Eric's Beijing Diary

Had another bike crash last night. Elisha ('Elisha' is how you spell 'Alicia' using Mandarin phonemes and the Pinyin alphabet) and I were heading down toward the Haidian bridge on the way to our Thursday evening fellowship. The guy we collided with was riding an electric bicycle, and you would think he would be the "winner" in a contest with an ordinary bike like mine. But he was complaining furiously about his hand. Elisha kept telling me that he just wanted money, and that we should leave, but I didn't really want to ride off leaving him angry. The funny thing about it is that he was doing exactly the opposite of what he should have been doing if he wanted to make me think he was hurt. He should have been holding his hand hanging limp and wincing in pain. Instead, he was moving it about vigorously to show how bad he was hurt. In fairness, I guess it's possible that he really was hurt, and was trying to make sure he was OK. Anyway, a cop saw us standing there and came up. He didn't seem to be too sympathetic to the guy, but he suggested that I give him 50 kuai, so I did.