Michael,

Here I am in intriguing Beijing, after an exhausting flight across the Pacific. Luckily I had a window seat and good companians–an Aussie couple named Carole & Dan Walker, recent immigrants to California. Dan was wearing a Hawaiian style shirt with California icons (lawn mowers, barbeques, etc). He watched all 4 of the in-flightmovies, one of which was Eight Below, the only one I watched. Dan tried to shield Carole’s eyes during the scene where an Antarctic leopard seal tries to bite one of the plucky dogs.

I’m finding the staff in my hotel are eager to please, but few know any more English than I do Chinese. However, everyone I’ve met is unbelievably polite. This afternoon when I was trying to find my way from the city bus stop to the Friendship Hotel, an energetic little woman on the street man-handled my suitcase up the stairs of the passenger street overpass, then down the other side, all while I was trying unsuccessfully to wrest it away from her with one hand, while I rolled my carry-on bag with my other. Then this powerful lady hailed a taxi and told the driver where to take me. All I could do was smile and say Xiexie (thanks)!

-rakkity

PS:
I’m finding that Google can’t be reached from here. I can’t even go to Google mail. Have the Chinese embargoed all of the Google sites?