Shanghai EXPOsed

I woke up at 4am with an angry Zambian man standing over my bed. He was quietly yelling at me, telling me in no uncertain terms to get out of my bed. I asked why, he said he'd been in that bed for four days and I had taken his bed.

Now granted, I was in bed 8 and I had been assigned bed 7. But bed 7 had been taken when I arrived and bed 8 was not only empty of bags, but of sheets and blankets as well. I didn't really argue; I was too tired and saved my energy. But I did get up and he grabbed the blankets of bed 7 on the top bunk and brought them down while I moved my stuff up. What was his stuff doing in bed 7?

I fell back to sleep and awoke just shy of 10. I slowly got ready and was out the door somewhere around 11.

Down to Jing'An temple, and through the myriad tunnels to line 7. Took the line south to Houtan, the first stop that's next to the Expo (so I was told), though next to is a very vague word. I had to walk for about 20 minutes before I got to the entrance.

Bought a student ticket for 100 yuan and breezed through security.

The first pavilion I saw was the USA pavilion, but the line was too long and the USA has no VIP citizens entrance - so I didn't go inside.

I wandered around and found the Canadian pavilion. I figured "I can get into this!" I walked up to the Chinese guy at the door and he let me through without much argument - I said my passport was at my hotel.

I went inside and a Canadian woman asked if she could help me. I told her I was here to see the pavilion. She asked for my Canadian passport - I didn't have it. She asked for a Canadian drivers license. I don't have that. She asked where I was from. I told her BC, in a little town called Wobegon just north of Victoria. She radios for some guy named Jason, who's from BC, when I refuse to sing them a Canadian song -- I left. Oh well. Onto the next one.

There was no line for the Caribbean Community Pavilion. I went inside. Breezed through superficial displays of "traditional" Caribbean items. Dominica, Saint Lucia, Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, Belize, Barbados, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Suriname, and Jamaica. Onto the next one.

As I moved from place to place, I began to realize that the most interesting thing about each one is the architecture. Nothing really had anything special inside, or at least nothing worth waiting four hours for.

Went past Romania, Russia, Croatia, The Netherlands (really cool flower building), Germany, Ireland, Norway, Ukraine, Turkey, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Bulgaria and Denmark.

The Danish pavilion was the one I came here to see.

In Copenhagen there is a statue of the Little Mermaid, an homage to Hans Christian Anderson. For the EXPO, the Danes shipped the statue to Shanghai, and placed her above a pool of Danish water (the Danes refused to let their beloved statue rest next to foreign seas) in the center of their pavilion. The pavilion itself is just a big spiral, allowing a visitor to walk up and then down, or bike up and down. But in the middle is the statue.

Now Maya, my Israeli friend who left Beijing several days ago, is currently in Copenhagen. And, where the statue used to be, there is a giant tv screen with a 24-hr live video feed of the mermaid in Shanghai.

Adding these two things together, Maya and I devised a plan to take pictures of the mermaid and I in Shanghai, from Copenhagen.

But I arrived at the pavilion at 1:30, so I had to wait for Maya to get up (Denmark is 6 hours behind me).

I got to walking again. Dipped my feet in the shallow pool surrounding Finland, but I got yelled at. I moved on. Got into the Australian Pavilion - a weird structure of hanging flowers inside and intertwining tubes on the outside - but got bored and left. The architecture is amazing. The insides are not.

Past Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, and New Zealand.

At 2:20 I arrived at the much-hyped Chinese Pavilion, a red upside Mayan-like Pyramid. Undoubtedly beautiful, but once again not worth entrance.

Kept moving, now through the South Asia and Middle East region. Sultanate of Oman, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates. I would have gone into this one, but I am going to be there in a week, so what's the point?

I passed Qatar and Morocco, then came across gold. Lebanon, Iran, and Korea DPR. I was at the end of the expo - I had just walked the entire distance.

By beautiful luck, there were no lines at the North Korean pavilion. I went inside.

North Korea did the best they could to show their prosperity. There were pagodas and rock formations inside of their rich history. A beautiful skyline of Pyongyang was on one wall, with a statue of the "Tower of Juche Idea" in front of it. Rising from the skyline poster was the giant pyramid hotel, a famous landmark in Korea since the government seems to have built it for tourism that doesn't exist, and never finished it because they had no money -- a shining example of the quality of government in Korea DPR. There was a fountain of happy children, lit colorfully, and there were pictures of the mystical fairgrounds (complete with ferris wheel) that can be seen from the northern border with China.

