Ni Hao from Beijing

Well we're in Beijing. Good times have followed us the 14 hr train ride it took us to get here. Yesterday for lunch we had a fantastic meal at Wuyve Renjia (still in Shanghai). Most of the meals we eat now we order like 4 dishes and then all just eat out of them. Our meals end up costing us about 3 dollars a piece. All the girls that are good friends walk around holding hands and the guys walk around with their arms around each other. Brian and I followed suit. People spit here a lot. The tea place we went to the other day had a bucket for one's spit. Yesterday afternoon we went to Fuxing Park and watched some guys fly kites. This one old guy that could be anyone's granddad seemed especially pleased with his kite. His was WAY up in the air and he was content to spend his time just staring up at it with us looking at us every once in a while and smiling. Last night we went to catch the subway to get to the train. The subway was just as one would imagine it, crowded. Getting onto the car one had to shove their way in. Nathan had to lower his shoulder to make it in and see that he was not left behind. The people getting off were just pushing their way through. No joke, saw atleast 2 women crying. We had a room on a train, well kind of. The way it was set up was we were in a car and there were 6 bunks, 3 high on each wall. Graham and Layne's tickets were for a different room though so we tried to switch them out and were essentially successful. However, around 11 o'clock a guy came into the room and was asking for our tickets (so we figured out). I woke up and handed him my ticket then went back to sleep. I woke back up a few minutes later to see him with 5 tickets on the table yelling (Katie almost in tears). For some reason I went back to sleep. But what happened was he was saying that we only gave him 5 tickets (there are 6 of us) so someone didn't have a ticket. A girl that spoke english came in and translated for us. The situation was kind of smoothed over. The next morning we figured out that Nathan had handed him his ticket, the guy had given it back and then Nathan had slept through all the yelling and the looking for the 6th ticket (which he held). This morning we ate at McDonald's. We wanted something to eat fast. We realized how it's a hip experience for them. Everyone in there had a very stylish haircut, stylish shirt, cool sunglasses... After walking around for a while we found a hostel. I like this place. It's toward the center of the town. Our floors and walls are 150 years old. Beer here is 5 Yuans (Hey-o!). We met a cool British guy here who has been traveling around with his girl friend for a year. They've been all over the place. South America, Australia, Asia. This afternoon we went to Tienanmen Square. It was humongous. Tomorrow we're planning on going to the Forbidden City.

One last thing. Yesterday we were in the men's locker room in the Marriot Hotel in Shanghai (Katie was not). We were in the hot tub... naked... Brian, Graham and Nathan were going to go get a cool towel from the fridge and then go into the Sauna. Brian ran to the fridge and Nathan ran behind him. Brian hit the breaks, Nathan did not as quickly... Let's just say they got real close real fast.