My Last Day in Beijing -- On My Way Home

Woke up naturally at 10:15. Took my last shower in my room and got to packing.

Miraculously, I managed to pack everything I owned by noon into four items -- my big backpack was the largest, stuffed to the gills with everything I owned; next was the black rolling bag I got from Kuldeep via Cole, with every souvineer I got here and then some; then my blue backpack, filled with everything I'll need in the UAE and Belgium; finally was a plastic bag, holding my shot chess set and my briefcase from work.

A little after noon I took all of these bags, piled them on top of me, and carried them downstairs and checked out, for the last time (I had checked out for Korea and Shanghai, too).

I bumped into Jeeyoung, and she and Jonas and I went to the fancy Sichuan restaurant next to the entrance to the hostel for breakfast (well, lunch for them).

We had some really weird dishes, but overall it was alright -- we finished and went back to the hostel at 1:30, where we immediately turned around to go to Yashow.

When we got there I called Shanshan. She and Veronica were upstairs on the second floor, and we met up with them for a bit before we went souvineer shopping on the fifth floor.

Jonas and Jeeyoung and I wandered around for a while. I bought a bracelet for 5元 and a pen that shocks the clicker for 10元.

We left around 2:30 and Veronica and Shanshan went elsewhere for a family dinner with Shanshan's family. I didn't say goodbye formally because I planned on seeing Shanshan later tonight and I'll see Veronica tomorrow in the UAE.

Jonas, Jeeyoung and I went to a DVD store and Jonas got a few DVDs. Then we went to the post office, where I finally got around to mailing back the two people's IDs and wallet and credit card I found in Boryeong. It cost 50元 to send the two packages, but they'll have the peace of mind that no one fraudulently charged money to the card or stole their identities -- that's worth $7. On the return address I simply wrote, "A Good Samaritan, Found in Boryeong, Korea."

We stopped next at a sex shop, where I haggled in half the price of a gag gift for a good friend at home.

I went back to the hostel then, at 4. Jonas and Jeeyoung went to the Village to pick up some more stuff. We agreed to meet at 6 for dinner.

I hung out with Sunny (荣荣) for a while, playing foosball (we tied, she's surprisingly good), talking and such. I got her facebook info so we could stay in touch while I'm home. At 5 she got off work and left the hostel.

Mingwei came to the hostel and Jonas and Cole and Jeeyoung and Chris (Denmark Chris) and Mingwei and I went to dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant behind the hostel, out the back entrance.

Before we left, Jeeyoung asked me to finish her beer, which was maybe 75% full. I downed it, during which Chris asked me to do the same. I took his, and downed that immediately after I finished Jeeyoung's. The owner of the hostel, who had just gotten himself a draft pint of beer, saw this and passed me the pint while I was drinking Chris's beer. I downed that, though with the clapping and cheering and jokes it was hard to keep a straight face, and I had to stop briefly once or twice.

It was a delicious albeit expensive meal. I had a pizza with several types of cheese on it, Jonas had a pizza too, the others had pastas.

After dinner we all had a brief siesta in the hostel. Jonas and Jeeyoung went to a small concert a friend of Jonas's was throwing; I said goodbye to both of them, sad to see another set of friends disappear.

Cole and Mingwei and I went out to Sanlitun, to Smuggler's. We had couple of shots apiece -- A Blow Job shot and a Godfather shot -- but I wanted to make my own, so I talked to the bartender and he let me. I made 5 shots of what I call a Lactose Intolerant Russian (a little different from a white russian, this has vodka and kahlua, and then bailey's instead of milk) for the three of us and Mingwei's two friends who joined us, JJ and JS. After those we had Blue Kamakazi shots, then a gin and tonic apiece.

After this, it was about 10:30 and we went outside. I said my goodbye to Mingwei and Cole and I went back.

We chilled at the hostel for a bit - I saw Chris and said goodbye. I said goodbye also to Baobao, the little dog I've become so damned fond of. He looked sad to see me go -- somehow he knew; maybe it was the giant backpack on my back.

It was 11:30 and I got a cab to the airport, terminal three. The departure ramp for cars was closed so we wandered around downstairs for a bit before we found how to get in. I paid and got a cart and carted my stuff the ridiculous length to the Etihad Air check-in counter.

