August 23

Last night I went to a Jiu Ba with Ling and Jenn. It was kind of surreal cuz I was just playing with my PDA and immediately when I looked up, there they were. I haven't seen them for more than a month and it felt like yesterday when we left for China. We danced, the music was ok, but I liked just chatting with them afterwards.

I realized that Beijing has alot of underpasses and they use more paper money than coins.

So today I went to CET Beijing and ate "Hua Hua X Jia" s food. I haven't had the chance to savor xi fang de cai (western food). Now that Siwen is asleep, I'm going to explore the city. I hope I don't get lost cuz I don't have a map, but today is the perfect day to understand the Beijing culture before my Friday trip to Shanghai. My roommates in my youth hostel are nice. One is from Nanjing, the other from Wenzhou, the other from Shanghai, one is from Tai Yuan (mei kuang / coal mine- actually she's from america but she worked there as a teacher), and they are really interesting. One came to Beijing to see her friend play in a band, the others are travelers.

I like Beijing, it looks really easy to navigate but I need to look for a map.

I miss Caoyin so much, XiaoHuangDi come to Beijing soon!