Day 1

Day 1 in Beijing turned out to be more interesting than I had planned. I arrived at 3:30 and headed straight for my sister place, sending a few texts to friends I know in town to see if anyone was doing anything. No luck. Not wanting to sit around all alone in my sisters apt on my first night in the city I took myself out to dinner at a cute little restaurant called Element Fresh and sat happily eating a plate of pasta, sipping a glass of chardonnay and reading The House of Spirits. Not wanting to go home so early I strolled over to a cafe/bookstore/bar called Bookworm and sat happily again sipping more wine and reading my novel. By 9:30/10:00 I was getting kind of tired (3 glasses of wine later) and started to pack up my things when out of nowhere this blond boy with a british accent starts to chat me up (what are you doing in Beijing? how long have you been here? etc etc). Next thing I know I'm sitting at a table with this boy (who we'll call The Climber because he's very much into rock climbing), his sister, his dad and a friend of theirs. Apparently they're all in Beijing for a few months studying chinese but lived for a long time in Hong Kong. Conversation flows freely as we all discuss the difficulties of studying chinese, the brilliance of russell peters, billy connelley, monty python and mr. bean. At midnight we decide to turn in and I exchange numbers with the climber and head home to watch a few episodes of Californication (brilliant show).