did not have on a helmet. Not defending, but in this case a helmet would have done nothing. I was much more likely to have my leg broken if it had stayed between my bike and the scooter.

Now I have to remove my tire and figure out how to get it fixed...