First, a word about this blog. I will not be posting these every day, as I may have implied by my posting these every day so far. Tomorrow we start working, and I just don’t think a) I’ll have the time, and b) you’ll be even slightly interested in most of it. Ok, that’s settled.
--My first full day in Beijing was eventful. I awoke bolt upright at 6 in the morning. 6. In the morning. That’s about 6 hours earlier than a usual Sunday. I guess I’m still lagged with jet. I knew that some of the people in my program had spoken about visiting the Forbidden city today, but I also knew that most of them had gone out after midnight to hit the bars. Thus my reluctance to really put an emphasis on going through my morning routine. I ate a bit of in-room breakfast and wrote a little bit until 10:05, when an ominous knock tore me from my zen-like state. It was Linda. They were all gathered in the lobby ready to go. Crap. I took an impressively short shower and dressed (remembering to grab my camera at the last second) to meet them just as they were walking out the door. I looked around for a cab, but was informed that we were, in point of fact, walking to the Forbidden City. But, um, guys, that’s like, um, 40 km away. Nonsense, Chris, it’s just an hour or so walk from here. Sigh. I guess they can walk at 40 km/hr. Actually, it was a nice stroll, the weather having dumped its rain in the past few days, leaving behind a beautiful clear-brown day. It felt so much like May-ish Los Angeles that I instinctively began looking for a Starbucks. There’s one in the Forbidden City. I kid you not.
--Upon our arrival at the City of Doom I was completely knocked over by the sight of the impressive 40-foot high red wall that surrounds the place. I scrambled through my pockets for the little camera, pulled it out of the case, and turned it on. Turned it on. Turned. It. On. What. Is. This. Nonsense. Apparently, after I charged the battery the night before, I somehow accidentally activated it as I was putting it into my bag before I went to bed. The whole battery drained overnight. Sigh. So I had to use my iPhone for a camera. In the Forbidden City. 2 Megapixels is not quite enough to capture this place, to say the least. You really need, like, 2000 Ultrapixels, or something. And I don’t even think they make that yet. But anyway, we got through the palace, then scaled the mountain ‘o pagodas, which was a good place to look out over the city, forbidden and otherwise.
--Also, I think I ate my first dog today. It came in sausage form, and was planted squarely on a bamboo stick, looking enticingly like a nondescript hot dog. It most certainly was not. Several of us got them at the same time, and a few yards down from the vendor, you found several of us gagging and coughing and pointing at once-bitten hot dogs with horrified looks on our faces, and then a few yards down from that you found several once-bitten dog dogs on sticks shoved unceremoniously in the trash can. Word of note: do not buy hot dogs on sticks in China.
--Finally, something weird is happening to my blog. I can post, so far, but I cannot visit it once it’s posted. I’m fairly certain the Chinese government has blocked my blog. Like, for real. Hmmm… Hope you all can read it back home. Oh well. I am no longer responsible for any typos or grammatical hooha.
-c
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