Last I wrote we were still in China. We had just finished packing up and shipping 8 boxes to Maria’s parents house in Ohio. Not all too much happened after that. We finished packing into suitcases, cleaned the apartment up as best as we could, left a whole bunch of empty suitcases, chocolates, posters, and maps for my father to deal with, closed our Chinese cell phone and internet and apartment telephone accounts, gave my cousin free reign to root through our pantry and kitchen for any leftover non-perishables we had left like flats of coke and sprite and diet coke left over from the party, and were hauled by said cousin also in the middle of the night in his Nissan versa hatch back that luckily fit all our luggage because we ended up being one piece over anyways to the Beijing Capital airport for our flight back to our home, the good old US of A, quite possibly in the end, the best place to live in the world. And this is sort of a rant here but I’ve been reading many articles online touting the possibilities and progressiveness of countries in Africa and Asia and how they’re the next frontier for science and technology because they don’t have the vestiges of old industry and commerce in place already so it’s easier and quicker for them to innovate and it’ll be better for all of us if the States would just be more like them but you know, those columnist tools don’t have a clue what they’re talking about and it’s so obvious they’ve never lived or even set foot in these countries that they speak of so fondly and that if they had spent any decent amount of time in these countries they’d know that well, it’s just not true, and the States is just, for all its faults and there are many, better. Let’s leave it at that.

The flight was painless, despite the blizzards that were happening across the Northeast, and after a relaxing layover after much careful scrutiny of my computer parts and electronics filled carry on by the TSA we landed very much on time indeed in Toledo, barely minutes before Maria’s parents arrived to pick us up in the van we will soon, and have as I write, inherit. And I realized that I’m not entirely in control of who reads this blog and all and that some of these faceless masses out there may actually include my parents perish the thought, but though I had the option I didn’t want to go back to LA and spend the holidays there. It was so nice being in Ohio. In no particular order, here is what we did:

• Visited my Emily in Cleveland and had lunch at a Irish pub, went to the Cleveland Museum of Art, and had coffee at one of the local hippie chain coffeeshops.
• Ate at Wilson’s (the Findlay burger joint that all the local politicians go to for photo ops), ate at Olive Garden with Maria’s Sarah, ate at Cracker Barrel with Maria’s Sarah and family (still my favorite country restaurant that’s distressingly absent from both the Eastern and Pacific timezones), ate at Mendoza’s (a wonderful hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant that’s apparently been there since Maria was in high school though she never knew about it), ate at Marie’s (a breakfast and lunch only place with wonderful skillets), ate at Dietz’s (I think I spelled that right but they have marshmallow topping for their ice cream), ate fancy pizza with Maria’s Sarah again to ring in the New Year, ate at Oller’s (and survived!).
• Walked around town.
• Had a lovely Christmas meal with Maria’s family after picking her grandmother up from Ada (think ONU)
• Decided seriously whether or not it was worth buying an entire, historic building in downtown Findlay (the Finder’s Records building) for 650K negotiable. In the flood zone, yes, empty since the 1960s, yes, in need of extensive renovation, yes, probably flood damaged from 2007, yes, but it’s HUGE and (in my mind) CHEAP! I’m thinking PBL headquarters come 2012 or 2014.
• Visited Maria’s Sarah at the library and decided I need to get a library card one of these days.
• Received lemon bars by mail.
• Saw Tron: Legacy as a matinee at the Carmike.
• And probably many more things that I now forget.

As I mentioned, we spent New Years with Maria’s Sarah, watched the whole TV thing, sent my Emily a text message. It was, in short, a lovely week.

We drove to NYC on January 2, 2011, officially starting this new, probably wonderful, chapter of our lives, and I think I have it in me to finish off and bring everything, in writing, up to date.

As we drove, and it’s a drive I’ve done many times in the past as well though we were thankful that my old GPS Daniel still worked like a charm (but I should update his maps), we listened to Maria’s MCLE, which is a lawyer thing having to do with the requirement that she keep up to date on new changes and issues in the law. Honestly, interesting, surprisingly. We made good time and met with France’s brother Jamey at our current home on East 75th St., lugged everything upstairs into our albeit small but currently exceptionally comfortable studio apartment, then drove the car down to our parking garage located on East 40th St. We got a good deal. Since then, and in no particular order, we’ve:

• Walked the blocks between 40th and 75th St. and 2nd and Madison Ave. countless times as we’ve explored, met with recruiters, took interviews, wandered, etc.
• Signed me up with 2 recruiting agencies who as it turns out are owned by the same parent company so lo and behold was I surprised when I could login to both sites after having only created one account with them but that’s a long paragraph for later, oh and took many interviews with them as well.
• Toured the Harvard Club, which we are eager to join.
• Went to the Costco up at the Stew Leonard in my old stomping grounds to pick up some non-perishable essentials (like Gatorade) and get Maria an eye exam and glasses/contacts prescriptions, got some stuff for my Emily, then did our laundry at good old Greystone Ave. (yeah our current complex doesn’t have a laundry facility).
• Switched us over to a non-contract family plan with T-Mobile and bought Maria a G2 cell phone, and since we don’t have internet you will not believe how much data we’ve been chugging through on the tether, I’m talking gigs…but it’s good to be on proper phone plans again, this whole pay-as-you-go thing is way overrated.
• Bought Maria a new laptop! A giant, 17+ inch Dell (yes, we’re switching back to PC from Mac, and Maria is loving it), and spent much time geting everything installed and copied over and put into place and customized so that it’s usable, and we’re not done yet, still have her iTunes and iPhoto libraries to copy over.
• Scoped out the neighborhood and went on delivery/takeout menu hunts with much success.
• Watched TV (on the computer)
• I’ve been on 5 job interviews with 3 more planned for the next couple of days, and more, and Maria’s been very successful at getting feedback on contract/temporary lawyer work in NYC.
• Maria’s been loving her runs here and is getting back in shape and into her normal running routine, and we even have a half marathon planned in the next 2 weeks! The NYC Half Marathon!
• Given our penchant for walking, we managed to go an entire week without buying a metrocard! At one point I walked over 100 blocks getting from interview to interview before I finally gave in and we’ve ridden it only twice so far. I guess we may not need to get monthly passes just yet.
• And like before, I’m equally sure many more things probably that I’ve just forgotten but there are so many more things in the works like visiting Maria’s Emily up in Boston this weekend and mini golfing. Oh, and can’t wait until Frances is back ’cause we’re gonna do a little house warming party. It’s gonna rock this world.

