Monday, May 19, 2008

A weekend away from this blog

I like the idea of leaving the computer shut off on weekends in order to enjoy more fully what China has to offer. In this and the next entry: Beijing nightlife.

We left off with me at Jiujiu's hotel, the Jade Palace. In the evening, a friend (Karen) -- a Fulbright student studying art in Shanghai -- met me at the hotel and we left to meet up with another friend (Char) for dinner. Afterwards Char and I went to a bar in Sanlitun, the name of which I can't remember -- will have to take pictures of place names, Memento-style. After that I went to another place, Space, to meet another Fulbrighter studying the Chinese media. This guy somehow knows me from Overland Park, but I don't remember how... maybe Chinese school? When he and Karen were going through Fulbright orientation she recognized the name of his hometown, Overland Park, and when she asked if he knew me, he recognized my name. Small world.

(Sanlitun is one of the notable bar districts in Beijing (there aren't many), populated mostly by English-speaking expats. The bar patrons are, as you might guess, young and well-to-do, and depending on the night you go you may meet a future friend or the very embodiment of everything you hate about the world. In other words: this is the place to meet people.)



2 comments:

The Jamboree said...

On my last day of ConLaw 2, I got called on. We were discussing the religion clauses, and someone brought up the idea of being required to read the bible in school. I then felt compelled to raise my hand and inform the class that I had in fact been required to read passages from the bible in high school. My teacher then inquired as to the name of my high school. "Shawnee Mission South," I said, thinking that he would have never heard of it. "Small world," he said, "my mother went to Shawnee Mission South."

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On a separate note, are there crazy religious leaders in China (akin to America's Roberts and Falwells) who say crazy shit about god being responsible for the natural disasters befalling Asia these days? I wasn't sure how well that type of crazy translates into the beliefs of the East.

The Tao said...

A day later, I was on a party bus with a gal whose husband played on the same Ulty Frisbee team as me in a tournament last year in Boston...