I bought two books (I had to); a condensed biography of Kim Il Sung, and Kim Jung Il's "On the Juche Idea of our Party." And because I bought these, the North Korean woman selling them gave me "The Immortal Woman Revolutionary 3" for free.

I headed back to Denmark, stopping at 4pm for some food (breakfast) at a Cantonese restaurant. By Chinese standards the food was expensive, but by western standards not at all. While I waited for my food, I started reading Kim Il Sung's biography. Fascinating stuff.

I walked past Nepal and Taiwan, and I got to the Danish pavilion about 20 to 5. Maya had been up for 40 minutes in Copenhagen and was on her way to the video screen.

I went to the Chinese guy guarding the gate to Denmark's "Citizen's Only" entrance. I asked to get inside and he asked for my passport. I explained my friend was in Denmark and I needed to see her. He asked for my passport. I gave him my American passport and he let me in?

I walked up to the man guarding the body of water that the Little Mermaid statue is in - I explained in Chinese what I was trying to do, and asked for his help. He agreed to help but wouldn't help me muster support.

I started looking for white faces, and pulled aside two westerners who were willing to help; Robert, from Germany, and Jamie, from Binghamton, NY. They helped me find two more; Victoria (England), and Peter (Netherlands).

The five of us and this security guard spelled out expo proudly for a full minute while we waited for Maya to take the photo. It was a fail - I had tried to use the statue as half of an X, with me being the other half. But we tried again - and failed again, as we spelled our word on the wrong side of the statue. And we tried a third time. Success. With Peter and Victoria making the E, Robert on the P, Jamie and the guard making an O and with me as an X, we spelled out EXPO, with a photo being taken 8,271 kilometers away. I got two text messages from Maya right before my phone went dead: "It was awesomeeeeeeeeee" and "thdt was fucking brilliant!"

Take a photo with a mythical amphibious creature from 8,271km away utilizing 7 nationalities and 2 continents. Check.



We five westerners wandered up the Danish pavilion - not much to see besides the statue. Peter actually is working at the EXPO so he took us to the Netherlands Pavilion, which is one of the more interesting structures, and got us inside without a line. There were some OK exhibits, and I did see a lock of Van Gogh's hair, but nothing much else. We tried Germany too but Peter could only bring one guest and Robert could get in, being German, but that would leave two of us behind.

We walked past Iceland and Switzerland (a giant ice cube building and a big ski lift, respectively), the UK and Italy. We went our separate ways by Luxembourg which, for such a small country, had a very long line. I collected all their emails to send them the photo once I get it from Maya.

I wandered to the road, past Cuba (which I snuck into through the exit... A reverse Elian Gonzalez, if you will) and Venezuela and hopped on a bus that took me to the 7th gate exit. I walked south to the subway and went back to the hostel. Arrived just shy of 8, my EXPO goals accomplished.

While I rested I had a weird flashback -- the pool table at the hostel; I christened that table 2 years ago! I was the first person to ever play on it. It's been through some rough times since then...

I rested for a bit and headed out at 9:45 to meet Michael in what was, according to him, the Pudong district across the river, but what was in fact very close to the hostel (he looked at the map wrong). He was lazy and refused to come to the EXPO for the best picture ever so I had to go to him.

We were supposed to meet at a McDonalds in the subway station but I showed up and he wasn't there. And then McDonalds closed. So I sat on the steps for a while, waiting.

Richardson showed up at the top of the stairs and I joined him. We walked back to the apartment his family was staying at, and I met the whole clan.

The two of us went down to the building bar and had a beer and played some air hockey - until Michaels brother called us over and the family and I went out for massages.We got foot massages down the street, 35 for an hour. I wouldn't say they were better than those I have in Beijing, but they were good nonetheless.

After the massages we went our separate ways. I tried to convince Michael to go out, but he has a flight home at 1pm tomorrow, so he went to sleep.

I took a taxi back to the LeTour and went to sleep around 2.

Off to Shanghai

I ran through my parade of alarms between 7:00 and 8:15. 8 in total, plus snoozes.

I got showered and dressed, and went downstairs for breakfast and to set up a fake check-out. I needed to leave all my stuff in Beijing, but I can't be in two places at once or the Chinese government gets upset... So I need to check out and still make sure my room is kept for me untouched.