Things to do though include getting involved in music again, ultimately finding a job and the right apartment for the job (hopefully one with either a balcony, patio, garden, or all of the above so that I can have a fire pit), the continued administration of our business, purchasing a NAS, really getting settled and back in the groove of seeing friends especially and I’m serious when I say I want this to stick.

And this is just a mental note to me so that I don’t forget about it all, but man, these recruiters, these companies, these non-contract jobs, whoo what a riot they are! (hint hint)

Oh and I want to implement a new design for the blog. A new design for the new year. A new design for the new city that we are living in. Expect it soon. And that’s a wrap!

It’s been a busy month though, to my credit. The last entry was just before we decided to head back to the States again. What happened was, on the 18th of November, my visa proper expired, as in, no more entries, no more time in China, do not pass go, if you stay in the country you will go to jail and you do not want to go to a Chinese prison. So right around my 27th birthday (yes, that happened also on November 15th), we left. It took a bit to figure out where best to go, but we decided on NYC. Maria processed her student visa there, it’s close to her sister and nephews, I have lots of very good friends there as well, so it seemed the most logical choice. We even managed to secure a nice place of our own to stay in through friends we made in Beijing of all places, a lovely young couple passing through when I still ran that restaurant way back when, and whom we visited in Hong Kong over the summer. Lots of other things happened though while we were in NYC, but I’m not sure I’m allowed to tell you yet. But Maria and I had a lovely time there, and we had even said that we should go to NYC together, spend some time wandering around a city that in the end, I love.

After that, we actually succeeded in me getting my work visa, but now had to apply for a residency permit. We made a last minute decision to stay on through Thanksgiving since it was just around that time anyway, and hitched a ride with my Emily out to Maria’s parents place in OH. I’ll get around to why we decided to extend our trip later, when I’m allowed to, but suffice it to say we wanted to, and it was lots of fun, and involved good food, good times with her parents and family, midnight shopping with her best friend on Black Friday, and more. I’m glamorizing right now, what happened that is, because it’s the best way to do it while being much too warm and cramped on this bunk bed in the train.

We did go back to China though, it was inevitable, and I had my Beijing IFC concert, which was a success, immediately after which I had this past concert in Shanghai. So you see, I’ve really been rather busy!

November 15 – 27th Birthday
November 16 – Fly to NYC to get China work visa
November 21 – Decide to extend our trip in the States through Thanksgiving
November 27 – Fly back to Beijing
December 5 – IFC Beijing concert
December 7 – Take train to Shanghai for IFC Shanghai concert
December 10 – IFC Shanghai concert
December 12 – IFC Shanghai concert
December 12 (now) – Take train back to Beijing from Shanghai

You see, busy! Plus we had flaky internet the entire time, really put our tether through the ropes. And now I think I’m feeling motion sick, so I’m going to stop. There will be more though, and photos, and Core WordPress updates, and tagging this post since the tether’s being flaky. All in good time.

I’m sitting in the equivalent of a dining car right now, the privilege of which I had to pay 30RMB for a pot of coffee for, surrounded for the most part by train workings with large calculators going over piles upon piles of receipts. I had thought that buying a bottle of iced tea would be enough to assure me a seat in this car, but then I was very politely informed that the seats are reserved for people partaking in “afternoon tea.” Hence the coffee. At least I also got a small plate of salted peanuts for my troubles. I’m also using my iPad to type as I’m not certain the individual cars have power ports so I don’t want to use my laptop unless I absolutely have to. People are also more and more speaking Cantonese, the southern dialect of Chinese that is entirely incomprehensible to me. I feel my ability to communicate quickly slipping away so for the most part, and also to get some semblance of preferential treatment; I’ve switched to using English most of the time.

The last time I was on a train in China was trying to get home to Beijing from Shanghai. We had purchased our tickets late, or it was some kind of hurry to the station, but whatever the reason we didn’t have the right tickets and were stuck for all intents and purposes standing, many people deep, trying to breathe through a small opening in the window. Compared to what I’m sitting in now, it’s like a completely different world, though I guess that statement’s reasonable considering how China works. Skipping over some details and leaving a whole bunch for later, on that trip so long ago we managed to upgrade our tickets on board to the “soft sleeper,” the type of ticket I’m in right now. What I’ve described before were the “hard sleeper” or “hard seats,” I don’t remember which. The major difference is that instead of six bunks per open compartment with infinitely more people just hanging out in all the hallways and walkways, the “soft sleeper” only has four bunks, air conditioning, and a door. In fact, it was such a difference in temperature, so much colder, that I actually got sick by the end of the trip. But that was then, and only serves as historical context of a sort. This record is about now.

The coffee is quite good by the way; very rich. I only got two packets of sugar, and I have a feeling they’ll charge me if I ask for more, so I’m going to try a cup unsweetened it’s just that good.

