Woke up this morning to the bleakest, most depressing sky I've ever seen. I guess spring has arrived, because it rained for the first time last night since I arrived. The rain hit my face as I was eating ma la tang, these hot pot style veggies and meat on a stick, the best street food on this side of the wall. It was 2 am and we had been celebrating the birthday of a friend in Shanlitun, a concentrated stretch of laid back bars where drinks are cheaper than water, people spill onto the streets, and chaos is the order of the night. We started the night in style at the grand opening of The Emperor bar, the rooftop terrace of a boutique hotel located in a hutong overlooking the forbidden city. BAAAM. It's as sick as it sounds. Atmosphere was Malibu meets Tang dynasty, people just stepped out of vanity fair. There was a free flow of champagne, wine, and martinis, with delicious canapes that I could barely keep up with. But I did. And I would have done better if every time I had a drink in my hand, the birthday boy hadn't taken it from me and pounded it back in the blink of an eye. I'll let it slide for the occasion, but you all know better than to steal blinis out of my hand!
The night got progressively sloppy as we ended up wolfing down fries and 15 kuai mojitos on the street in Shanlitun. Then we danced obnoxiously on stage at a seedy joint called Bar Blu and when our exchange theme song "I will survive" the final fantasy edition came on, the noise we made was next levz.
Yeeaaaaaaahhhh.
Some time later I got hungry and tired and that's how I ended up sitting on a wobbly stool in the rain dousing hot sauce on my skewers. I'm pretty sure everything tastes better on a stick. And when it's spicy TOFUUU and soysauce eggggggg its just stupid good. Like, honestly... you're blowing some serious mind in my mouth right now good. After I got my fill, I was sufficiently wet from the first rainfall of the year that I smelled like dog and smoke. Then I found Cat and we made the obligatory Bellagio stop to round out our evening with delicious Taiwanese shaved ice dessert goodness. Mmmm tower of finely shaved ice doused in condensed milk and showered with red beans, tapioca, and candied pineapples. Best and surest way to brain freeze.
Earlier this week I started my job at the hotel. First day was intimidating as hell, as I was passed off from manager to manager until finally I found my place in the executive club, where I was to do my first rotation. The manager looked visibly annoyed at the prospect of babysitting me and sighed extra loud as he brought me to get my uniform (Yes I wear an outfit that looks like memoirs of a geisha as a sanitation worker) and sign my forms at HR. But I worked my charms and spewed some brilliance in our conversations and he realized that I wasn't some freeloading brat who got away with 3 days at work each week just because I knew the CEO. By the end of the week he was practicing English on me, taking me on his smoke breaks, which were every thirty minutes, to ask me about management advice and getting me to interview new candidates for the job. Not a bad job, but definitely showed me some subtle and not so subtle nuances about working in China versus the west. Such as the rigid hierarchies, and the implied rather than the vocalized.
Wednesday night I went to the 2nd annual Beijing Contemporary Dance festival held by the school where I'm taking classes. It was the most spectacular display of expressive dance I've ever seen in my life, and the best part was they were all Chinese dancers. That's what I mean about this city being world-class, none of these dancers are famous on the international sphere, but they are the top class in China, and number and calibre of them blow my mind. Contemporary dance in China is also interesting because it is so emotional, and in a country where communication is supressed more than encouraged, watching the dancers express such raw emotions with fluid grace really stuck out for me. Then on the way home I met up with friends Dan and Henri for drinks at a bar for Henri's birthday, which quickly moved to a seedy student club downstairs that is infamous for being the mother of all evil hangovers this side of the student ghettos. Wednesday nights are open bar nights with a five dollar admission for girls and about 15 for guys, and no joke the booze they serve is more or less lethal. Clearly second grade stuff poured into the real bottles, but ask any of the hundreds of people mauling the bar on Wednesday nights if they care and the answer is helllls no. Somehow stumbled home and relished my glorious morning of NO WORK the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that.
Now I sit here on Sunday night, with my macroeconomic book opened to page one, thinking that I should study for my exam on Wednesday, blogging instead, and dreading the thought of WORK IN THE MORNING.
In other news, I made me a delicious meal of mung bean clear noodles, dried tofu, and pickled vegetables in a sweet and spicy black bean chili sauce today. All in five minutes and without turning on the stove. I'm such a cordon bleu chef in training. The food network is already lining up a show. It will be called The Naked Szechuan Contessa. Pay per view only. byaaaahhhhhh.
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