Beijing Day 1

And, BOY, has it been a day. To do this story justice we really need to step back to Brooklyn, which already seems ages ago. Mom was nice enough to take the morning off of work yesterday (?) in order to drop me off at the bus depot. I Then took the bus to Chicago. Seems simple, right? Wrong. It was a local bus - meaning we stopped in Milwaukee, Kenosha, Skokie, Waukegan and downtown Chicago. Estimated travel time: 4 hours. Actual travel time: 6 hours. Don't even get me started on the vaguely homeless youth and my fight with him about his dog.

When I finally arrived in Chicago Karen was kind enough to still be waiting for me at the bus station. A relatively complicated search for a bank ended successfully and we headed to her place and then to dinner in Andersonville. Sushi, yum! BYOB Sushi, even better. It was great and we had a great time.

Back at her place we finally went to bed at about 11:30, and set my alarm for 3:45. Yep, you calculated that correctly 4 hours and 15 minutes of sleep before a long journey. the flight was relatively uneventful, so I'll spare you the details. Upon arriving in Beijing I immediately encountered and quickly learned a substantial cultural difference. That is: my needs are more important than yours. Do you see that line for checking passports? Well, if you don't raise a big stink about my going to the front of it, well then I'm going to do it. I cant raise a stink in Chinese so I just joined them.

The new airport is gorgeous. Huge rooms with soaring ceilings, so much more pleasant that waiting for my bags at SFO. (I'll be posting images of a lot of this stuff on Flickr as soon as I can.) I also had the pleasure of having someone waiting for me with a sign so that I could be driven to my apartment. I felt a lot like a rock star, especially since there were so many people waiting with signs that the line moved very slowly. Imagine 300 people whose needs come first crowding together trying to make sure their passenger finds them. It was a similar feeling to what I would imagine the red carpet at the Oscars is like.

I found my driver and he drove me to my apartment. What I've seen of the city so far is quite interesting, and perhaps not so strangely reminds me of Rostock, Germany. Lots of green space, lots of trees, and then a few really tall buildings.

The apartment is amazing. Frankly, it's way more space than 4 guys working all day need. 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, dining room, a huge living room, two balconies, oh and Marble floors, just kidding, they appear to be terrazzo but they are meant to look like marble. Steve -- he with the most rank in the apartment has the master suite with the hot tub. However, Steve doesn't arrive for 3 days and you know what that means. I'm going to be enjoying some High Life.

Which brings me to dinner with Clair and Marj this evening. First, on the way to dinner we passed a restaurant with a sign advertising "Meat Patties to Explode The Stomach." I kid you not. And, no we didn't eat there. We were just down the street at China Garden. It was a very nice restaurant with decent chinese food, warm beer, and an excellent decor. All very nice.

Afterward, Clair convinced Marj and I that a foot massage would be a great idea. Now I've heard of the Chinese foot massage before, and let me tell you, it was grossly understated. That massage was 90 minutes of amazing. You heard me. 90 minutes. Starting with the shoulders and the neck while the feet were soaking in hot water and herbs the massage therapist beat me to a pulp. Seriously he hit me so many times I was considering filing abuse charges, except it felt soooooooo good. Eventually we turned around and he started working on my feet. They must have been very naughty, for he was spanking them constantly. Not an action I expected in a foot massage, but not a bad idea. Clair even fell asleep for a minute. I'm sure I did too, and I'm not sure if he wasn't spanking my feet to keep me awake. In the end a 90 minute massage cost each of us about $22. I WILL BE GOING BACK.

And that brings us to this very moment. As I write this I still haven't figured out the internet connection here, but I will have it set up tomorrow. If not, I'll go to the coffee shop tomorrow and send out this message. Until then, Siu siu (Thank You). That's the first word I Iearned today.