Random Stuff

I've given my camera a rest over the last few days. I've been traveling light and taking the bare essentials. This weekend I spent friday and saturday nights with friends closer to the action. Closer to Sanlitun, Frisbee, and merrymaking. Also, I've desperately needed a change of scenery. The hotel i touched on in the very first post has grown increasingly tiresome. I find the merrymaking to be horse horse tiger tiger in my neighborhood. I'm supposed to move into the apartment in early July. I can't wait. Oh Mandy...

Frisbee continues to be one of the best things that has ever happened to me. It's so amazing that I can move to a random city on the other side of the world and have friends. Immediately. And not just acquaintances, but genuinely fun and nice people to hang with. Sunday night after the long weekend a bunch of us went out for dinner. We had to sit outside because, for one, it was a beautiful night, and two, we were filthy from afternoon frisbee. Also, we drank a lot of beer at about 50 cents a bottle. It's actually really impressive how 5 people can easily put down 15 tall beers in an hour. Imagine the carnage we left behind when we were 22 strong.

And here's a sight that i'll never tire of. I've been asked if Beijing recycles. I've seen bins around and there's usually two next to each other: RECYCLES and UNRECYCLES. So yeah, they do to some degree. But then I saw this:

Nice old lady peddling down the street with a massive load of Styrofoam. She probably is going to get a rebate from the recycling plant. This is also not likely her "job", but has found another way to make some money. You'll see the same thing happen with plastic bottles. And beer bottles. It's common to just head to your local corner store and pick up a crate of 20 bottles of beer for around 10 dollars. Then, when you return for more, you bring them the bottles and you get your next batch for about 7 dollars. It's literally cheaper than bottled water.

As I was moving out of my house and collapsing empty boxes for recycling, I found so much Styrofoam. My parents and I dropped it off at Ecocycle and we were thinking we had a lot. Ours was an embarrassing delivery compared to this lady's haul. I can appreciate what she's got going.

Other news, (now with extra exclamations!):

• I'm pretty sure I have a renter for my house! She's moving up from New Mexico and signing a 2-year lease! I'll be back in Cali from the 24th until the 27th! I'm hoping China will let me come back!
• The Shanghai Ultimate tournament is this weekend! Hooray!
• They fixed the sink in my hotel room! Hooray!

~Kev