My backpack was oversized and 32.5kg (!!!) so I had to bring it myself to the oversized baggage section. I was also told to "run to the gate." It was 12:20, my flight was 1:30.

Apparently there's a shuttle to be taken to the gate. But they neglected to tell me that the shuttle was out of service. I was fortunate to bump into an equally unfortunate passenger who speaks fluent English. She found a bus down a floor which brought us to the E terminal.

We got to the E terminal and got to security. It was a little awkward to put all my pocket contents into a tray when I realized I had a sex toy in one of them -- the present I bought earlier today. Oh well -- I placed the toy in a prominent position in the tray and smiled. I got through without issue.

Through security there was a man waiting with a trolley. He offered to drive me to the gate for only 10元. It was the best 10元 I've ever spent.

I got on the plane and settled in at 5 to 1. We watched the safety video (which started with a passage from the Koran...) and took off a little after our scheduled time. I slept.

Last Day at the Office

I woke up at 8, showered and got my stuff together. Went downstairs to have breakfast.

I called Alex to find out where she was so I could say goodbye -- she was to leave while I was at work.

To my surprise, Alex was not asleep. In fact, she was outside the hostel, sitting on a stoop with Max, one of the twins, and Chris from CT.

The two (Chris had not) had stayed up all night, as today they were both leaving. They were sipping Mountain Dew and Red Bull to stay awake. We talked for a bit and I had breakfast.

At 9:40 I had to leave, and so I said my goodbyes to Alex, the third of our original group of five Americans to leave. I hope we meet again. She has my number and such so it shouldn't be too difficult (she goes to school in Boston, so not too far from home either).

Now it's just Cole and me. And then there were two.

I got to work a tad past ten for my last day. There was no morning work (I had two memorandums to edit but they were on others' desks and I couldn't get to work on them immediately, so I waited), so I finalized my itinerary for the UAE and Belgium.

Ian, my mentor on this internship, took Evonne and I out to lunch to a cafe down the street for my last meal. I had a duck salad and chicken breast. Evonne naively ordered a T-bone steak, which was four times more food than she could eat - it was real American portions.

The meal was good and the company was too. We walked back to the office and went our separate ways.

I got a call from Joel in Hong Kong at 2:15, who told me no more work was needed on the project I've been doing for him. Done.

Wrapped up all my work in the afternoon. I gave Mark my key card, sent an office-wide email out, thanking them for a great 6 weeks, got listed on the PH alumni list, and made the rounds to say goodbye to everyone I worked with. It was very final.

I left late, 7:30 or so. The office was throwing me a karaoke party after work and it wouldn't have made sense to go back to Sanlitun just to turn around and go to Karaoke.

Got to Karaoke at PartyWorld at 8 with Della; we were shown to the wrong room at first, but we found the others. The only people who had showed showed were Emma, Shuang, Shirley, and a few others; a few of the secrataries, and Emma and Shirley's husbands. Later we were joined by Baker and Ethan and the other two interns, as well as Evonne.

The company had spent a lot of money on me, seeing as this was a going away party for me; we had 1000 yuan to spend on food, plus the cost of the room. We sang song after song until 10:30, when our room rental expired.

Emma gave me a ride home after KTV, and I got to the hostel a little after 11. I got changed quickly, collected Cole from his room, and went out to meet Veronica, Lixuan, Shanshan, and Milton, and several others from their program, at Kokomo in Sanlitun Village (they had contacted me, begging me to come out).

We met up with them on the rooftop bar, and Veronica starting giving me shots of Malibu Coconut. I took 4 in a few minutes to catch up to everyone else.

After Kokomo we went to the Door, next to Smuggler's (which was packed), and someone passed around more shots; this time of Skyy vodka. I took two. Then I got a draft beer. Downed it. I bought Milton and myself glasses of Absinth. Downed that (though a little more slowly than the other ones). I had been drinking for an hour.

1 hour in, with 6 shots of hard liquor and 2 shots of absinth and a beer in me, I was feeling buzzed. We all went back to Kokomo and I danced with Shanshan on the roof for a while.

After, we spent some time on the couch in the corner before we called it a night. I said my solemn goodbyes to Milton and Lixuan -- hope I'll see them again, they're good guys.

