List time!

Thing I Will Miss About Beijing
-Gaifan
-Playing chicken with a two-ton bus while crossing a six-lane road
-Chatting with cab drivers
-Roadside chuanr drenched in cumin
-Playing the haggling game
-Cheap, legal alcohol
-Chinglish
-Shopping at Chinese supermarkets
-Pirated DVDs
-Streetfood, especially my favorite lady who cooks the biscuits near campus
-The ubiqitous waddling, smush-faced mutts
-The beautiful young Beijing man, tall and impossibly gangly with puffy fashion mullets
-The almost complete lack of violent crime
-Riding the bus to anywhere for under 0.50USD
-Beijing drivers
-Little Chinese kids
-The sight of the three-humped mall on Xizhimennanwai
-A shopkeeper's grin when he realizes I speak Chinese and decreases his asking price by 200 kuai.
-15 cent ice cream bars after dinner
-Carrying my own chopsticks in my purse
-Underground malls
-The 7:1 RMB:USD exchange rate
-Bar-hopping
-Old folks dancing niuyangge in the square at night
-Elaborate kites
-Gaudy neon signs
-Bringing my own bags to the supermarket
-That high when I actually communicate clearly with someone in Chinese
-"What planet am I on?" moments

Things I Will NOT Miss About Beijing
-The honking. OH GOD, THE HONKING.
-The ubiquitous smell of sewage
-Instant Nescafe coffee
-The lack of tomato sauce and melted cheese, together or seperate
-The Chinese obsession with Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh
-KTV
-Godawful Chinese pop
-The government messing with my internet
-Douchebag expats
-The pollution
-Slow-walking Chinese
-The 13-hour time difference between me and 97% of the people I love
-人口问题
-Smoking in restaurants
-"Convenient noodles"
-Construction noise at all hours
-Paucity of art supplies that are not calligraphy-related

Foods I Will Stuff My Face With When I Get Back
-Home-made ravioli
-Indian curry
-A fresh French bread
-Macaroni & Cheese
-Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
-Roast beef
-Mashed potatoes
-Apple cider
-Burritos
-Goldfish
-American Chinese food (no, seriously)
-Pizza
-Ham, bologna, and cheese sandwiches


I really love it here. I'm not lying when I tell the cabbies that I want to come back very soon.


In other news, last night I was very popular among the burly black men at the clubs in Sanlitunr, about ten of us snuck past the shifu by climbing in through Himilcon's window at 3:30 am, and all the CET-cest here would make for a great case study in what happens when you put about 100 young people in a tiny campus and close the gate. Even language barriers become unimportant!