My train tickets cost just over 200$ round trip, much cheaper than any airplane option. The train takes 24 hours each way, and is only reasonable time wise because I am unemployed at the moment. As unreasonable as it must seem, there’s a part of me that really enjoys traveling by train. I like the sounds, the views, the way the train shakes as it goes over the tracks. I like the people. Being much older than I was that first time taking the train, having, I hope, matured a bit, I actually regret getting the fancy seat that I have. I feel very isolated from the rest of the train and the people on it. The people traveling in the “soft sleepers” are usually families, and they buy up the entire compartment and close the door for privacy. It’s like their own private little train compartment, and they don’t come out, and they don’t interact with other people. In fact, I feel a little bad for intruding on the other people in my compartment, a Chinese couple and their son, but what can you do. I met some foreigners from Yorkshire in the car I’m in, but they’ve retreated into the safety of their compartment as well. I must have wandered the length of the train as far as they’d let me 3 or 4 times already, seeking out people, not necessarily to talk to because I am still deathly shy, but just to watch, and see how they pass their time.

First is that they really like to share beds. There’d be three young Chinese girls all sitting on the same tiny little bottom bunk, sharing one thin blanket, across the way from an equally crowded other little bottom bunk, this one full of adults, and they’d all be playing cards on a makeshift table made using their luggage. I’m talking about the people in the “hard sleepers,” where there are three levels of small bunks in compartments of six. Quite an impressive site actually also watching these people climb up and down these layers of beds. I had though it difficult to climb onto my bunk which is just one level up, but to imagine climbing six is something else altogether. There are these tiny little fold out metal steps built into the walls, one for each level. They still have the price tag on some of them: they cost 6RMB each apparently.

They also like traveling food. Even the family in my compartment, they have an entire suitcase full of just food to eat. Last I saw them they were slicing their way through one of those cream roll cakes. It looked very good actually, but I personally find it difficult to travel with that much food. My mother is like that though, and in the past whenever I’d leave from home to go back to college she’d back even perishables into my luggage despite my best protests. I think it’s because I like to travel light so it’s difficult to justify an entire extra piece of luggage devoted solely to food. I mean, what do you do with the luggage after the journey when it’s empty? I don’t plan to eat on this journey, mostly also because I don’t think I can bring myself to use the toilet facilities. There’s also this really famous Chinese kind of snack food that’s a whole chicken or duck that’s been stuffed into a vacuum-sealed bag. Walking up and down the aisles it’s easy to spy multiple families going at this piece of cold meat with impressive gusto.

Hard to believe I’ve not yet typed two pages after all this time. It’s actually quite difficult and perhaps not entirely worth it at all. I might transfer this file over to my laptop and continue the typing from there. I’ve switched to my laptop now. I have about an hour and a half of battery life left and I’ve switched the font size formatting. I’ve now typed even less than I had thought for all the effort it cost me; definitely typing on the iPad may not be the world’s greatest idea. I’m also feeling a bit motion sick right now which is surprising.

Some kind of companion on this trip to take in the sights and observations with me would be appreciated. It’s only been a couple of hours and already I feel like I’m running out of things to do. It’s just that, and I think the Chinese people want it this way, like I said I feel very segregated from everyone else. The private compartment, the locked doors between trains, the “fee” to sit down at the dining car, it’s like everyone else wants to be left alone, except me. I want some company. In a way that’s a very Chinese inclination; people who for most of their lives were never alone and so are not used to being alone, find solitude a luxury, something to pay extra money for, and I technically have, so I guess I’m reaping what I’ve sown. It’s still kind of weird though, like, there’s no observation car like in the States, a place to lounge, hang out, and chat with the other passengers.

The entire process of getting on the train was a little harrowing. Apparently I was late without evening knowing I was, but this particular train stops boarding 20 minutes before departure, and I got here at 20 minutes before, and was at the wrong entrance on the wrong floor and had to go all the way back down to go through immigration. I’ve technically “left” the country already, as far as my passport is concerned. I guess that makes the interior of this train like an airport and airplane, a pseudo no man’s land where I can temporarily be in and out at the same time. But I hadn’t expected that, which caused the mad rush at the onset. My entire day actually was surprisingly hurried, so much so that I never got to take that shower I was planning on.

This morning I went to get my cell phone registered so that it could be used outside of Beijing. Unless your phone is registered either with a China resident or under your own passport, apparently your usage is limited to the city in which you purchased it. I noticed this for the first time on my way to Tianjin with the IFC when half way there, my service just stopped. I figured if I’m going to be on this train for 24 hours, and in China proper for the vast majority of it, I may as well be able to make and receive phone calls. So I ran over to my cousin Michael’s place and we headed to the China Mobile store to get things taken care of, when to our dismay, apparently we needed some PIN number that was on the back of the SIM card holder when we first bought it and no one bothered to keep that little piece of plastic, so lo and behold, we can’t make any changes to my service without changing the PIN first, and that process takes 2 weeks or more. So, solutionless, I buy another phone number, activate it properly, register it, pre-buy a whole bunch of time because I have to as a kind of deposit, forward my old number to it, and voila, here I am, in the middle of no where, but still in cell service. Not the most elegant of solutions, but one nevertheless.

But this process took longer than I thought, and there’s construction going on at my mother’s place again as they try to fix some of the small things while they’re in town, and for some reason my grandfather showed up again, and everything was out of place and I was already running late and I just ran out of time. I had also never been to the Beijing West Railway Station before, so I had no idea how to make my way around it, which didn’t make things easier. It’s a pretty station though, massive in size and scale, overpowering even in its façade, kind of monumental, and like all things Chinese and new, it sported those traditional temple style roofs of red and gold, just enough of a tacky hint to make it look like a Las Vegas hotel. This is actually the older train that I’m on, and I think it takes longer, but when I purchased these tickets I didn’t have options for the other one, or I couldn’t understand the options for the other one, but here I am. The good thing about this train is that they have 2 person compartments with private bathrooms, but since I wasn’t planning on getting one of those compartments anyways it may have been more reasonable to try to get on the newer train. Ah well.