Shanshan and Veronica and I walked out of the bar street and passed the Creperie. It's a French Crepe place which I've been dying to try. The three of us sat around and enjoyed mediocre (by French standards) but delicious crepes for a while, fleshing out business ideas and talking about our plans tomorrow for Veronica and my last day.

I left then, a little after the crepe place closed at 2, and got a rickshaw back. I got the price to 10元 but he begged for more when I got back to the hostel. I didn't give it to him.

I got in around 2:30, and fell asleep around 3:30.

Alex's Last Night

I woke up at 7:30 and was out the door just after half past eight.

My cab driver asked me if I was working in Beijing. I told him yes and for a few months. He wanted to know how long I'd been studying Chinese -- I told him I've been in country for 3 months. It was a little white lie, but only a little. I've spent three months here, but spread over 4 years.

We got to talking, and I asked him if he spoke English. He said he knew how to say "你好," but never actually said "Hello." I think he was embarassed.

I told him that English was very difficult, and the grammar especially, but that Chinese was very difficult too. He agreed about written Chinese, "太难了," but said spoken Chinese was easy. I had to set that straight.

I said speaking the words is easy, but the tones are impossible. He didn't know that English didn't have tones.

I told him the story of my final test my first year of Chinese, where Mr. Fray asked us "你会骑马吗?" or "Can you ride a horse?" and due to tonal confusion, we thought he said "你会骑妈妈," or "You can ride your mother." The taxi driver got a laugh out of that.

I sat down at my desk at 9am sharp. Xiaochen was the only one in the office, literally. I got to the work I was sent late last night so it could be done asap, then spent the remainder of the day on my projects.

Towards 6 I got a call from Veronica. She's about to go home as well, and she had planned to go to the UAE for a short layover -- but when she found out I was stopping over she wanted to tag along. So she spent today making some calls to switch her flights around, and was calling to find out where I was staying.

At 6 sharp I got a call from Stephanie, asking for me to stick around for 15 minutes while she writes an email for my review. I stuck around for 30 before it came. It wasn't all fruitless, though -- I at 6:30 I got 181元 in reimbursement money from the company, which I put in for several days ago.

I left the office at 6:40 and got a bus just before 7.

Got to the hostel at 7:30, and packed a bit upstairs.

At 8:30 Alex and I sat down for her last meal in Beijing at Aunt Characteristic Home Dish. I treated, it being her last night, and we ordered a duck. That's it. A duck. It was amazing.

We had wanted to go to Karaoke with a bunch of people but as the night wore on, everyone cancelled -- Milton, Lixuan, Veronica, Shanshan, Baoxin (Milton's old roommate); they all cancelled. Cole, Alex, Jonas, Jeeyoung and I were left. Also, Mingwei joined us. But we didn't have enough people for the KTV place we wanted to go to so we went instead to Smuggler's in Sanlitun.

Cole and I went ahead, met Mingwei at Smuggler's, and were soon followed by the other three. The six of us spent a few hours drinking and laughing and having a good time.

At one point close to midnight, I looked up and saw a familiar face. It was that woman who harassed Kuldeep like crazy on Ross' last night!! The one who Kuldeep tried to pawn off on everyone, including me (and I deflected her saying I wasn't into economics like she was, but into post-colonial, pre-antebellum history...). We took a stealthy photo for Kuldeep.

At 2 we all found ourselves back at the hostel (except Mingwei, who went home via his driver). Everyone gathered in Jonas' room (he booked the king sized bed starting last night because he got fed up with not having a private room) for some more drinking but I declined, last day of work tomorrow and such.

I went to my room, attempted a little more packing, and went to sleep at 2:45 or 3.

Like A Rolling Stone

Work was more of the usual.

I did find out two important things about the UAE for my visit soon, though:

1) Ramadan started today, so when I get there it will be illegal to eat or drink or smoke in public, punishable by arrest, during daylight hours; and

2) Dubai is home to Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.

So part of the day was spent lamenting the future lack of sustainance and booking a ticket to the top of the tallest manmade structure on the planet (which, interestingly enough, costs less than a ticket to the top of the Empire State Building, though it's over twice the height).

Had lunch with Evonne at the Japanese place in SOHO Building A and spent the afternoon at work, well, working.

