A Far Cry

We've now been in Beijing for a year (plus two weeks). That's nearly half the total time we spent in Seoul. But it doesn't feel like we've done anything. We still haven't really made good friends here (there are a few we've done a little with, but compared to Seoul, very little). Most of the Americans seem to be too busy with other things – it's always a "yeah, we should do something some time" and no one follows up. And the Chinese staff seem to maintain a rigid separation of work and social life. I guess they have enough friends. Or don't want to speak any more English than they already have to at work.

D-What has been able to get out of Beijing a little more than me, but together we've only made one trip within China. It's a big country with lots of places we'd like to see, but at this rate we'll only see three more before we leave. Of course, we're expecting to have guests who might want to see certain places, so we've been holding back to avoid excessive repeated trips to the touristy sites (a mistake we made in Korea).

With D-What's work, she'll be traveling around China more; maybe I should quit my job so I'm free to travel with her whenever something comes up.

Word to the wise: if you ever have a chance to try "black beer" ice cream (as I have recently), just don't. It's not that it was horrible (it was better than I expected), but that it was unimpressively mediocre – so it doesn't even have the "it's so horrible why would anyone eat this, yet I tried it" novelty.

Anyway, just gotta hold out for about 3 more weeks. Then the reinforcements arrive in the office, and I can dump the steaming pile of crap in their laps.