11.28-30: spirits

11.28 - 5am, wasted, can't sleep

Celebrated three friends' 21st birthdays tonight at an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink Japanese restaurant. Sake bombs to the very end. We also drank with the guys in the private room right next to us. Drunk men in this country cannot stop hitting on me.

I threw up twice tonight, before we even got to the bar where I fell asleep on someone's shoulder. I kept getting handed cigarettes and water to wake me up; maybe it worked with a super delayed effect. I'm grateful for whoever told people to leave me alone and not hand me shots. I'm grateful for the hands that led me out to the cab. I'm grateful for not having facebook so I don't have to see the documentation of this night. I'm grateful for this first-time experience that has already taught me never to do it again. I'll call this the last hurrah of our group here.

outside, nighttime:
still life


11.30 - drinks with Michelle

Final trip to Yashow Market. This is about the 6th time going all the way across town for my second tailored suit and a frame-job for my gift to the teachers in Henan this coming weekend. These last few weeks are all about shopping; it's not my idea of a relaxing end to the whole China journey.

Michelle came to Beijing for the weekend to teach some classes (part of the company's absurd expansion plan from Hong Kong despite being still understaffed since I left and all that other business went down this summer), and I met her for some drinks and a bruschetta in 三里屯. Facing each other across that table, I recognized how much we are still the same people who sat eating Shanghai-style food one night in Hong Kong a block from the new office. I wasn't looking forward to catching up on gossip and the same complaints, but sitting in a dim room with her and talking about life and work and change was a good indicator to me of progress, of our continuing to grow and my definite moving on. I'm grateful for that.

chiseling shadows
and the slow shrinking of glasses--
adults until the sun