I'm done with driving, really

After what I've witnessed here in Beijing these past few days (from the safety of a van or a bus, and not by foot) I'm not entirely sure that when I return to San Diego that I'll ever drive again. Seriously, I think I've developed some sort of astigmatism about driving after watching what might be the worst drivers in the world nearly drive over, under, around and through each other this week.

And the traffic here is awful, making a commute on I-405 in Seattle at rush hour (for my Northwest peeps) or a pass through PB (that's Pacific Beach, my friends) on a Saturday night look like a stroll.

Anyway, enough with the vent. And really, giving up driving might be hard to pull off unless the dog gets her license. But that would certainly cut into Sofie's sleep time, so I guess I'm stuck behind the wheel for a while.

Hey, Corey, how about China? Still enjoying myself here, despite the near brushes with death. And did I mention how every van or bus driver we've had this week has gotten lost at some point and that they want to argue with you about it ... in Chinese? Here's a picture from today on our way to the stadium for a press conference. Looks like Beirut, not Beijing!

You can certainly check my stories out on the Padres site but we visited a school clinic today where Padres Adrian Gonzalez, Justin Germano and Heath Bell worked with kids. Pretty neat. If baseball is to really grow here, they need to start with these kids early.

We were at the stadium today for a few hours for a press conference and workout. The stadium is pretty spartan, though that's somewhat expected considering the Chinese are going to celebrate the Olympics by tearing the stadium down after the summer games for a hotel.

Maybe these should build a monorail instead, you know, to avoid all the traffic. Man, that's brilliant.

Cheers, Corey