Volumized.

Good evening to you all, lovelies.

The picture above is outside one of the food hovels i mentioned in a previous post, where the proprietress pulls out a fold out table and stools when you walk up before delivering bamboo trays of steaming fresh dumplings. What am i eating? Black rice porridge, the kind you can get at Phoenix only a whole lot better.

What? Oh, you like the fro? Yeah, i know its hot. Thanks.

Just how difficult is it to deal with a bus system in a language you don't really understand in a city you're not really familiar with? Doable. Today I ventured forth and made my first excursion on beijing's public transport. Economical and cleanly, i must say so far so good. Of course, i have no real grasp of how to navigate the system, but i've purchased a bus/subway pass and will be putting it to good use. Were it not for the friends I had to lead me where it was i was going would i have gotten lost? Probably. Will i get lost next time? Oh, defiantely. Will i have fun doing it? You bet.

The goal of this bus-tastic excursion was the procurement of a celluar phone. I am happy to relate that this was a success and i've now got a chinese cell phone. I sit it next to my America phone and pretend like they're making cross cultural friends. Everything on this phone is in Chinese and whenever i want to do something on i have to navigate the chinese menu. Earlier today i missed a call and had to go down stairs to the lobby, approach the hostess, ask her if she spoke english, and then ask her to tell me what my phone was trying to tell me. You'd think that after years of using a cell phone I'd be able to at least recognize most of a menu, but not so. Sigh.

How much was it? Total, with a sim card and prepaid minutes, it was 40 dollars. Oh, and the bus ride was 15 cents each way. so i guess, 40.30 for the whole trip.

Ahahahah. that rocks.

Beijing is, as i write, turning humid and soupy, perpetually enshrined in what from my vantage point appears as the grey and dismal inside of a woolen bowler cap.

In other words, the air is thick and smoggy.

Love you guys, i'm going to go prance the streets. this sunday i'll be buying a camera so look forward to fun filled posts with a more expansive visual component.

love&luz

jess