Laura came. That was nice. We went to Beijing by overnight train. We shared our car on the way there with an organized tour group of exceptionally rowdy older Chinese ladies squawking away the whole time. I really thoroughly enjoyed watching them. My twelve hour trip consisted of me either sleeping or watching those ladies while listening to my Ipod. The train ride back was nice too. We had to buy tickets in a better class cabin because the cheapest beds were sold out so our beds were softer, we had more space, it was quieter, and I bought a bunch of paper strips so I could make origami stars. I taught Laura and the two Germans sharing our cabin how to make them too.
Between the two train rides some other stuff happened too. Right after we checked into our hostel we convinced a cab driver to take us to the Great Wall, wait for two hours, and bring us back. The Great Wall was amazing. We went to the section at Mutianyu, took the cable car up on a bright sunny Friday then walked the length of a few towers. And it was so uncrowded. Surprisingly so. We even made up a little song sung to the tune of “We’ve got the whole world in our hands.” It went: "We’ve got the whole wall to ourselves, we’ve got the whole [expletive] wall to ourselves" etc etc but with more creative curse words each time. It was amazing (I almost wrote monumental but then I realized that sounds kind of silly). After a few towers’ worth of walking we slid down the slide! It wasn’t as shady as I’d hoped it would be. They even had guards stationed before the more perilous turns. One of which yelled at me in Chinese because I was going too fast.
In addition to the Great Wall we also ate a tofu Peking Duck at an amazing vegetarian Buddhist restaurant. And on this “food street” that had crazy food like scorpions on a stick I ate a deep fried bird’s nest which didn’t really taste anything like I would imagine it to—twigs and bark and such. Now I’m researching it and realizing that the bird’s nest is a special one from a type of bird called an edible-nest swiftlet where the nest is made of solidified saliva. Finding that out I was initially disgusted and then sort of impressed with myself, but I’m pretty sure those bird’s nests were fake because the internet tells me that the nests are usually extremely expensive. And I doubt the legitimacy of the street vendors' claims after they told me like 4 different organ-looking things on sticks were dog penises. Is that just the big time seller to white women or something? I think they just got a kick out of yelling penis at me even though one of the skewers was definitely stuck through kidneys.
Half of a vegetarian duck.
That would be candy-coated fruit of some sort. Don't know exactly what kind. Something we don't have in America. It looks like I eat like Dad here. But it's just me getting out the pit.Beijing was cool. As someone who studied cities I really liked it because it had that feeling of place about it that Shanghai lacks. There were monuments and squares and old buildings. But I’m glad I live in Shanghai. One really cool thing about Beijing are the hutong, the old style buildings with narrow alleyways.
A man writing with water on the sidewalk in a park in Beijing. He was 89 years old and very sweet. He let me practice my (English) calligraphy with his sponge/paintbrush.It was good to have Laura here for a week. Good because she is like home, good because she is funny and sweet, good because she brought me girl scout cookies. Hard because my financial troubles were on my mind the whole time, hard because I reverted to the self I am when I am with my family which is a version of myself I don’t like as much. I'm glad I got to share the experience of sliding down the Great Wall with her.
It really was.
Me on the toboggan. Ignore how phallic the brake handle is. Oops now you can't.
Our driver who took us from the forbidden city to the food street in Beijing in his tiny little motorized cart. We sat facing backwards like how we did in the "way back" in the station wagon. I stuck my hand up in front of his face for this shot. You can see the wall of the forbidden city in the background out of the window.--------------------
I picked up a side job in the past few weeks. I write for a Chinese celebrity gossip blog now for money. Not much money, but at least it keeps me writing. This past week was a little rough emotionally and it was also the first week of me posting for the blog (gossip-china.com) so it isn’t as funny as I hope for it to be eventually. So from now on if you hear of any Chinese celebrity gossip, send it on my way.A highlight of my week recently has been the tutoring session I have on Wednesdays with a group of businessmen who are all pretty young--late twenties--with advanced English abilities. They want to learn how to converse with Americans and slang and stuff because they have a big conference coming up. I spent a long time during one class explaining to them how, in America, it is uncomfortable in a professional situation to be told by someone that you just met at, say, a conference in China, that you are beautiful or sexy. We spent another two hour meeting talking about Chinese folklore including the Chinese traditional beliefs about the afterlife which was really interesting. And they make me laugh. I love it when I have the chance to really connect with Chinese people.
Last night I went to my first Chinese-language concert. It was sort of an accident because I originally went with a friend who knew some people playing in the opening act (an English language band) which we ended up missing because we got there too late. And I surprisingly really enjoyed the Chinese band. Sound Fragment, from Beijing. They sound like a Chinese Radiohead, and I totally don’t mind that they are copycats because I love Radiohead and now I have a CD in Chinese that I can listen to signed by the lead singer. And the club was full of really cool Chinese people.
Tomorrow I am getting my hair "treated" which means slightly straightened just to loosen up some of the kinks. I'm a little nervous. I might end up bald. But if I do that just gives me an excuse to wear my Tina Turner wig everyday, right? Seriously if my hair gets really messed up after the ten dollar treatment I'm getting I will be sad. My hair is my one vanity.
I feel obligated to say something about Stephanie for her Mom's benefit. Um, she is staying for another year? I'm not.
