Beijing!

Well, these updates aren't the most frequent and there are plenty in the backlog but I had a few mintues and thought I'd do an update of the first few days in Beijing.  Also, I want to add that despite our bags being a cumulative 8 Kg over our limit, we were not charged extra.  Hooray!  Also, also, I want to give a shout out to the Millers, who were absolutely enchanting "roommates" for the last semester.  You guys rock, straight up 石头.  Thanks so much for putting up with us!  Come visit soon!

Anyways, the first day, we got in to our hotel, they gave us grief about trying to put three people into a 2-bed room (despite my rather convincing argument that Spring and I became one post-marriage).  Then it turned out the internet was down, so we had to go to a local internet cafe.  The rest of the evening was fun, though.  We just strolled around the block, which was all traditional Hutong architecture.  All along the way, people were lighting fireworks.  They had all shapes and sizes, and Spring might add a post dedicated to this later, but their favorites were definitely the loud ones, and the louder the better.  I thought it was a lot of fireworks, but then midnight came.  It must have been at least 30 minute cacophony of booms!  I think everyone in Beijing lit as many fireworks as the could within that half-hour.  Simply amazing.

The next day we tried, and failed, to meet with my new employer.  However, we were already near Tiananmen, so we took a brief glimpse.  Here is a pic.

It started to get really crowded, really fast, so we got out of there.

Friday, I made a goal, a determination, if you will, to find Batman: Arkham Asylum for PS3.  After some research, we found a number of shops just south of the Drum tower (which looked pretty impressive itself and will make a wonderful trip later).  We did find a Korean copy of Batman, so the whole day was a success!  But then we wandered for a bit and found a street with a Mao Live House, where bands play, a bunch of guitar shops, and a sweet CD store with lots of cool, underground Chinese music.  We bought a Hedgehog CD and a Joyside CD.  And they both rock!  Then we went to a cafe for smoothies and caught a bit of the Spring Festival television program.  There was a bit in particular that I found interesting with a girl who could "grab" and manipulate lasers.  Then we explored the NanLuoGuXiang area.  It was a cool market/old architecture area.  In fact, Beijing just has cool architecture in general.  Afterwards, we had a nice dinner (where we noticed that Beijing really likes stronger flavors) and made our way home.

Saturday, we were finally able to meet with my enthusiastic employers.  They treated us to a Chinese DimSum breakfast, then gave us a tour and "brief" history of the Center, "brief" being 3 hours.  If you want to learn about them, check out the website www.centeracp.com .  Afterwards, we tried to go to the Silk Market to look for anything Packers related for the Big Game, but it was closed for the holiday.  So, we took a trip up to see Beijing University's campus, which was quite pretty.  We walked around a frozen lake and took picture in front of an ancient tower.  Then we had pizza at Kro's pizza.  Hand's down the best pizza in China!  It was handmade pizza, and it was real!  We ordered four 9'' pizzas: an Old Beijing (duck, green onion, cucumber, etc), a Philly (green peppers, onions, steak, lotsa cheese), a Classic (pepperoni), and finally a Hawaiian (ham, pineapple, and onions).  The Old Beijing was a bit odd, but the rest were fantastic.  Definitely a place we will return to and take guests to.  Then we came home and played a bunch of Batman.

Today we went to Church.  Took us a little effort to find, but find it we did.  Seems very nice.  There were more people here than Nanjing ever had, despite the holiday.  So, a much bigger ward with a much more traditional feel.  When we got home, I was delightedly surprised to find an Aaron Rodgers jersey hanging up.  My Bro Montana, J-Ray, had taken a special trip to get it for me, such a sweet heart!  Tomorrow morning, we're going to get up bright and early and travel to either an Irish pub or a Texan bar and grill for sweet breakfast buffets and Super Bowl festivities!  Oh boy!!  Go Packers!!!

Also, because some of you might be curious, I was successful in my fish transportation endeavor!  I put my fish in a small, water-filled, air-tight Sprite bottle and carefully packed both it and my plant in my check-in luggage.  The plant was disheveled, but still alive, and the fish was extremely pale, but also still alive!  I'm somewhat proud of this accomplishment and glad that my little friends could join me in Beijing!!

Also, sorry about the lack of pictures, the external hard drive is elsewhere at the moment.

-Lars