What did impress me a lot though was that as the train was leaving the platform, there were these uniformed staff members, standing at attention, at set intervals along the platform, watching after the train as we left. It felt like they were sending us off, with style even, and I felt sort of like royalty.

Getting on the car, they traded my paper ticket for a plastic one, I’m not sure why. The staff also came around and wrote down everyone’s name and a form of ID, probably to make sure they don’t lose anyone, though I’m not actually sure if there are stops along the way, we haven’t made any yet, so there may not be an opportunity to lose anyone. The first hour or so I took lots of pictures out the windows, but they’re really dirty and there’s a pretty strong glare. I took some interior photos, and almost got a very good one of the uniformed staff before one of them shyly turned away and asked me not to take his picture. I want to have photos of the rooms, compartments, other people, but I worry that it’ll impose on someone else’s privacy. It’s an odd feeling, being out of place, and I definitely feel it right now. I’m operating under the assumption that I paid for my pot of coffee, I paid for my seat in the dining car, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to leave any time before I’m good and ready. I already fought off an attempt to be dismissed when I went to get my laptop. I asked one of the staff to watch my things and not take away my coffee because I’ll be right back, and she suggested, rather strongly, that I just leave. And now, I’m the only one left in here, surrounded by staff going about their business, cleaning the floors, getting boxed lunches ready, taking their meals, smoking, and everyone now and then one of them gives me an odd look as if to ask why I’m still here. Nevertheless, I don’t intend to leave unless I want to.

They do allow smoking on these trains, incidentally. That and the cold coffee and the reading as I type is probably what’s contributing to my minor bout of motion sickness right now.

As I said, I probably walked up and down the length of the train 3 or 4 times. There’s just nothing else to do. I was glad to be able to walk even because before the train started to move, all the interior doors between compartments were locked. Even the bathroom was locked, and none of these doors were meant to be opened until the train was underway. You still can’t go very far though, even with the opened doors, and there are still doors that aren’t open or places that you get waved rather pointedly but politely not to enter. Again, I’m cultivating that American aura in myself right now for the preferential treatment. As I walked, I’d look into all the cars as discretely as possible, and saw what I’ve described already, and the following:

A foreign couple wearing matching black and white horizontal striped shirts, the guy sporting a massive beard, wearing paper Chinese complimentary sandals. Everyone’s wearing those sandals incidentally, though I haven’t switched to them yet.

Rows upon rows of sleeping Chinese, in the middle of the afternoon, the provided blankets wrapped tightly around them as they sleep with just the tops of their heads poking out of the piles of bedding.

Chinese children, jumping around with more energy than is appropriate, even so far as jumping between the two bunks, climbing all over the place, even on the three level bunks. They’d straddle the open air between the two stacks of bunks, one foot on either side’s foothold.

Families setting up their own personal “space,” including massive water thermoses they’d fill from the provided boiled water spouts at the ends of the trains.

Teenage looking Chinese kids watching foreign TV shows with Chinese subtitles, shared on one monitor on a makeshift table.

Lots of staff, in their own private though tiny little compartments, reading newspapers with one foot up against the wall, oblivious to my presence as I walk by.

In the “soft sleeper” rooms there are also fold out chairs against the windows on the hallway. In the “hard sleeper” compartments they also have these seats but in addition they have a small table between them, a much better layout I think than in the “soft sleepers,” again one of those instances where I don’t think we’re expected to use those fold out seats in favor of the provided table inside the private compartment. And again, I want one, a better place to camp out is all I have in mind.

That’s about all I remember from looking in to the train compartments, I’ll probably take another walk around later though to stretch my legs.

The scenery’s been off and on at times serene, peaceful and impressive. There’d be fields of agriculture as far as the eye can see, tiny Chinese row houses built of grey brick with blue metal roofs, massive apartment complexes in various stages of completion surrounded on all sides by construction materials, piles of steal and brick, construction cranes, huge swathes of just dirt, like its been strip mined for something, little rivers and ponds and insect breeding grounds, intricate networks of pipes connecting various bits of farming equipment, power plants and highways. There’d even be a town or city that we’d speed through, abandoned looking other train stations with people sitting against carts of fruit, strip mall type places that must have just sprung up due to their proximity to the train tracks, and other trains that rattle our car as they’d pass in a blur. We’re going surprisingly fast actually where I can’t get a still photo of the scenery right next to us. It all passes in a blur.

I’d taken a good number of trains in the past in the States. I’ve gone cross country by train a few times, a 60 hour trip, on the cheap even where all I had was a seat. Those trips go through Chicago, and get stopped along the way by cows crossing the tracks. And as uncomfortable as it is sitting here amongst the staff all taking their breaks, it’s still a bit of a slice. Some of them speak Cantonese, which I can’t understand, but what I can understand is that they’re making fun of one of the staff for having already eaten a bowl of noodles and rice, and still eating more. There’s a closeness to these people, a kind of camaraderie, and they’re so into their own little things that I really don’t think they pay any attention to me at all. In the States such a thing would never happen, the staff would never all surround a customer on their breaks and take their meals. But I forget what I was going to talk about now. They’re really loud though! I go back and forth between listening to them and my iPod, though I can’t really write when listening to music, nor can I write though listening to really loud Chinese people. It’s nice listening to my music though, I realize I rarely do that nowadays, and it’s very appropriate when travelling by train because it feels sort of like a soundtrack to the scenery going by, and I feel it affecting my step as I walk even. And it’s neat when the track changes because the difference is great when watching farmland going by and listening to Depeche Mode versus Eminem; really great.

I wonder what happens at night on these trains. Does everyone go to sleep? Is there staff around still? Most importantly, is there a place for me to hang out when everyone else is asleep and the train is quiet, some place away from the cigarette smoke and chatting Chinese people, where I can look outside and watch the darkened landscape go by. It’s a paradox really, my desire to be with people during the day, or at least in some kind of company so that I don’t feel too much like a tool in my private little room surrounded on all sides by white walls, and my desire at night to just be alone to watch things go by.

