In which literary style is abandoned with the idea that a bad post is better than none

7/16
I played poker at the Syrian embassy. We played some of the more complicated games I can imagine, one of which had a full 10 rounds of betting, involved buying cards to replace those in your hand, and was high-low. We were playing limit games, which made bluffing impractical, so I tried to stick to hands with high probabilities of winning.

The embassy itself was pretty nice. China has a deal in which they give a reciprocal amount of property to countries for their embassies, so if Syria gives China an acre they get that in return. We played in the dining hall, where there were crystal chandeliers and leather couches and lots of marble.

Besides a couple of my coworkers, one of whom knew the Syrian ambassador's son and so was our in, there were a couple of Syrian embassy people (including the son), a coworker's mom, and another coworker's boyfriend. I only made about 20% profit on my buy in (which amounts to $14.40 on $12), partly due to one disastrous hand which I played perfectly, if I do say so myself, except for the losing bit. I think I'll end up going back soon.

7/17-7/19
I finally got more project guidance from Sergio in Vienna, so after meeting with Mr. Ajmal, the UNIDO representative here, I started to work on that. It's a very big project, I think. I've gone from not having anything to do to having so much on my plate I don't know where to begin. I made a list of things I know I want to look at and began with items on it at random. Hopefully that'll give me some momentum.

7/20
Linda's last day at the UNIDO office, so now I'm the youngest person here.

I was adopted for the evening by Rose, now the only person in the office close to my age, and her roommates. I met them at their place, about a 5 minute walk door to door from mine, and we caught a cab.

We went to Rickshaw for dinner, which is a hub of expats. They serve wings and quesadillas and draft beer, all for a hefty markup. It was fun, but I was glad when we left for the next place, which happened to be the other Black Sun.

This Black sun is much more of a dive bar, which is cool, but the gin and tonic I had was weak and not very good. The place was packed, also all with expats, but instead of seats and tables everyone was standing around mingling, and the group spilled out into the street, which was more interesting. It was a going away party for one of Rose's friends, but I wasn't the only random there. My cocktail conversations get more interesting after a few drinks. After my gin and tonic I started going to the convenience store next door to buy bottles of beer. At a bar, a western-sized bottle of Tsingtao might be 10-15RMB, but at the convenience stores a 600mL bottle is usually 2-3. My first beer was 3, but after that I told the shop owner that I'd be back for many more and would only be paying 2 a bottle, which actually worked. I found out he was charging other people 4 a bottle, so I became the beer runner.

I've gotten a little better at flirting with people in bars, but I missed years of practice in college that I now have to make up for.

7/21
Chinese beer gives me a nasty hangover. God knows what they put in the stuff, or fail to filter out.

I went out with my apartment mate to a late lunch at a Korean place nearby. I originally objected to the Korean idea, as I'd done barbecue for lunch twice during the week, but it turned out to be fantastic. We ordered fried rice and stir-fried potato strips with peppers, but the highlight of the meal was a spicy beef soup that I never would have ordered on my own, not being much of a soup person. The broth was rich and the beef was very tender, and the whole thing was so spicy that the back of my head started sweating. In China you commonly mix rice into your bowl of soup, which worked perfectly in this case to tame some of the capsaicin. I think I'll go back to this place frequently, especially as it gets colder. The restaurant itself is as simple as they get, there's free barley tea, it's nearby, and they have the soup.

After lunch I bought my first pirated DVDs on the street- Letters From Iwo Jima and a Zhang Yimou film, The Road Home. I spent the rest of the day watching them and finishing reading Confederacy of Dunces. I planned on going to sleep early and waking up to be a tourist on Sunday.

7/22
I woke up early, but when I looked out the window it was too hazy to go sightseeing, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. Unfortunately, since the tourist site and my lead on used bikes were close together that also meant delaying my bike purchase.

I woke up later and went to Panjiayuan, Beijing's huge open-air market selling just about everything antiqueish and craftsy that you can imagine. I didn't buy anything, just wandered for a couple of hours. I'll probably go back at some point later in the year and buy myself a statue or some paintings; they had some similar to paintings I'd liked at 798.