Arrived at work before 10. I spent an hour working on my intinerary for the trips home (had no plans until yesterday for Abu Dhabi, Dubai, or Brussels). At least now I have a place to stay in Dubai, a ski ticket bought for the indoor ski resort in Dubai, and an idea of how to get from Abu Dhabi to Dubai and back.

I spent the rest of the day running between various projects. Jolin and Stephanie had me rewriting a Board Resolution, Joel was back from Hong Kong and wanted me to meet about our research project, Ian had a project to give me, Helen had me review an email or two, and Maureen and I met for our last English practice session (she's taking next week off).

I managed to leave at 5 and picked up a cab outside. We got stuck in a little traffic on the way to the hostel but nothing too bad. My cabby was able to skirt a lot of it by getting off the Third Ring Road. Got to the hostel 5:33. A tad behind schedule.

I got changed, got my laundry, packed my medications and chargers and such, got my passport and said goodbye to Alex for the next two days.

She walked me out to the street where I got a cab.

Arrived at the Dongzhimen Airport Express (东直门机场快轨) stop at 6. 30 minutes behind schedule.

Made it down to the ticket station, rushed through buying my ticket, got downstairs to the track and boarded the train by 6:08. The train was waiting and departed at 6:10. 1:50 to go before plane departure.

Arrived at Terminal 2 at 6:41. 7:02 I was through security - after they found two lighters on me - whoops. 0:58 to liftoff. Plenty of time. And so at 7:08 I was at Gate 23, playing the waiting game.

Boarding began at 7:20. I took my seat in seat 33D; an aisle, praise the lord.

We were a little slow taking off. We left the ground at 8:22.

I read my Genghis Khan book (which I STILL haven't finished) and listened to music for the flight. Only got through 30 pages.

We touched down at 10:02. Nice short flight. The airplane taxied for 10 minutes before we disembarked; in classic, crowded and pushy, but somehow orderly, Chinese style.

I felt comfortable as hell in HongQiao Airport, as it always feels good to find yourself in a "new" place that you are confident and knowledgable about - where you know that you're going to the Jing'An Temple on Line 2 a few stops down the line, and you know how to get to your hostel from there. But it was such a great feeling emerging at Jing'An after two years.

So much has happened in the last two years. I broke my body against a tree on a ski slope, wheeled around for a few months and limped for several more. I graduated high school. I started college. We've been through half an Olympic cycle and the Inner Sanctum is spread across the country for most of the year. But it's so comforting to know that here I am, on the opposite side of this ever shrinking - yet ever growing - world, and I feel at home. And so perfect that as I write this my iPhone has started playing "Homeward Bound" by Simon and Garfunkel. I love change, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the familiar.

I emerged from the subway at Jing'An at 10:55pm. It was 89 degrees, which hit me like a ton of bricks after the wonderful week we've had in Beijing. But there was a breeze so the heat was bearable.

I took a purposeful wrong turn, left, out of the subway, and walked a few feet to Windows Too, my favorite bar when I was here. The prices have gone up a bit (5 yuan or so per item) but it's still the same old Windows Too. I picked up a Carlsburg and headed out. I'll get to that tomorrow.

I meandered past Jing'An Temple and north two blocks, and turned right on 新闸路 (XinZha Lu) to find my favorite Muslim noodle place. It was still there, open 24 hours, with 5 yuan noodles - and they still make them right in front of you. But, unlike two years ago, there were no 6 yuan dumplings. In fact, no dumplings at all.

I had a heavenly fantastic bowl of spicy beef noodles and a bottle of water for 6.5 yuan as my second meal of today, then walked up to the hostel.

Arrived at 11:40 to the hostel in the creepy alley. It was hot as hell but inviting, just like last time. Some things have changed. The drinks cooler is in the lobby proper and not behind the desk. There are newer chairs in the common area. There are newer computers. But the old hostel I remember is the same. The owner even remembers me!

I wandered through the hostel a bit more; same pool table, same ping pong table. Same blackboards with names and countries written on it. The half-Aussie half-American flag that Jason, Gemma, Lucy and I put up two years ago is long gone. But on the keystone above the blackboard arch - right at the top -the Chinese words 马威 are as bright as the day I wrote my Chinese name there two years ago. Amazing.