I left at 6 and got the bus at 6:22. While yesterday's bus was characterized by obscene traffic and non-existent bus movement, today things went more smoothly. I got off at 6:45.

As of today, I've been traveling for 58 days. And I got a haircut a few days before I left. But I haven't gotten one since. So, needless to say, my hair has become quite the little Jew-fro. And when last night my hair was compared to that of Jonah Hill, I decided it was time for a haircut. There are a few places on Chunxiu Lu where my hostel is, so before I even got back to the hostel I stopped in for a haircut.

My Chinese is decent, but I'm not up on my haircutting vocab, so I mostly pantomimed that my hair was too long and it should be short. She cut it in a matter of minutes for 20yuan ($3).

Alex passed by while I was inside and came in to keep me company.

The haircut was over circa 7:10. I had cut it quite short - not too much shorter than usual but a huge change to what it was until today. I figured I was about to go to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with temperatures around 110F every day, and I should probably not have a sweater growing on my head.

I went back to the hostel after the haircut and changed. Went downstairs and Alex and I sat around for a while. Jonas joined us, and Jeeyoung. We had the hostel's free hotpot they do on Wednesdays for dinner.

During hotpot I got a text from work: "Marshall, can you come in on nine tomorrow?" Ugh. Kill me with the time.

"Sure, I'd be happy to!" hmmmm.

At 8:30 Alex went up to nap and Jeeyoung and Jonas went to buy Jeeyoung her native Korean Soju (that vodka-like stuff).

Eventually Cole came back and we all gathered (with Patrick, who intruded on our group most rudely) outside the hostel in the courtyard, as the weather was fantastic by Beijing standards (not even a drop of sweat at the end of the night after 4 hours outside!).

We rolled cylindrical stone seats to the tiny table and got a bunch of beer from the local Circle Q. That, plus the Soju and my gin I still had from earlier last month, and we had enough alcohol for 15 people, which is about how many we ended up entertaining. Max, one of the English twins (I remembered his name!) joined, and Chris from CT, and several more too.

We played a Korean drinking game Jeeyoung taught us (using the Soju cap to flick with your fingers until bits come off, then shots to the people adjacent to the successful flicker), as well as a beer-Russian Roulette game to the AC/DC song Thunderstruck (one drinks until the song says "thunder," then the next, and so on. But some people get "thunderstruck," which means they get to drinking and then there's a long solo and they have to keep drinking for a long long time).

I spent some time with one of the stone chairs on it's side, standing on it like a rolling log-- Cole joined in and we tried to do some cool tricks with them. I managed to balance on one, move to another one, turn the rolling stone around, roll back to the first stone, and get back on. It was my night's crowning achievement -- and I did that drunk.

Also, tonight I learned Sunny's Chinese name.

Sunny works at the hostel; she's a cute Chinese girl who's been flirting with me since day one ("Oh my Goddddd!" "为什么?!"). It's been advantageous, to say the least, because she's given me lots of free stuff, probably up to 150 yuan in value. Her Chinese name is Rongrong (荣荣). I need to figure out how to keep in touch with her because she and I have become very good friends.

At 1 I went upstairs and at 1:45 I slept. Gotta be in early, after all.

"No Poker!"

Got out of bed at 8:15, got to work at 9:30 as Stephanie requested, and reviewed the two page memorandum for her she asked me to come in early for.

At 12:30 we had a 2 hour merger & acquisition presentation, with lunch provided.

In the afternoon I wrote a letter on Ian's behalf and researched for the two memorandums I'm writing. I left work at 6 and got the bus at 6:20.

This morning I sent out a mass text to various people around Beijing, inviting them all to dinner. Several were available, and we agreed to meet at 6:45-- which would usually be a decent time if I had indeed gotten out of work at 6, like I did. But the bus was caught in the most horrific traffic, and I didn't arrive near the hostel until 7. So I got off at the Worker's Stadium stop instead of the Worker's Gymnasium and went straight to Kro's Nest (instead of changing first) for free beer night.

Lixuan, Veronica, Milton, Alex, Cole and a few others were there. I got two free beers before they ran out (only the first keg is free). Actually, I got one, but when they ran out I hid mine and Lixuan told them I had been promised a free beer and never got it, so I got a second one for free.