I’m going to stop writing now, to continue later, but the cigarette smoke is actually really getting to me plus I’m out of coffee and peanuts and iced tea so I feel like I’ve gotten what I’ve paid for from this dining car. To be continued at another time then, these thoughts on train travel. I will re-sync though with the iPad so that I can continue writing there if I’d like later.

I am once again sitting in the dining car, 30RMB for a pot of coffee and the privilege of sitting here. I guess they don’t understand the idea of public use on trains. Having listened more carefully this time, apparently my choices were either a pot of tea, a pot of coffee, or absolutely nothing but the privilege of sitting here. Again, I went with coffee. I guess if I’m not going to eat I may as well drink lots and lots of caffeine. I’m not entirely sure how I want to handle the sleeping situation. You see, I don’t want to disturb my fellow travelers in the compartment and have excused myself outside. This also gives me a chance to charge my computer; I have thankfully found a charger in the dining car. Not that I’ll really need it the more I think about it. I do get in decently early tomorrow and apart from this evening there’s not much time left.

But rich coffee and salty peanuts are good accompaniment to reading, which I am doing on the iPad. Again, I paid for it so I intend to stay until I am content. In the intermission between writing I spent a good time doing nothing, just listening to music and watching the scenery go by. I also spent some time taking photos like a hawk, camped out in front of the cleanest window I could find, snapping away happily. I unpacked my bag a little so that I could carry it with me around the different compartments. I suppose I’ll go back to my proper room in a little while. For now, I’ll charge my stuff and read my book, and write off and on when the fancy strikes me, and drink my coffee and eat my peanuts. Although it’s cost me close to nine dollars already, I find the environment of the dining car peaceful, though smoky earlier in the day, but much more mellow now that even the staff are tired and half falling asleep in the chairs.

I’m going to post this now to the blog as I’m not sure what else I’d like to write about it. I’m sure more will come later, and that will make the second part of this series, if I get to it. I’m sure I will as I will undoubtedly need things to do on the return journey as well.

One last observation though was just how drastically different the scenery was the second day on the train. All of yesterday was farmland and flat with some farming and agriculture infrastructure visible every now and then, along with an odd town of sorts. But as I half asleep and blearily peaked out the compartment windows into the morning light the first thing I noticed was stone! There were huge mountains on either side of the train with shear, exposed stone like one would expect from those cliched Chinese paintings. And there were small creaks and streams, and while still lots of farmland, more power generating infrastructure, and definitely more things in ruins. It was noticeably more tropical also, with banana leaf looking plants, actual palms instead of plastic ones like in Beijing, and the housing architecture had changed. Not the massive apartment complexes of which there were still plenty, but the small row houses reminded me of ones you’d find in the Caribbean: low, made of stone, with dirt floors and exposed windows and roofs to let in the sunlight and elements, painted bright colors of blue and red and yellow. And though the entire trip didn’t have many stops, maybe four and none of which lasted more than a few minutes or were we allowed off the train, but this second leg did see a proper hour or longer stop in GuangZhou, a decently big city apparently, where they separated the car because some people were getting off and only some of us, those who’ve gone through immigration, were continuing on the rest of the train. Oh, and as creepy as it is, as soon as the train crossed literally into the border of Hong Kong, my cell phone service automatically switched, I received a text message welcoming me, a text message informing me on how to continue using my phone, and another text message informing of the new rates for calls. Yeah, the Chinese government’s not stalking me or anything…

First, some raw details:
I started at 3:30am and finished at 5:15am for a total of an hour and a half.
I biked for a total distance of 22km, just about 14 miles.
At around 4:30am the sun had started to rise and the skies were lightening.
I took a measure of my speed at the one hour mark and I was at about 16km/hour, or 10 miles/hour.
I took the circle route around the city, basically tracking around the 2nd Ring Road, one of 5 major highways that circles the city at different intervals. I had actually always meant to ride around this, but this was my first time.

Obviously the hours I’ve been keeping have be weird. Part of the problem is that I’ve been a bit depressed and lonely, mostly because Maria’s been out of town and I’m having job woes and family problems, etc. Whatever. The short of it is that I’ve been avoiding the day time opting to spend most of my waking and productive hours at night. It’s also been getting warmer and warmer, to the point of almost 80 degrees, and that’s just too hot for me to do anything physical in! So it’s been much nicer to bike at night. We’re talking warm summer nights here, the kind where it’s cool but not cold in that special refreshing kind of way. The city also quiets an awful lot in the middle of the night. Probably to save electricity and such but most of the lights are off, even some of the street lights. That makes it a little weird to bike in actually as at times it gets really dark, but it also means the streets are for the most part empty. Obviously, it’s not totally clear; you still have the cars, the people, and the little rickshaw type bikes roaming around. And, though this isn’t really a negative because everyone hates construction during the day, but the crews are out in mass and so are the street cleaners. So this means you need to avoid massive cranes and bulldozers tearing up half the street as well as big tankers literally washing down the street whether or not you’re on it; it’s really one of those “everyone for themselves” kind of philosophies as far as navigating the street goes in China. But um, what was the point? Ah, that biking at night is wonderful in this city and everyone should try it!