I found my room (room 115) and my bed (bed 7, though I took 8 - someone else already had 7... Which is good cuz 8 is a bottom bunk), and met one of my roommates, Robert, and his girlfriend, Sylvia - Germans.

The two of them promptly got into Robert's bed and started with the lovey-dovey small talk. I, being the only other one in the room, just awkwardly lay in my bed and fell asleep around 1:30.

It's good to be back. Tomorrow - Expo.

Respunding to Ms. Bai

There was a blue sky in Beijing today. I've never seen a completely clear sky in this city in any of the four times I've visited. And today was the day I chose to bring my umbrella, since it said it would rain and I didn't want a repeat of yesterday.

I woke up exhausted. Pilled, Showered, Clothed, Breakfast'd, and left.

My cabby went down the Third Ring Road again, instead of Dong Da Qiao, so I had to direct him to the back entrance of the office building.

I started the day finishing the email I was drafting yesterday to Margaret Bai at WellTrend. I know I've been fairly explicit about my feelings towards this job, but to avoid bridge burning (but to lob a few molotovs at the same time), this is the gem I punned to her in response (a response worthy of http://www.puntiful.com/):



"Ms. Bai:

"My apologies for the very tardy response.

"Thank you for your offer to work on Saturday. However, I will be taking a trip--off to Shanghai, I'm tired of enduring such heats as Beijing has - this weekend, for the Expo. Assuch, I am forced by these circumstances to use less time working with you. I apologize.

"So my absence is not wasted, might I recommend a friend who might be interested? She is a student with Brandeis University and I think, when it comes to her Chinese speaking skills, her g race is far beyond me. She is also very knowledeable about American s campuses. Her name is Alex Luo and her email address is [Email Address Excerpted].

"If you happen to be having another fair next Saturday, I'd be happy to go to hellp. Just let me know.

"Thank you again for the offer.

"Best regards,

"Marshall"



Highlights of this pun-filled backhanded email include words and phrases such as:
"Rip-off;"
"I'm tired of enduring such cheats as Beijing has;"
"Useless time working with you;"
"My absence is not wasted;"
"Race is far beyond me;" and
"Scam," with a few more choice spelling mistakes thrown in.

I BCC'd Alex on the email. Now I feel better about taking a job I earned through the racial genetic lottery for a company I can't approve of. I probably flew off the handle a little bit with the wording there... but what's done is done. I did get a response, too -- It was simply a sad crying red-face because I wasn't free, and then the simple sentence "I know her."

Evonne and I went out to lunch from 1:30-2:30.

I was getting ready to leave at 5:48, finishing up my last stuff, when Xiaochen dropped a memo on my lap to review. I went through it, got it back to him, got my taxi and meal from last night comped by the company, got out of work and trekked to the bus station (taxi changeover) by 6:30.

The bus came 9 minutes later. Arrived at hostel at 7:07. By 7:45 I had changed and dropped off my laundry and was on my way to Houhai, one of the top three nightlife areas in Beijing (another being Sanlitun where I am), to meet Alex, Lixuan, and Milton, who were out to dinner.

Took the 823 bus to 北海北门 (Beihai Bei Men) and walked north to 后海 (Houhai).

I found Lixuan, Alex, Milton, Veronica, Shanshan, and a few more at a restaurant in Houhai. They were finishing up, so I only sat for a few minutes before we left.

Two of us left after dinner, but all those named above stayed, and we got 20 600ml beers between the seven of us and rented a boat to go out on the lake for 200yuan for an hour.

We were on the lake between 9 and 10; we landed on the island in the middle for a bit, despite the sign saying no entry. We rounded the lake a few times, downed a bunch of the beer, and played some fun games.

We got off the boat at 10 and wandered through Houhai for a bit, bonding and finishing our beers.

At 11 or so the group wanted to go to Propaganda, but I have work tomorrow, so I hopped in the first cab I could find back to Sanlitun. I told them I'd go out if they went to the Village, but they insisted - and of course later I received this cute little text from Shanshan:

"Marshall your right we shouldn't go to propaganda veronica's drunk. we're going back home. wish you a good night. sleep with angels." Point for Marshall for the good call.

