6:30 PM View

 Back from the school field trip.

Seatbelt buzzers: an annoying innovation.  The authorities want to be safety nazis.  So, passengers riding coach buses must be seatbelted.  To ensure they are, buzzers will sound if someone occupying a seat has not used their seatbelt.  I first encountered these buzzers about two weeks ago on a trip to Turtlehead park with the Jiangyin Foreign Friends group.  Today, I had to deal with them  on a school field trip.  Is this ‘innovation’ very new?  Has it been implemented in the West?

How was the field trip?  Better than working.  The park was okay.  Nothing sensational.  I did two rides.  The first was an indoor roller coaster: forty minutes of waiting and a minute long ride that wasn’t long enough to be scary.  As I stood in line, one of the staff at this ride kept asking me my age.  I told him was 59 and I don’t know if he didn’t understand me or if he thought I was close to some age cutoff.  Anyway, i didnt die of a heart attack. And the thought that I may be considered too old for roller coasters is liberating.  The other ride was a back and forth rotating platform on a u-shaped track which was not at all scary, but fun enough for this old guy, who is no longer craves thrills.  The best part of the day was being asked to pose for photos by middle-school girls and being greeted enthusiastically by primary school children.  The students at my school seem to despise me so it was nice to meet some friendly young people.  The second best part was sitting in the bus and watching the passing cherry verry.  I saw solar panel farms, fish farms, villages, freeways, boat traffic, a scrap facility with a canal inside to allow those long boats to enter and be loaded, malls, people working the fields, and greenhouses.  I still pinch myself to be in China.