Michael,<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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)!<\/p>\n
-rakkity<\/p>\n
PS:
\nI’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?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 … Continue reading