Got back a few minutes past midnight and got caught up talking with Paul, who's returned for a few days from his several away from Beijing (though I won't see him since I'll be in Shanghai). Through him I met Simon, from the Netherlands, and when Jonas showed up he brought two Koreans, a guy named Steffan (which he pronounces Shteffan) and a girl named Jeeyoung. The six of us talked for a while but I had to call it a night when Paul broke out the pistachios.

I did some quick packing when I went upstairs and realized I'm going to Shanghai tomorrow, and I fell asleep around 2.

White and Wrong

I woke up at 8:30 but somehow only managed to get up at 9. I promptly placed my plethora of pills upon my pallate and departed the premises for more productive pastures.

Work began like any other day, and with the exception of one event it was a normal day. Evonne and I ate lunch across the street at 1, navigating through today's heavy rain to get there, and I polished documents for the lawyers.

But something wonderful happened at 11:30. I received an email from Margaret Bai, the woman I worked for at WellTrend over a week ago, the woman to whom I gave my resignation after my first day of work. The email simply asked: "Are you free this Saturday?" I was speechless. Here I've been contemplating ways to combat the scam that this company and others pull, and now they're attempting to rehire me?! They must be desperate for white people..

I will be in Shanghai this weekend, but if I wasn't, I would still turn down this job - it's the right thing to do. Or, if I took it, it would be for an easy 500元 and to have an opportunity to sabotage their business again. But, as I said, I'll be in Shanghai.

I immediately contacted Alex, who applied for the same position when I did and was turned down because she's half-Asian and, though I sought her input and spent a day contemplating how to respond, I came up with no response good enough - at least nothing beyond an outline. I'll figure something out tomorrow morning.

I was kept late at work to look at a 26-page contract that I received for review an hour before work ended. I left at 7:45.

Having spent 2 hours of overtime, I was entitled to a comped cab ride home, and though I forget the exact length of time I need to spend after work to get the meal as well, I think I passed the threshhold - so Alex and I went out to Italian food.

We went to Annie's, near the Agricultural Center where I partied four nights in a row two years ago (when it was the Holland Heineken House) at the Olympics. It's very near to the hostel, so the cab cost the minimum 10 yuan only.

We had pasta, and it was great. And I got my 80 yuan FaPiao to comp the bill from work tomorrow.

After Annie's, Alex and I went back. We stopped at a DVD store and bumped into Jonas, who had just walked into the store a few moments earlier. The three of us searched for a while and ended up buying several discs. I got the complete Godfather series, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and Battle Royale, the movie Russ and I watched in Seoul a few week ago.

We all gathered, Cole included, in my room. We tried to watch Lock/Stock, but it was too quiet on the laptop Jonas had provided. So we watched Battle Royale - again, for me. But worth it.

I went to sleep around 3.

Alex is Alive

Woke up at 8:30. Took my meds and got breakfast downstairs. I said goodbye to Janette and Amy, who left this morning, as well as Gautier, who's leaving today.

Got caught up chatting with Silvia, a Swiss-German, and so I left for work a bit later than I expected to. He's been traveling in China for a while and Beijing is his last stop before he heads home.

Got to work a little after 10, and worked until noon thirty, when Della and I went out for lunch. We ate in Jian Wai SOHO Building A, the same building where I did my one day of employment with WellTrend at their college "fair" (with "fair" in quotations because I find nothing about this company to be fair). I told Della the whole story about my experience and about the potential business I could start from it. She had some very good insights and gave me some useful information, like about how much a company like this would charge for their services (a price which would be easy to beat while maintaining a good profit margin), what kind of services they offer, and other types of companies that exist for the purpose of getting Chinese students into American colleges and universities.

I didn't eat because I wasn't hungry, but it was a good break. We walked back to the office, arguing over various moral dilemmas, the most interesting being the difference between active choice and passive choice (would you kill one to save ten? Or not choose, and in doing so ensure that all ten and you die?).

I did an English practice session with Maureen, one of my co-workers, which was mostly spent explaining my recent bouts with poison ivy and my showing her funny pictures of Chinglish.

Sometime after 6 I left work. I both didn't want to be caught up with last-minute stuff until 9:30 again, and Alex is free tonight, after four days of captivity (in my humble opinion) with her father, so I wanted to get back to the hostel.

Because it was between 6 and 7, cab changeover time, I got on the bus a kilometer from work, bus 113, and took that to the worker's stadium, next to my road, about a half kilometer from the hostel. It was a cool day so the heat and walking wasn't too bad. I still had to walk forever though. And the bus was in a weird section of the road and it took far longer than it should have.

