Tianjin

Right up there on the list of things that suck, and are real social hampers, is getting a major rash on your face. One that mysteriously starts from one earlobe and spreads to cover your both cheeks like a itchy red beard. Yup, I've been walking around for five days with a thousand molehills on my face. It might as well have been a book for the blind. The worst part is, I've been meeting new people this weekend who will now always remember me as "the girl with the face that cast a shadow on itself". Great success.

I went to the City Weekend offices on Friday, that's the magazine that I'm hoping to freelance write for. Met with one of the editors and discussed ideas for stories. Basically as a freelancer, I bounce ideas off the editors until a story get's approved for the magazine. Will update you guys if anything does. If I say nothing, it means I fail, so don't add insult to injury by asking me how it went. The really great part of Friday was that I met a girl studying abroad at Tsinghua who's also writing for the same magazine. We had a late lunch that turned into a dinner as we monopolized a table in a restaurant for oh, almost 4 HOURS. Talked about everything from hutongs to physics to sustainable agriculture to gender equality to public radio in Alaska. Bonkers but so so awesome.

That night we had predrink part 2 at the apartment and went out to a cliched nightclub in Beijing's Shanlitun (expat area). Relatively blase and uneventful evening. Or so we thought, as we trudged our way back at 5 am after the obligatory Mcdonalds gorgefest. So apartment complexes here all have front gates that are patrolled by security during the day. At night, they close and lock said gates to prevent intruders from entering. We looked up at the 7 ft gate towering menacingly over us, and then back at our four inch heels and street food in hand. It had to be done.

Worse/best part about it? The little old lady looking on while taking her morning stroll.

The next day, we had an early start sightseeing in the Olympic Village. Actually, we left at 2 in the afternoon but let's not get technical here. The structures really are breathtaking. We went inside the watercube and sat admiring the grandeur of the arena for quite some time. I could just see Michael Phelps do a triple flip off the diving board and hear the crowd's thundering roar against the treble of a hundred-piece orchestra playing "One World, One Dream". Really, the olympics just has a way of turning you into cheese.

Sat night was kept tame with a slumber party featuring gossip girl season 2, nail polish, and delicious chocolate dipped strawberries! Don't you wish you were a part of it. We woke up at 7 am the next day to take a train to Tianjin, a large but often overlooked industrial town just north of Beijing. We took the brand new bullet trains that travelled at 350km/h and got to the city in just thirty minutes. Tianjin was a former colony and is characterized by an eclectic mix of european architecture juxtaposed against old skool chinese hutongs and temples. It is a small enough city to feel accessible by foot, and the beautiful sunshine that day was perfect for wandering through its alleys and big roads alike.

We came back to Beijing around 9pm last night to a pitch black apartment. Electricity is a pay as you go type deal here, and we didn't notice ours needed replenishing until... it dissapeared. You can only buy electricity credits at the bank during working hours, so we had to wait until this morning to go. There's nothing like a black-out to bring people together. In our case we sat around a candle and listened to Cat read out loud from the Lonely Planet guide on Harbin.

Speaking of, Harbin is where we're headed next weekend. It is a Russian-influenced city of ice in the northern most province of China that is known for its beautiful winter scenery. Saweeet.