not a caddy anymore

where to begin, in love with travelling again, we are still in beijing and have no solid plan yet what we will do next, either..boat rides in the karst mountain near guilin, hiking amongst the monkeys and monks outside chengdu, enjoying the shainghai nightlife, or renting motorcycles with sidecars and riding into mongolia, everything sounds good to me, we enjoyed night three until the sun rose over the city last night, not as crazy as it sounds considering i am on no particular sleep schedule, a few hours here and there, completely jetlagged, my body does not distinguish night from day, let's start with the food

people here put emphasis on food as a necessity but also a social event, as americans and foreigners gather in bars, the chinese gather at restaurants to eat and it is easy to see why, the food is incredible, apparently different here than the rest of china, it is easy enough so far to find vegetarian options and certainly alot of seafood, my favorite and already regular spot is the lily, a vegetarian restaurant that is a few blocks from the Buddhist temple here, were at one table, monks across the room eating, everything is made with meat substitutes, so you order broiled duck or chicken beef etc. and it is all veggie and delicious, prices range in restaurants but overall is cheap, a huge meal for three with beers and waters, teas and desserts is usually under 30 bucks, i have seen some weird food but not much so far, i am sure that is going to change..

beer, we are addicted to tseingdao, the 22 oz beauties range from 50cents (3 yuan) to a buck fifty at some places, we seem to always have one in hand or nearby, you can spoil yourself here coming over with american dollars, you can live like a king, we have gone to local watering holes as well as the expat bars( basically where the foreigners hangout), last night was a place in the old neighborhoods that was primarily a french bar that brewed banana rum and was filled with speaking sounds of chinese, english, and french, everyone has been nice, no bar brawls yet



there is too much to speak of in one entry here so i'll mention something that is affecting me currently, the pollution here in beijing is staggering, this also is the best time year round for it and the olympics cleared things up somewhat, as i plane was landing we saw endless trashfires and factory smokestacks just pumping waste into the air, we landed into a haze of smog, the second day was the worst, we were hiking throughout the city along neighborhoods and parks, every breath felt like the sensation of walking past a running schoolbus and getting a lungfull of exhaust, in between the breathes of smog are the waves of sewage stink which can come randomly or almost always as you pass a public bathroom (there are many in the old neighborhoods where the people have no personal bathrooms they all use the public ones which some are unbearable to enter they are so vile) as we walked my nose became completely clogged and lungs felt heavy, i have been lightly sick now since we have been here, later the second day it rained which helped the situation greatly, the next day and today have cleared into beautiful breezy days and it is much more bearable, peak time for pollution here is mid summer, i can't imagine and don't ever want to experience it, i see why some athletes refused to participate in th olympics



too much to say here, so i'll leave it at this, we are learning everyday, from all that we see, hear, try to say and do, from each person we meet, and each set of eyes we pass, the chinese here have been great thus far, no one has asked for money or given me bad treatment as a foreigner, and on a positive note, i accidentally left my atm card in the machine open to my account after a withdrawal, a chinese guy chased me down and returned it to me, saved my ass



i will try to write more today, there are several ridiculous stories to share, but i need some coffee, my mind is moving slow, as hopper said in reaction to being put on the spot to order in chinese, (a complete communication breakdown followed) "my mind is not a cadillac anymore, i'm rolling around in an old jalopy up here"