Departure...

It seems that I’m a little back logged with this blog, because a lot has happened between my last posting, and this one. So, bear with me, I will try my utmost to make this an enjoyable read…


Prior to my flight, a co-worker of mine, Diane Lane, treated me to dinner and a movie. We were also accompanied by her son, Sam, and another co-worker of ours, Sue McGhee. Our outing didn’t lack for fun, as Diane is hilarious, and her son, true to form, had me laughing as well. The funniest thing about Diane this particular night was the scream she emitted during our viewing of Nightmare on Elm Street. If you’re ever invited to accompany her to a horror/suspense thriller, please refuse because in conjunction to her hysterical screams, she hits the nearest person quite hard, and when she’s not doing either of those two things, she’s shrinking back into her seat whimpering. So, needless to say, I didn’t see the entire movie, because I was distractedly laughing at Diane for most of it.

From 10pm till about 4am, I hung out with two beautiful people, Ryo Namiki and Lindsay Yax, both of whom stayed up with me, so that I would be able to sleep on my 14+ hour flight. I lost to Lindsay in rummy (I let her win), and tried to get Ryo to play any song that I might recognize on his guitar (the kid doesn’t know how to play anything remotely ethnic or easy on the ears…just kidding)

The flight, despite my preparation, was long and torturous. The flight attendant was more suited to being a drill sergeant. A fact that she affirmed each and every time she spoke with a passenger. She ordered one of my Study Abroad group members to remove hs bag from the overhead department, and put it somewhere else, and gave him a look that had me sitting up straight and buckling my seatbelt1 The meals were okay, except for the final one. Which was a turkey sub sandwich, and caused for me to pine for the end of the flight, at which I could rapidly seek an isolated bathroom? I will never again eat a turkey sandwich on a plane…!

Getting through customs was uneventful, and relatively quick and painless. I found my study abroad Director straight away, and also my 北京导游Beijing Daoyou(Bay-gee-ungh-Dow-yo), which means Beijing Guide. For the first 3 days, we were to go on a sight-seeing tour, visiting Beijing’s most prominent and popular attractions, which I will further describe tomorrow. For tonight I have experienced my first Chinese bar(s), and am now too sleepy to narrate anymore of my experiences. What I will put down for your eyes is that tonight I met the world’s coolest Chinese kid, his name is Feng Yue (His American name was Steven, but my companions and I thought that too bland a name, and subsequently dubbed him Sonar.) I will post his picture soon…and with that I will bid you a good night, or good day…sorry again for the hurried writing, I will make it up to you in my next posting, I promise!

再见，
            -罗可斯（Marcus)