Marco Polo

(Written starting on 6/30. I don't feel like going through and editing for style or grammar right now, and I wanted to get something up from China, so here's a start)

I'm in Beijing right now at my friend Scot's apartment. He's generously putting me up for a couple of nights while I look for my own place. I only found out afterwards that he has a roommate, his friend Catlin, who I'd never met, who's been generous and enthusiastic about me being here. They're in the bed, I'm on the couch, and last night a couple of the MISTI China people from one team crashed on the floor. The MISTI crew had bad luck with illness and getting all of their luggage stolen and such, so I get the sense that they're licking their wounds for a couple of days before heading off to their next city for teaching.

6/28

The flight over here was uneventful. Mike gave me a ride to the airport after a 5AM Civilization session. Traffic going the other way was crazy, but not too bad heading west to LAX. They have metro stations between the two sides of the highway, with a lane to pull over and drop people off. I wonder how much use they get. I was stunned by the line of people waiting at the United ticket counter at LAX, but it actually moved along at a decent clip. I was worried about the weight of my bags, which combined was exactly 100 pounds on the way to LA, but I'd redistributed it and figured one of the bags was probably over the max of 50 and the other under. The guy at the ticket counter didn't even bother to put my big duffel bag entirely on the scale, so it came up as thirty odd pounds and he slapped the sticker on it. That saved me from shifting things or carrying more on with me, so that was nice.

Going through security, one of the TSA staff yelled, "Code bravo!", which was then shouted by the rest of the screeners in unison. Everything shut down and they made all of the passengers freeze. I was next to the security control station, so I got to hear descriptions come in over the radio: "5 foot 9, caucasian, brown hair blue eyes, no warrant." Then we had to wait at our gate for maybe 15 minutes because a woman on the previous flight had a heart attack. They had paramedics come to take her off, and we finally started boarding. I was a bit nervous because I only had an hour to make my connection at SFO, but when we were airborne the captain said we'd only be about 10 minutes late, which was reassuring. However, as we started to land the pilot came onto the intercom and said that the entire SFO airport had been put on hold for 30 minutes, so we flew in circles over Santa Cruz. I didn't worry this time because the attendants said that since the whole airport was on hold they'd delay the outgoing flights. Of course when we did touch down I saw on the monitors that my flight was boarding, so I got to sprint a little bit. I was the last person they let onto the bus between terminals ("Pleasse? I have to make my connection to China.") and the last onto the elevator up to the international terminal, so by virtue of sheer luck I made my flight, and my luggage even made it along with me.

6/29

In Beijing I got cash at an ATM at the airport (which seems to have only cost me 50 cents on a $200 withdrawal) and caught a cab downtown to Guomao. I followed the guidebook and suggestions from forums and made sure to get an official cab from the official queue, but I still got ripped off. I didn't feel like arguing with the cabbie over $10 when all of my luggage was in his trunk, so I accepted the fact that I'd been used and got out at the subway stop where I'd asked to be dropped. I had spoken with Scot about meeting him nearby, so after lugging all of my stuff the wrong way down the street through thick crowds and over broken pavement in the sweltering heat and humidity I finally got my bearings and made it to the spot where I was supposed to wait for them. I didn't get up the nerve to ask a random stranger walking by to use their cell phone to say that I'd arrived early (I would have, but no one stopped in front of the building to smoke a cigarette or anything, they all just hurried by), so I just waited. The guard at the building didn't seem to happy that I was hanging out there, but he accepted that I was meeting a friend. He just wouldn't let me sit down.

After half an hour Catlin came and introduced herself, then rescued me from the heat and we caught a cab to their apartment. I showered and changed, then we met Scot at his job in the Soho district. We met up with the 3 MISTI students to get dinner at a Muslim style restaurant, which was my first exposure to real Chinese food. It was pretty good, and definitely more spicy than I was planning on. Scot and Catlin and I were thinking about going to a bar afterwards, but by the time we'd finished with dinner and seen the others on their way I was exhausted and we just went back to their place to sleep.

6/30

On Saturday morning we all woke up early (as in before 7), in part because their room gets a lot sunglight. We all sat around poking at our computers for a bit, then met up with the same 3 people for breakfast. We got steamed buns stuffed with meat, rice porridge, and soy milk all around in a little place just down the street from the apartment, with the bill for 6 people coming out to $2.80. While Catlin and I waited for Scot to chat with the MISTI kids (he's the student organizer for their program) I decided I needed caffeine and so we went to the Starbucks across the street. I don't go to Starbucks in the US, but the dearth of available coffee shops drove me into its insidious embrace. One small coffee? $1.50.

We all met back up at the apartment, and after the MIT-China folks worked out some logistics for their next stop we all went to Wangfujing, a shopping area near Tian'anmen, to buy cell phones and cell phone accessories and such. After much haggling in broken Chinese I managed to get my dream phone, a monochrome brick with almost no functions beyond an alarm, a phone book, and a phone. If the battery life is good I'll be in love. So it's of course difficult to haggle for a phone. There's the phone itself (which I got them down to $46 from $62), the SIM card, and the card you buy to put minutes on the phone. We probably drove them nuts, a bunch of us there trying to get the best price we could and understand what we were buying, all of which was conducted in deficient Chinese. Scot's pretty good, so he sort of had the rest of our backs as we talked.

I split up with them after getting my cell phone, taking the subway up to Dongzhimen to meet a prospective flatmate. It had been drizzling, but at this point it started pouring down rain, so between that and not knowing which direction was east I caught a cab. Fan Xie (Bobby) seems pretty cool. He speaks pretty good English, which is a blessing and a curse, and we have a lot in common along the lines of social preferences. He's also really into art, which is something I hope to take advantage of in my explorations of the city. We had a beer in his living room and I checked out the place, then I told him I'd get back to him and left to meet back up with Scot and Catlin for dinner, which was leftovers from Friday night in their kitchen. We'd already eaten the messy noodle leftovers while walking down the street, so that left chunks of chicken and potato, some eggplant, and flatbread. They also don't have any silverware or chopsticks yet, so I ate with a measuring spoon. We decided to go out to a bar after failing the previous night, but we were all tired so Catlin suggested we take a quick nap. So at 8ish we fell asleep. I woke up at 2AM and took out my contacts and brushed my teeth, then went back to bed. We were all up at 6:30 or 7, feeling pretty sheepish and old.