I promised to write about the last part of my unprecedentedly social week, but the packing of many boxes interfered. It was really fun, though. After the hard stuff, the awkward business of trying to negotiate cultural differences and such, it was a change of pace.
That's not to say that I was completely free of anxiety. On Thursday, for example, I agreed to have dinner with my friend CC. (I tried giving her a different nickname but it's just impossible. CC fits her better than anything I could think of.) I was really nervous about this because she had an exhibition in Beijing (she's a photographer) and I had promised to go but then I forgot. And by the time she arranged to have dinner with me, it was too late! Awkward! Fortunately, she was running behind and underestimated the travel time, so arrived more than an hour late. This put our apology levels on approximately equal footing, so we were able to forget the whole thing and chatter over some (kind of mediocre) Korean food in Wudaokou. The chatter was fun though. CC and I have a lot in common really. Eurasians, grad students, lives still unsettled. If I hadn't met Pocket of Bolts, I'd be even more like her, trying to make it work with a boy who doesn't deserve her and knows it... He broke up with her, which was an absorbing story.
The highest point was really after dinner, though. She was dutifully going to a fellow FBer's contemporary music concert at the nearby club D-22. I was undutifully ditching it. D-22 (which I had been to with the Lama and remembered fondly) was on my way home, and far enough from Wudaokou that it'd've been a long walk. While waiting for CC to arrive, I had hatched a plan regarding this stage of the evening, which was to invite her to ride on the back of my bicycle! I did that and she bravely accepted! This was the fulfillment of a long-time dream of mine. Neither of us had done this before, and the first try resulted in some pretty serious oscillation... but we got straightened out. For anyone who hasn't seen this, bikes in China tend to have racks on the back, and passengers (usually girls) sit side-saddle and hop off at traffic lights. I have been looking upon this phenomenon enviously ever since I got my big bike, and would surely have tried it out on the Lama during spring break except that he had pneumonia and was in no shape to be a victim of my experiments. So I was overjoyed to get this chance! And it was fast and effective! I'd been a little afraid of not being able to pedal hard enough--I mean, she probably weighs as much as me, which is not say, she's not a little Chinese waif. But it was fine. My bike is so good!
Friday, I just worked and packed books.
Saturday evening I went to dinner with the Lama. Probably nothing will ever replace Peking Duck at Easy Time on Chinese New Years, but we had very creditable duck at a different place whose name I have already forgotten--somewhere in his neighborhood anyway. As usual, we managed to talk for hours, but I felt less guilty than usual, because the Lama has quit smoking (tired of having pneumonia) so the talking for hours was not as much of a health hazard as it usually is.
From the restaurant we wandered to a random bar, and from there to the awesome coffee-shop Waiting for Godot (where we had been once before). At midnight, the Lama had to go perhaps to talk to his significant other or perhaps just to get to sleep in a timely manner since she was arriving the next day, so we parted, I somewhat the worse (the better?) for having had so much to drink. I was in high good spirits, although the Lama did have to pull me back by the scruff of my neck, as it were, when I stepped off the curb directly in front of a speeding bicycle that I swear wasn't there the moment before. Well, ONE of us was sober. Or sober-ish. It was a great evening, our ninth and last time to meet in Beijing.
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