While sitting on the bus, a young woman got on and didn't have any single yuan coins to pay with, and the bus attendent doesn't give change. She awkwardly stood there for a little bit, hoping for someone to give the attendent loose bills, but no one did. So I gave her a coin. She paused for a second and smilled and said "Thank you." I smiled back silently as she went to be back of the bus. Today's mitzvah; complete.

I spent a while catching up with Alex in her room, adjacent to mine. She just said bye to her dad, who's going back to the States after his brief visit from work in Shanghai.

In Alex's room I met a roommate of hers, Victor, who is originally from Hong Kong but has lived in Canada, Australia, and the UK as well. He's working with a Chinese law firm in town, so we had a lot to talk about. He, however, is in law school and has actually been hired by his firm.

At 9:30 we had Cole join us and we all went out. As we walked down the street, the tuesday night dancers were out -- a bunch of older people who dance outdoors every tuesday night in front of a restaurant (or whatever it is, I've never looked up at the sign) -- I grabbed Alex's hand and we attempted to salsa through the crowd, though neither of us really knows how. We got some interesting looks.

For convenience and deliciousness, we got a pizza at Kro's Nest by the Worker's Stadium. We arrived at the place at 9:56, and they close at 10, but we managed to sit down and get a meal anyway.

We left after 11, and walked back to the hostel.

Somewhere tonight it came to light that Alex has not seen the Big Lebowski. Vowing to change that, just before midnight Alex and I went to Sanlitun. Our purpose was two-fold: find a copy of the Big Lebowski at a ripoff DVD shop and secure another receipt (a FaPiao, the Chinese official receipt for all deductions a company needs to make) for me from Blue Frog, as the one I was given last night wasn't comp-able, as it was just a bill receipt, not a FaPiao.

We succeeded in the second goal but failed in the first. I did manage to get Boondock Saints II, for my viewing pleasure (it's supposed to be a pretty decent sequel to the first), and managed to get Alex to grab a few classics she hasn't seen, like Citizen Kane (which she's apparently never heard of?!), There Will Be Blood, and Pulp Fiction.

We got a rickshaw back to the hostel for 10 and went straight to our respective rooms.

I was in bed at 1:30.

Overtime

I got up at seven thirty and got dressed for work. Ate breakfast at 8 and took the pills the doc had prescribed yesterday.

At 8:30 I left for my 9:00 dermatology appt.

Arrived just before nine, and was ushered into an examination room. My doctor, a Chinese woman named Wang Yi Yun, came in shortly and began the routine questioning of my entire medical history. She said that the spots on my hands and arms and elbows and knees and legs and feet are either allergic or a bacterial or viral infection.

When the doctor took a look at my bloodwork, though, she immediatly knew I had a bacterial infection. My white blood cell count was high, as was my neutrocil count, which indicate bacterial over a viral infection.

We discussed various treatments, including an IV drip, a shot, a heavy dosage of medication, etc. Not having time for an IV drip, I opted for the shot and a medium dosage of drugs.

After taking a shot to the butt, I was sent away with a goodybag of drugs. Anti-histamine, steroid pills, antibiotics, more creams, and even a traditional Chinese soaking powder which I'm supposed to soak my arms and legs in for 10 minutes each night?

I took a cab to the nearest subway (though he wanted to take me all the way, asking me if I was "afraid of cabs or something?") station and took Line 10 south to GuoMao. I arrived a little after ten to my office.

Despite the Oohs and Ahhs I received because of the spots and scabs on my arms, it was a very normal day, editing here and there.

I did manage to book flights to Shanghai and back this weekend for the expo. Leaving 8pm on Friday and coming back late, a 22:00-00:05 flight, on Sunday night. I even booked one night at a hostel, though I'm hoping to stay at LeTour, where I stayed two years ago - I emailed them, asking about extra rooms.

I left work at 7:10, having stayed an hour later to catch up on lost time last week.

At 7:15, as I was almost to the cabs and on my way my phone rang. Maureen, a co-worker, asked me to come back and check over something urgent. I was happy to do it but, well... So close!

The plus side, though, is that because I was doing a project for an attorney after hours, I get to comp both the cab ride home and my dinner to the company (up to 80 yuan for dinner! I'm going to eat well tonight!).