So let’s talk about my route. First, a picture of it:

I almost made it all the way around 2nd Ring Road

It’s pretty convenient to have such a ring that goes around the city. Even though it’s a highway, there’s always a road that parallels it for people to get on and off and onto the intersecting roads. On the North and West side, it’s a literal highway so the parallel road is on the ground below it and flat. On the East side, it’s kind of a “low-way” of sorts and the road I was on is above it. On this side there are also these massive roundabouts to help people get on and off and over the highway road. Pretty harrowing to navigate across actually because you can’t quite tell if the cars are coming towards you or still going to circle around. But this also means they’re convenient in a way because there are no traffic lights to have to wait and stop at, and it’s pretty; the side road I was on had a dedicated bike lane that was surrounded by trees; idealic really. The West side was easier to bike because there are no roundabouts, but that means there are lights, so it was less scenic to look at. Since the side road parallels the highway though it also means that at times I couldn’t quite tell if I was on the bike lane, the side road, or the highway itself. They all sort of blend in together, especially at the corners of the 2nd Ring Road. Very difficult to get around actually because that’s also where lots of roads all intersect together because there are these diagonal roads that let those cars on the 2nd Ring Road head out towards the other numbered Ring Roads. But um…yeah, short answer, not that easy to get around. But still lots of fun! It’s like biking in New York City; exciting in that way that you really shouldn’t find that exciting because it’s due to the adrenaline that comes from that hint of danger and having to keep on your toes.

So the sun rises really early here! It was getting bright right at around 4:30am. I don’t ever remember the sun rising that early before back in the States. I wasn’t expecting it, nor was I planning it, but when I set out and realized the skies lightening I thought to myself “how neat, it’s going to be really beautiful soon.” And it definitely was, and by the time I was about finished with my bike it was full on bright, but still peaceful in that nice way, with birds chirping and such, but it was definitely getting more and more crowded on the roads, in a noticeable way. I wonder next time just how much later I can actually consider still biking outside because I think lots of people start their commutes early in this city. I had also biked some of this route before, or at least close in the vicinity of it, but that had been in the proper night and not this half dawn time; everything looked different in the subtle light.

It is definitely weird though some of the people that are still out in the middle of the night. There were couples walking hand in hand, old men walking their dogs, lots of workers, people picking up trash on little orange bicycles, construction workers digging up trees and planting new ones that looked oddly like palm trees (can you imagine palm trees in China?!), tired men biking on their way home presumably, girls walking arm in arm also, coming from or going to I don’t know where, and then, of course, me. :)

There was also a huge crowd of people gathering at TianAnMen Square, in front of the Forbidden City. I started noticing quite a bit away that there were people walking towards the center of the city, and there were huge spotlights on also making it bright as day just up ahead, and as I approached at first I thought it was a tour group or something, but then not seeing the telltale orange colored caps or flags, and the fact that they were all waiting there plus the large numbers of military officers standing at attention, I realized it must have been the flag raising ceremony, which I had never actually seen before myself. I was tempted to pull over and join in the festivities, but it sufficed to just tuck a mental note away to come back some later time and see the event as this time I was out for the biking.

I also think this city just can’t decide what temperature it wants to be. As I rode, I distinctively noticed different strata of temperatures that I was riding through. First it would be cool and refreshing, an almost kind of misty feel, then it would be muggy and humid, much hotter than before, almost suffocating in its pervasiveness and density, then just kind of, normal, like what one would expect for a warm summer night, then just completely and utterly wet (though this was probably due to the street cleaners) and you can feel the water drops on your face, and every now and then there’s be the overwhelming scent of cooking food from who knows where because it hits when biking along some random part of street where there’s not a restaurant in sight and even if there were they wouldn’t be open anyway. It makes me wonder if there’s some massive underground ventilation type system (there probably is at least in part due to the subway system) that just vents out at intervals and changes the air around it.

All in all, it was a great experience, and I fully intend to do it again. I think the next time I’ll do a proper circle all the way around 2nd Ring Road; that should let me get in a full 25km and I am such a fan of proper whole numbers. It also shouldn’t take that much longer or be that much more difficult. Speaking of which, it wasn’t actually that difficult of a ride to do. I wasn’t going that fast, and I’m not entirely sure I could have gone much faster, and I never got too tired or anything and am not that tired now either. The only thing is that after the first hour or so it really started to hurt a bit sitting on that tiny little seat. And I’ve noticed a stiffness in my right knee that sort of comes and goes; I hope that’s not indicative of some bigger problem. I’ll see if it bothers me more in some greater way and then maybe get it checked on some how. So next time, the full way around, and maybe with a better bike; I have a sneaky suspicion that my current bicycle may be on its last leg as far as long distances biking goes and I really, really, really don’t want to have it break down on me in some major way, especially in the middle of the night, at some far distance from my home.

It was so relaxing, so refreshing; I don’t know what was going through my mind; I wasn’t consciously aware of any deep or insightful or meaningful thoughts. What I was aware of though was a kind of wild eyed wonder and amazement that overtook me for the city at night, at how quiet it all was, at the massive buildings all empty and dark; I couldn’t stop looking around, and all I could hear was the sound of the bicycle gears churning, the friction of the wheels on the ground, its deep bass rhythm vibrating through my legs as I rode, a cool breeze against my face. Quite fantastic really.

But the good way; I got to go to a club in China! For the first time! And though I groaned and griped the entire time saying I didn’t want to go, it turned out to be lots of fun! I went with XiaoXing, one of my only friends in China at the moment (damnit Maria, when are you coming back…). But uh, yeah, details about the club, because well, it’s not even close to anything like clubs in the States.

