Recapping the last ten days

Kat taking one of many photos at the 颐和园 Summer Palace

I can’t actually remember what I was doing on specific days but fortunately I am an adept stapler (if that makes sense… basically I am keeping ticket stubs and the like in a notebook).  By the way, this gets really long:

• On the evening of the 4th, Kat and I sought out Russian food and we ended up at a place in Dongzhimen called Traktirr Pushkin.  I thought it was a decent meal, but it was substandard for Kat who has standards for such things.  When I got back to Ben and Verena’s, they were watching Twilight with Jake and I caught the last half hour or so and it was absolutely ridiculous.  Later, we watched The Proposal.
• October 5th: I got up relatively early and returned to the Summer Palace with Kat.  It was busier than when I first visited but it is the Golden Week.  We had lunch in Wudaokou and returned to Ben’s before going for Peking Duck with Ben, Verena, Jake, and Lorelei (who is in town from Shanghai) and her friends Cedric and Philippe.  We ate at Dadong which is supposed to be one of the best places for 北京烤鸭 roast duck in the city and while it was very good, I think I’ve had duck of equal or better quality in Toronto with less hype.  The accompanying dishes were all right.  Later, drinks in 三里屯 Sanlitun and the rest of them went clubbing at Destination but I went back to Ben’s and caught up on Desperate Housewives.
• On the 6th, I finally moved to Kat’s where I stayed the rest of my time in Beijing.  I met her at Miss Me Coffee & Cake where she spends most of her time after work, studying for her CFA.  That night, we went to see Zhang Yimou’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot at the Bird’s Nest with her roommates.  I enjoyed what I could of the opera itself and was very impressed with the tenor who sang the part of the Prince (and I have some thoughts on the production itself in the Bird’s Nest that I plan to write later), but omigood the family sitting across the aisle from us was sooooo annoying.  I basically had to tell them to shut up, except without words, because my Chinese ain’t so great yet.  I accepted mild chatter and eating-noises because we were in a stadium and people were clearly explaining to each other what was going on, but this family (a grown son and his parents) were literally just chatting: awful.
• The next day, Kat and I got our hair cut at a place just outside her apartment complex.  I think it went well.  This wasn’t one of those loud music-blaring salons that are so common, but I relatively low key one.  I insisted on skipping the first one we saw because of the crazy hair the staff member standing in the window had, and then we skipped the second one.  We ended up at the third because it had recognisable brands in the window.  Afterward, we had lunch with Michele (one of Kat’s roommates) and I think we just killed time meeting up with Ben, Verena, and her IR friends at Lush for trivia night.  The night ended again with dessert and the novelty of dining on swings.
• At this point, I’m having trouble distinguishing Thursday and Friday, but one of those days, we just hung out at Kat’s cafe and the Sculpting in Time in Lido and basically chilled out.  When we got home, we weren’t sure what we would do about dinner, but Kat’s other roommate Cameron had their fellow English teacher Brian (who I met on the plane), his Chinese girlfriend, and her friend over and they made dinner and it was yum.
• On the other day, we set out to the art district 操场地 Caochangdi.  It was really cool, and maybe that’s another post, but I hope to go back again, especially when it isn’t the holidays and when most of the galleries aren’t closed.  We did see a few cool exhibitions though.  After that, we made our way to 押宝路 Alien Street to look for better Russian food but somehow we ended up at the other location of Mirch Masala.  After that, we head to the Drum & Bell District to a 疆进酒吧 Jiangjinjiu Bar to check out something advertised as, “Panjir Uighur folk band make the sounds of Xinjiang heard in the alleys of Gulou.”
• Saturday was my last day in Beijing.  Kat and I went to 五道口 Wudaokou to have lunch with Ben at BLCU; said goodbye to him and Jake and later Verena.  Succeeded at buying some long underwear at Uniqlo (and wish I bought some more, because they’re comfy) but failed at finding any good ankle boots (apparently my feet are too big for China).  I bought some sandwiches and returned to Kat’s to chill out and get ready to leave.  Brian and Corey (also from the plane) were there for a little bit, and then Kat walked me to my taxi which got me to the station with perfect timing.  The driver was very friendly when we started talking during the crazy traffic jam close to the station.
• Sunday morning I got back and all was chill.
• Monday we went back to school and I think it went well.  I remembered thinking the day before that I return to spending about 7 RMB per meal on weekdays eating in the school cafeterias (as opposed to 30-50 RMB eating out in Beijing) but of course Marco texts me to say that a bunch of people are going out for Arab food again at the restaurant where we celebrated my birthday and we ended up spending almost 70 kuai per person.
• Yesterday was similarly chill except that we had our first (optional) evening class.  At first I thought, o no, but I actually liked the opportunity for a study hall sort of time to focus and work.  Li Laoshi will be there Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings from 7pm and I plan to make every Tuesday and Thursday as long as I can stand the cold.  Also, I met a friend of a friend of Jenny’s who will be going to study Spanish in Beijing so that the government can post her to a Spanish-speaking country to teach Chinese.  She seemed interesting and I hope to keep in touch.