Last week (or was it two weeks ago? How time flies!) when Cole and Maya and I were at Kro's Nest, we tried to play a friendly game of cards. But we were yelled at; "No poker!" Everywhere we attempted to play a simple card game the response was the same; "No poker!" But we were never even playing poker! Gambling in China is incredibly illegal, yes, but paranoia is a little much when you can't differentiate between friends having a good time and friends passing money back and forth.

Anyway, the irony is that after dinner, when Cole and I got back to the hostel, we got small change for 100 yuan and bought into a heads-up poker game for 50 yuan each, cash game, and the entire two hours we played, no one came up to us and yelled "No poker!"

Jonas bought in while we were still in the early stages of our game. Being a cash game, anyone could join at any time and cash out at any time. Jonas lost fairly quickly, and didn't feel the need to buy back in. Then a new person came by, Patrick, who is from the US but has been moving around for years. He bought in twice, and Cole and I knocked him out twice, for a total loss of 100 yuan. To be honest, he started to really annoy me while we were talking -- it's rare for me to judge someone harshly like that after just meeting them, but he was way too forward and unrelenting and closed-minded for my tastes. His overall excruciatingness very quickly became, well, excruciating.

After about 2 hours Cole cashed out with 57 yuan or so, slightly up, and I had just shy of 200 -- I quadrupled my money. It was a good game, and damn does it feel good to nix the chips and play for hard cash. And there was no "No poker!"

After the game, I had a beer or two with a bunch of people sitting outside the hostel for the last few hours of my night. I met Tom, from England, and two identical twins from England (one named Eden, I forget his brother's name), who were chill, and Chris, from Connecticut, who is in China for Shaolin Martial Arts training. Alex was with us for a while, and Jeeyoung, and Patrick (who went downhill in my book even more as he got drunk and belligerant).

At 12:30 I went upstairs to sleep. Instead I packed a bit, and at 2 I went to bed.

The Post Not Worth Reading

I woke up with relative ease considering how little sleep I got last night. Got dressed, had breakfast and went to work. On the way we passed the worst accident I've seen so far -- a cab (surprise!) and a motorcycle... And the cyclist was dead on the street, a crowd of people around him.

Spent the morning booking my hostel in Brussels (a place that used to be Van Gogh's studio) and figuring out what to do for the day I'm there, as well as doing an inventory for Ian so we can return a bunch of items for a client. The afternoon was research and preparation of two memorandums.

I left at 6 and got the bus at 6:17. Instead of getting off at my usual stop, though, I stopped at the Yashow Market stop -- I had some souvineer shopping to do.

I got fourteen souvineers for friends and only paid 200元, which is a bargain, to say the least, considering I got 9 t-shirts, 3 little figures, some bottle openers, an incense holder and a fan. I was too lazy to argue so I just told people how much it was worth (I've been in enough of these markets to know... it makes things easier)

Got back to the hostel at 7:45 and got from Cole a spare suitcase he didn't need. He had gotten it from Kuldeep, who got it for a trip to Shanghai but couldn't bring it home. I need it for all my extra stuff I've gotten here.

Cole and I went out at 9 for dinner at Aunt Characteristics, where we saw Alex, who was on her way to the hostel to rest, feeling a bit sick. During dinner I got a text from Stephanie, from the office, asking me to be in at 9:30 tomorrow. Great. I responded "happy to"...

After dinner, Cole and I got Alex and at 10 the three of us got foot massages at our usual place.

After an hour we paid and floated to the hostel. I spent a while chatting with Steffan and Jeeyoung, the Koreans, and Jonas and a few more. Steffan is going to Mongolia tomorrow morning so I said goodbye to him at 12:30 when I went up to sleep -- gotta be up early, after all.

Sunday, Day of Rest

I woke up at 10:39, or so said one of my roommates when I asked. I got up and got to packing. My stay in Shanghai was far too short.

As I began packing, a guy came in for the same reason. His name was Heikki, from Finland.

We got to talking and packing, and we each checked out of the hostel. Heikki works for some Finnish company in a city about 30 min away, but he finds the city boring so he spends his weekends at LeTour in Shanghai.

