stranger in a strange land

Tuesday and Wednesday (beijing time)

In order to get to beijing, you have to conquer the 12hr plane ride which takes you up along B.C. over alaska above siberia and down into china. On the plane i met a woman named Cicy (cissy) who is a student at SFU studying accounting. she was quite interesting to talk to on the plane flight from her loving country music (at least she likes john denver) to tom and jerry cartoons. i did get free hooch on the plane which was nice, but sitting in that environment for 12 hours is awful, i wonder if attendants have long-term health problems. (picture is of siberia)


so, i got into the airport fine, kyle had arranged a driver for me and i headed to his work. the drive was quite interesting. trees are alongside the road, i guess to make it look attractive, but all of the evergreens were brown and had this soot on them. it was quite distgusting. during the 50minute drive all i could see was massive buildings everywhere. with banners everywhere i felt like i was in a different world (i will get a picture of them). i got to kyles work, met him, he took me to his place and i got in the shower. kyle went back to work and i slept for a couple of hours.

when kyle got home he had a ping-pong lesson. i watched kyle get his ass kicked for about and hour (which only cost 4usd) and then met up with his friend eden. eden took us to a hotpot restaurant. you cook your food on boiling water. everything is sliced thinly so it cooks quickly. we sat there for a couple hours. for the meal it was all we could eat and drink (i had 5 pints of beer) which came to 15usd. after that went home and blacked out. slept well too. today i am off
to the summer palace. lets see what happens there!