So they’re called something I can’t remember but I think is related to some phonetic rendition of the English acronym “DJ.” Apparently there are a lot of them and they’re really popular with the young people. I mean, it’s almost 4AM now and we left early, and when we first got there it was jammed packed. For some reason, it was called “GT Banana Club.” Yeah. And the Chinese name…”GT Banana Club” pronounced phonetically. Yeah. It’s tucked away next to some business center somewhere and the neon sign is half blown out so you really have to look carefully to make out the “banana” part of the name. When you get in, there’s these really crappy looking marble stairs that lead up to the first layer of the concierge. Here they take the cover, which wasn’t that much, somewhere around 50RMB as it varies depending on gender and day of the week. Up yet another flight of crappy looking marble stairs (I’m talking faux chic and glamorous here, kind of like porn shoot marble) and you get to the next layer of the concierge where they check your ticket and scan you with a hand held metal detector. The first thing you’ll notice when you get in, the fruit platters. Every single table has a huge, ornate, excessively decorated fruit platter. Don’t ask me why; apparently it’s communal but I’ll be damned if I touch it. But I later found out that apparently it costs money but they just leave them around and it’s just kind of, gross…I can honestly say, despite my lack in clubbing knowledge, that this was quite unlike anything in the US I’ve ever been to. The space was really big, with multiple floors, with multiple seating options ranging from huge and luxurious booths to tall round tables with stools to almost private room type booths. And again, don’t forget the fruit platter on every table top. There’s a bar, decently well stocked, though the whiskey is the highlight. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet but whiskey is the only liquor that’s managed to penetrate the Chinese market in any way. Go to any bar or restaurant and you’ll see at least a dozen different kinds of top shelf whiskey, but try to find any top shelf vodka or tequila and you’re fresh out of luck. Someone needs to market Patron here; they’ll make a killing. But uh…so we ordered two Long Island Iced Teas, not that expensive really, but that was the cheapest stuff on the menu. They had this massive VIP “Set” that you can order that costs over 15,000 RMB (2000 USD). Not sure what it includes, but at least a fruit platter and a couple of bottles of whiskey with mixer and a sort of private staff who takes care of your needs, and which apparently also includes some dancing girls. It was weird; next to where we were standing there were these two mid-30s looking men, one of whom was really fat and passed out, around this table arrayed with a massive fruit platter and multiple bottles of whiskey, while two staff girls danced for them and a male staff member poured more drinks. And the guy was passed out. Apparently that’s what happens; you can pay for people to keep you company, and I wondered how many of the girls in there were like that, because something seemed fishy given how ugly most of the men looked.

But that brings up the dance floor, which was huge, and which bounced! The entire floor bounced! Even if you didn’t want to dance yourself, just by virtue of standing on the floor you moved in rhythm to the music! Pretty neat! And there were lots and lots and lots of bubbles from a bubble machine :) And lots of fog, and a separate, smaller stage that lifted like 5 feet onto which at one point were three staff dancing girls, dressed all in white 1920s style flapper type dresses, dancing to a really crappy Chinese dance song. Speaking of which, the music was mostly European and American, except for the odd few of the Chinese ones that emulated those styles. I have a feeling these people have absolutely no idea what the words in the songs are because they’re all shouting along happily to “Fuck, fuck, fuck” and “Hotel, motel, Holiday Inn.” It’s like my staff singing along happily to “Like a Virgin” with absolutely no idea what the words mean! I’ve also never seen so many groups of the same sex all dancing together. Now, obviously, some of gay; there’s a lot of those in China apparently, or maybe I just can’t tell because men in China have a much closer and physical form of camaraderie than in the States. Either way, but where I’d expect men and women to be dancing together in the States, there were just large groups of men and large group of women, all dancing in that pseudo-inappropriate club sort of way with lots of grinding. And then there were the tall caps. What the hell is with the very tall baseball caps?!?!?!? I’d like to just chalk it up to Chinese people being weird, especially when it’s like, they have a limited exposure to Western popular culture, so whatever they do see or find they then emulate and apply a multiplier on in their own special “Chinese” way that just puts it all the more over the top. I mean, imaging a Chinese man, probably mid-20s, with an afro, and a massive, tall baseball cap sitting on top of the afro, that says “Let’s be Colorful” with “Colorful” written in rainbow colors…

In short though, it was a lot of fun, especially the music. It helps when I’m feeling down to just be so completely taken over by something; the massive vibrations of the bass literally shook me to where I couldn’t stand straight; when music is that physical it helps me to kind of forget everything else and just be literally moved by it. Maria, my dear, I miss you so much. I wish you were there; you’d enjoy it a lot. I’ve already got it in the plans for us to go there together :)

The idea being I think I’ll start keeping track of my dreams. It’s really that I run out of or lose interest in the things I’m writing about rather quickly, so I find it best to have multiple things to write about. Of course I am not abandoning my trip down memory lane project, I am simply adding another parallel project, something to help me vent my writing steam so that it doesn’t pent up yet is less restricted in that I have other topics now. So dreams. Plus, many people have suggested I keep track of them, and my dreams are rather brilliant if I do say so myself, and Maria likes them a not, so hey, what the hell.

Also, as a general update, here goes:

1) Maria got in to both business schools she applied to! Yay! She now has a choice :)
2) The restaurant is sucking, business wise, and there are many things moving and shaking within that realm that I’m not currently at liberty to say, but suffice it to say that there are many exciting things about that hopefully just around the corner as well.
3) My concert is next Saturday; hard to believe I’ve only a week or so left to fully learn all the notes; just kidding.
4) Maria leaves for the states in just over ten days :( Booooooooo! Whatever am I supposed to do with myself for two weeks in Beijing, unemployed for the most part no less?
5) Lots and lots of web projects to do, though mostly for free. The Connections restaurant site is up, I’ve made a Document Management System for Maria and my father, and I will soon be revamping and redesigning literally all of my father’s company’s sites, for no pay; again, Boooooooooooo!
6) I’ve also gotten quite wrapped up in the inner machinations of the choir I’m in. At the moment, it’s all volunteer on my part, but I hope to be able to fully insert myself into their circle and ultimately be compensated for my efforts, which thus far has included taking on their ticket sales, to the point of actually going around to people’s homes and tracking them down to give them their ticket and take their money and agreeing to escort around the composers of the piece we’re singing. Not that I don’t do all of this out of the graciousness of my heart, I do enjoy doing it, but my finances are very tight at the moment; though I look forward to being compensated for working with the Youth choir in May, which apparently I will be; I wonder if I can get that to be a full time thing?