We checked our emails (Maya had posted a video of my awesomeness in Shanghai from Denmark on Facebook; I couldn't watch yet but I could see myself in the screenshot!) and left our bags with the front desk.I took Heikki down to the Muslim noodle shop for my third meal in Shanghai thus far. We each got beef noodles and shared some lamb fried rice. It was 18 yuan total - so cheap and so delicious.

Heikki and I went our separate ways at 1 at Nanjing West Road Subway Station, a few stops from Jing'An on line 2. I went north on line 10, he went south.

I had figured with today I would do some shopping, but when I went to a market I've never been to (Qi Pu market, ironically pronounced "cheap-oo") and found it deserted, boring, and with worse products than Beijing has on its worst days, and when I realized I was too tired to even say "不要!" I knew I needed to go back and relax. So I left without buying anything and got back on the Subway to go back to the hostel.

I got back at 2:20 and relaxed for a while. I listened to music and watched a movie on my iPhone (Nake Gun 33 1/3, a Leslie Nielson classic).At 5:30 I stopped next door to the hostel and got a back massage. It was heavenly --- except of course for the few moments I said "ow" from pain and she thought I said "好" (hao), for good, thus pushing harder; oh, and there were the several times she tried to tickle me; and there were the times the entire massage parlor reverberated with the sounds of her pounding her fists against my back --- and she liked me enough she gave me an hour-long massage for the price of the 45-minute.

6:40 I got back to the hostel next door and took a beer and a short nap. This hostel is the place where I learned to enjoy beer, forcing myself for a month to have at least one beer a night until I liked it, so I had to have some more Tsingdao Beer from here before I left.

At 7:15 I got my bag and left the hostel. I stopped first at the Muslim noodle place again, though - even three times in two days just isn't enough. I got lamb noodles and beef fried rice. Still great.

A tad before 8 I got to heading to Jing'An for the subway. I had my ticket ahead of time which I got earlier today and so I breezed onto the platform.

I got to HongQiao Airport Terminal 2 at 20 to 9. No one was in the airport, so everything went quickly. I was at Gate 30 at 9:02.

I looked down to my ticket. August 8, 2010. 2 years ago today, I was here in Shanghai, in Malone's bar, watching the Olympic Opening ceremonies. Two years ago today I was preparing to go to Beijing for the Olympics. Two years ago today I watched in awe as 2,008 drummers drummed in perfect unison. But that was a different world and a different China - every time I come here it's a different China; this country changes so rapidly.

As the plane taxied away from the gate I noticed the family that had occupied the middle column row of 3 seats in front and to my left had gotten off the plane. I took the empty row in the crowded plane - I guess spreading out isn't what the Chinese usually do.

I lay down on the seats and relaxed for the flight. We landed early, at 11:51, much to my surprise since I was spacing out - thought for a moment we had hit something...

I walked towards the taxis, thinking I would have to splurge on a taxi home since the last airport express train is at 10pm or something, but as I walked outside I saw a [Chinese only] sign detailing bus routes back. I checked the map and found one going to 东直门 (Dongzhimen), which is a mere 11元 cab ride from my hostel. So with the 16元 for the bus the trip from the airport became a 27元 affair instead of a 100元 one.

The bus left at 12:25 and after traffic (whittling a four-lane highway with 5 lanes of cars down to 2), looking down at all the cabs meters we passed (in traffic a little ways outside the airport they were already mid-40元 range) and a few accidents on the road (every accident I've seen this summer has had a cab involved, surprise surprise) the bus arrived at 东直门 and I got a cab to the hostel - getting in at 1am sharp.

Alex was up and I put down my stuff and went out with her to get her a snack because she hadn't eaten dinner yet and she was starving.

We stopped at the Circle Q (yes, not K..) across the street from the hostel and Alex got some random stuff off the counter, including a "hamburger," which ended up being a cold cut of some mystery meat on bread.

Sat back down in the hostel and I got a beer and told Alex about my weekend. Bumped into Jonas, who had turned his very impressive tattoo into something far cooler with his tattoo guy while I was away - he was very excited, being from Denmark as he is, to hear about my EXPOdition with the Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen.

At 2 I went upstairs and showered, and by 3:00 I was asleep, though with the amount of relaxation I did today I probably could have stayed up all night.