At 8:30, just as I finished my work for Maureen, Xiaochen, another co-worker, asked me to stay longer to look over an email he needed review on.

I left the office at 9:30. I picked up the first cab I saw, which fortunately was driving right past the entrance to my building.

Since I have 80 yuan to spend tonight for dinner, I had Cole make reservations at a decent restaurant for once. He made 10:15 reservations at the Blue Frog, a trendy burger joint next to Sanlitun Village.

The taxi made excellent time (having gotten off work 3.5 hours past close of business) and I made it back to the hostel by 9:45. I ran upstairs to drop off my briefcase and treasure trove of new medications and turned right around as Cole and I walked to the Blue Frog down the street.

Despite getting hit up by the annoying kids selling creepy balloons to passersby (me especially, as I was targeted in my work clothes), it was a pleasant enough walk, as the last few days have been bearable and [relatively] cool here in Beijing - 80-90 degrees each day.

The Blue Frog is on the third and fourth floor of one of the Sanlitun Mall buildings, right next to the Apple store. We sat inside to avoid sitting at the only outdoor tables available - next to the door.

Our meals were fantastic, and were made even more awesome considering we got 290 yuan worth of food and only paid 45 each. 80 should be knocked off tomorrow when I get my meal comped by PaulHastings for staying late and we argued that we were shortchanged on beer and, instead of them giving us our money's worth, just cut the price of the pitcher of Heineken down to less than it was worth. Win.

Anyway, I had the Montana Burger and Cole had the Mexican Burger. It was real imported beef, too; none of that cheap or thinly sliced Chinese beef. Overall a good meal.

To top off our wonderfully romantic evening, Cole and I strolled through the mall and got a bike-man to wheel us back to our hostel for 1yuan less than a cab would cost. I put my arm around Cole but he would have none of it. And this is the thanks I get for treating him to a nice meal!?

We got back around 11:30. I finally got around to administering the myriad drugs I was given early this morning.

It took forever, and I got caught up talking with Jacquie Sugel for about an hour on skype, but I did it.

And I went to sleep around 2.

"I think you might have syphilis."

Got out of bed at 2:15 and went straight to the hospital. My arms are better every day, but either new poison ivy was spreading to my hands, feet, arms and legs, or I was developing something new and painful and itchy, in the form of red spots in no particular pattern on my skin.

I arrived at 3 at 和睦家医院 (He Mu Jia Hospital, or United Family Beijing) and went through the usually poking and prodding triage procedure.

I was placed in a bed and sat waiting for the doctor.

My doctor came in and asked a few questions. He was Chinese, and didn't know how to whisper, a fact I discovered after he began asking very normal and yet very personal questions at the top of his lungs, separated from the rest of the hospital by a thin curtain. And he didn't know what I have. They made an appt with a dermatologist tomorrow at 9 for me.

Just before 4 they did took some blood for a few blood tests; the doctor thought I could have some STD's, which apparently appear as red dots on your arms sometimes. So he tested me for Syphilis and HIV. I agreed, knowing I have neither, but also knowing it'll be good to be able to officiate that knowledge. Better to know you don't have it than to not know either way.

I went across the street to get some food while I waited for the results. I stopped in at a dumpling house, aptly named Dumpling House. I had dumplings.

Got back to the hospital at 4:30, but the results weren't in yet. They didn't come in until 4:50 or so.

At 5 I was asked to lie down on a bed and was solemnly informed I do not have syphilis or HIV. That's good, I guess, though there's still no result on what the red spots all over my hands and feet and arms and legs are.

I was given two medications -- one oral medicine that replaces the need for the steroid cream on my arm, and one benadryl-type pill to deal with the symptoms of the rashes. I need to take one pill twice daily of the first and EIGHT (8!) pills once daily with food of the second one.

At 5:10 I left and headed back. Got in at 5:30 and relaxed in my room for an hour.

Spent the rest of the evening chilling in the hostel, resting my hands and playing foosball. Spent some time with Cole and Jusef (Inner Mongolia, whose name I forgot two days ago), Jonas and Gucche, Amy and Janette, and Paul. It was a chill night. I did meet some new people, though. Cherie (pronounced Sherry) from I assume England based on the accent, and J.I., from the Philippines. J.I. is really into ultimate frisbee, and apparently has a disc with him, so hopefully we'll play a bit in the next few days.

I went upstairs at 12:20 and went to bed around 1.