Otherwise, life trudges on, the adventure that it most definitely is; my father has become enamored with the iPad, and we’re wondering if we should get one. Both our power cords are dying, and my battery is as well. Hard to believe but my laptop is two and a half years old! Time sure does fly; I wonder if I should get a new laptop…maybe I’ll drool a bit at the new computers that are available, though, and hold your breath, I’m thinking of switching back to a PC!

We were originally supposed to have switched to working visas (“Z”) by now already, but somewhere along the processing line, the ball was dropped and we’ll have to start that process over. Once that’s done though, we should be able to stay in the country for a year at a time, maybe even two depending on how we do the renewal. But that will have to wait.

We were going to try to extend our tourist visas. The longest you can stay in the country on one of those is 90 days, and we’ve only been here for 60. I went down to the local visa issuing bureau, another one of those monolithic buildings in architectural praise of the all mighty power of bureaucracy, and, if I gave them a good reason why I wanted to stay, they’d let me, for another 30 days. The problem with extending it though is that it will void my current multiple entry visa. I think something along the lines of you’re only allowed to hold one visa into the country at a time, and the extension will count as a brand new 30 day tourist visa. Now we don’t want to lose our multiple entries, because it’s convenient. Plus, on top of voiding our current visas, we need to have a domestic bank account, in our name, with $3000.00 on deposit, each. Granted we need domestic bank accounts in our name anyways, but there’s just not enough time to process all of this! And I have to wonder, what tourist would have a local bank account, in their name, and that much cash when you can just use any ATM to get money from your US accounts?

The other option was to get an “F” visa, which is for foreigners coming with intent to find a job, which lasts for six months. That’s its own bureaucratic nightmare, needing certified letters of invitation from a company, etc. The grand plan had been to take a 24 hour train down to Hong Kong, which counts as leaving the country for some reason, trying to apply and get an “F” visa while there, and failing that, just come back into the country on our next “L” visa entry.

Then we were thinking of flying down, because we don’t have enough time to devote 48 hours to travel.

Then the “F” visa option was starting to sound stupid and not worth it, and my father assures me he’ll have our “Z” visas squared away as soon as possible.

So now, we’re going to Korea! Woot? I’ve never been there, never had any plans to go there, know nothing about how to get there, what to do when we’re there, etc. But we did get a really good price on the airplane tickets. Unfortunately we were unable to book a flight there and back on the same day (it’s only a two hour flight to Seoul) due to the last minute nature of our booking. So we get two days and two nights in Korea. Again, woot?

To sum up then:
“F” visa: stupid.
“Z” visa: get it ASAP!
“L” visa: multiple entries, good, losing said multiple entries for an extension, bad.

It’s my fault, really. I should have been better on top of what was going on with our working visa process. Ah well. It’s actually a horrible time for me to be leaving the country right now. My restaurant’s renovation is nearing completion, so is my apartment’s, hopefully, I have two concerts to give within the next two weeks, and it’s my birthday. Ah well. It’ll be sorted. At least it’ll be a mini-adventure to Korea!

Edit: apparently Obama’s also visiting Seoul…….??????

As far as the whole original point behind this blog goes, everything’s still on schedule. She purchased her gap insurance; hopefully everything’s all good with that and she’ll only need it for a month and it’s only if she needs it, catastrophes and the likes. I’m thinking she won’t actually need it, but it’s responsible. We perused the local bookstore looking for good travel books for China and specifically Beijing because I’ve only recently realized that I’ve never been there on my own before, per se. What I mean is, every other time I’ve been there has been with family, friends, etc.; people I felt a responsibility for, or that I was looking out for. I never did any ‘exploring,’ any ‘adventuring’ on my own. I don’t even know what China/Beijing is like at night because I’ve never been there and was out at night. It’ll be like seeing it all again for the first time, as sappy as that sounds. But I really do think that’s true. China’s also changed so much over the past couple of years, I imagine it’ll look quite foreign to me.

Ah but the point was that we were looking for books, and failed to find any. The selections were limited, weak, and geared towards…richer folk. People looking to experience something, and not necessarily from an integrated “I’m living in it” kind of sense but more in that, “Let’s see what the most expensive and hip bar is.” Not really my scene, literally. So I think I’m going to look online, see the larger selections available at the online booksellers and hopefully find something more appropriate. In the end, I think it may just come down to going there and living there and meeting the locals. I mean, I’ve lots of cousins, and some of them are girls, and some of them are single and in their early to mid thirties. They gotta go out right? They must know what there is to do in China/Beijing at night.

Alright. Back to babysitting the computer.

We will be going for a number of reasons: business opportunities, personal and career development, school, rest and relaxation. We intend to go there with little to no knowledge of what we’re getting into, while there figure it all out, and return, at our leisure, of our own volition, a huge success in every possible way. It will be an adventure.

I had been playing around with the idea of having some way to keep track of all that’s happening, all that will happen, etc. I do have a good bit of programming background of my own so I had thought that it might be fun to develop my own CMS/Blogging software. But I have no time. And Blogger has treated me reasonably well throughout the years, so I figured, why not.

My girlfriend will also be writing and posting. Our writing styles should be massively different, so that will make for entertaining reading I expect. I also think we’re immature enough that we’d comment snidely on each other posts with all manners of backhanded comments and sleights of verbage.

I will also make sure to introduce ourselves properly, in full, later. For now, I think this is good, as an opening statement. Not too short, not too long, not too grandiose, but just eloquent enough as to be somewhat annoying, and encapsulating in so many words what could have just as easily have been summed up as: I am very excited about this new adventure on which I, we, are about to embark.