Moving Toy People

I was asked a few days ago, in an email, why I don't post more often: the answer is that, mostly I am just going to class during the weekdays. If something interesting/non-routine occurs, then I will share, but I feel as though writing about my daily life would be (at least to me) remarkably tedious after a while.

Weekends are much more fun.

To round off a rather tough week, a group of us went to see 玩具总动员三--Moving Toy People 3 (AKA Toy Story 3). We saw it in English (but with Chinese Subtitles!) and it was a wonderfully heartwarming movie. Because we were seeing an American movie, some of us went and ate at a McDonalds that was just across the street from the movie theater. It was exactly the same as American McDonalds, unlike Pizza Hut, which looks like a nice, sit-down restaurant with waiters and wine.

Following the movie, we tried to take the subway back to Beiyu. I say try. The first time I took the subways in Beijing, I was very impressed. The stations are clean, the routes are clear (because of the 2008 Olympics, according to the HBA secreatry.) Perhaps I am a spoiled New Yorker, who expects subways to run at all hours of the day and night, but the subways in the part of Beijing where we were stopped at 11PM, which seems to me unreasonably early. I understand 1AM, I even understand midnight, but being trapped a 45 minute walk away from my bed when I was tired was an unpleasant situation to be in. Luckily, I was in good company.

We learned two things as we stood outside the subway stop for 30 minutes, trying to hail a cab. The first was that Chinese people are vicious when it comes to getting cabs on a Friday night; on at least 3 occasions, we hailed a cab, and someone else took it right as we were opening the doors to get in. The second was that the cab drivers have a bias against foreigners. We were blatantly foreigners standing on the street, and, while we were plainly all trying to catch cabs, the drivers would move past us, a little further down the block, to where other Chinese people were standing. It was exceedingly frustrating. But it wasn't until about 11:30, after waiting for half an hour, that we got really annoyed. We were all basking in our joy at having seen Buzz Lightyear in Spanish mode.

I'm sure that I will have more to post later this weekend, as I have a lot planned.

Now, to bed!