Call off the Search Parties: I'm Back!

After spending four months agonizing over how I would return to Beijing, I returned. Then, after spending less than two weeks there, I left.

The following series of events is important to understanding why:
I arrived at Peking Airport on 1 February. I was taken to a temporary apartment for foreign teachers.

On 3 February I met Mike, an American headed to a teaching position in Inner Mongolia's capital city of Hohhot. He arrived at the apartment while a plumber was unclogging* the toilet I clogged. After the plumber left, Mike & I went to the Tun Bar's open mic night with a Chinese kid named Leo who I had been set up on a date with the night before.

On 4 February, another American who would be joining Mike in Hohhot arrived at the apartment. Rebecca decided that he wouldn't be right for the job and sent him away, which is interesting because he had just come all the way from America for this particular job. Still, Mike and a German would be going for the job and one spot now needed filled.

On 5 February I went to meet the people at the school in Haidian where I would be teaching. They assumed I had no teaching experience, but Rebecca told them that I did. She even furnished completely fabricated documents. Then she took me to look at an apartment a stray dog wouldn't even want to live in. There's not enough Lysol or rust remover in the world to make that place suitable for human living. After the fake documents and the beyond-belief funktown apartment, I decided to fill the now-vacant spot in the Hohhot job team.

On 8 February I went to an Ancient Observatory in Beijing. It was built by Chinese Jesuits and was absolutely wonderful. I listened to "Pet Sounds" and took lots of pictures. Later, I met Chris for an epic KTV session that was long overdue. I was introduced to ErGuoTou--a Chinese liquor that smells like nail polish remover, tastes like fire, and is far more devilish than any baijiu.

On 9 February, Mike and I learned that the job in Hohhot was cancelled. The school is run by an educational technology company who hadn't finished developing everything for the school. For more details on this particular evening, please refer to my first (and only other) blog post.

On 10 and 11 February I shot resumes for teaching jobs out like rapid fire.

On 12 February Rebecca found us another job in Inner Mongolia's Hulun Beier area. That night Mike and I enjoyed a pretty delicious good-bye meal with Chris, Tabea, Guo Wei, and Mikael. The highlight of the evening wasn't the food, though. The highlight was Guo Wei flirting with the waitress and then shout-whispering, "I'm being charming."

On 13 February we met Spring, her assistant Jeannie, and her nephew Alfred. Spring and Jeannie would take us to Hohhot for teachers' training, then we would be shipped off to the grasslands of Hulun Beier.

On 14 February Spring, Jeannie, Mike and I boarded an overnight train to Hohhot. Both of my parents wished me a happy Valentine's day.

It should be noted that while in Beijing I also had the distinct pleasures of buying cheese and having lunch with the always delightful, always Swedish Mikael Salomonsson. Mike and I set off fireworks with Guo Wei. I ate loads of bangin' souda jaozi (vegetable dumplings), street vendor omelet pancakes, and, of course, Uigher noodles. I slept under a blanket with porpoises on it.

Beijing was as great as I remember it; although, definitely more polluted. I don't feel bad for leaving because it's been there for hundreds of years, I'm sure it will be there for another six or eight months.


Now, Mike and I are living about 30km from Russia in Eerguna, a district in Inner Mongolia's Hulun Beier region. How I got from Hohhot to Eerguna isn't as good without photos; I'll have those soon. I've embarked on a great adventure I didn't expect, but certainly craved.


*By "unclogging," I mean the plumber brought a plunger and charged the owner of the apartment 20RMB, which I paid.