Beijing Reunion

I made it safely over the Pacific and have been in Beijing for 3 days, hanging out with my friends and with people at my hostel. It’s so refreshing to just walk around or sit around and talk instead of rushing to see every tourist site in the city. There are certainly many more places that I have yet to see in Beijing, but these three days have been a relaxing transition into life in China: eating baozi (steamed buns) every morning, drinking yogurt with a straw (so excited – I forgot that one of my favorite foods is actually commonly available!), and pushing in front of the people who push in front of me while “standing in line” at the train station to buy tickets.

My friend Hanna and I had two major goals for our time in Beijing: hear live music and get a massage. Unfortunately our attempt to attend the “Greatwall Tanglewood Forest Festival” (3 days of rock, electronica, and other awesomeness, including 2 sets by Obie band Teengirl Fantasy) was foiled by incorrect information on the internet and a train ticket salesperson’s insulting assumption that we were trying to visit the Badaling section of the Great Wall, not the nearby municipality of Yanqing, even though we clearly told her we wanted to go to Yanqing. By the time it was sorted out, it was too late to make the trek out of Beijing worthwhile.

So instead we treat ourselves to massages with the money we would have spent on the festival. So worth it, and much less hassle.

Today I am flying to Dalian and moving into my apartment! This will be good.