I’ve had bad experiences trying to do laundry here. First I postponed doing laundry until just past the point of being disgusting. I then did two loads using the washing machine in the dorm. My laundry card did not work so I used Alan’s for two washes. There was a problem, however.
My clothing would enter the wash bad smelling and normally shaped and leave it better smelling and stretched to accommodate extra limbs. Also, it didn’t seem to clean the clothing only to make it smell better. So I decided to do my laundry by hand. They sell the equipment (a bucket) on the street for a dollar and so I bought one. I reached the point of being completely out of laundry I could decently re-wear on Wednesday, but because I was studying for a test I wore pajama’s to class and did all of my laundry on Thursday night. Hand washing is fine. I did the first couple shirts and then got into a groove and went through washing the rest of my clothing. Something about the repetitiveness, the calming splash of quickly browning water, the warming friction of the wash and cooling freshness of the rinse is so calming, so…I woke up in a daze on Friday morning to realize that every piece of clothing I owned was very wet an hanging from something in my room. I also realized that I was supposed to pack for Beijing. Nothing was packable, nothing was wearable. I went to class soaking wet. I could not bring myself to pack a soaking towel or soaking underwear or anything else with my computer, so, Friday afternoon I went to Beijing with only the, still wet, clothes on my back.
We took a taxi to the train station which at first led us to the conclusion the taxi driver was either lost or insane and, once there, led us to the same conclusion about the planning commission. There are many, seemingly unnecessary, and certainly sketchy underpasses that lead to a big shiny pretty new train station that is only ½ complete. The train ride was about an 1 hour and 20 minutes and was very nice and convenient. We dropped our stuff off at the Hostel we’re staying at an went out for Peking Duck. It is sort of disappointing to be back to where people are not excited to meet a white person. It is also liberating not to be stared at. Peking duck was expensive, greasy, and good in the same guilty way fried ice cream is. Fried ice cream, by the way, is delicious.
NIGHTMARKETS! (Wangfu jing) This is totally why I wanted to come to Beijing. First the bad news: really pricy, really touristy. Good news: fried ice cream. What a wonderful idea. They put a scoop of ice cream on a piece of wonder bread. You may ask “How can they make that any better?” Well. You surround the ice cream with a little bit of whipped cream so that it looks like a slice of wonder bread with a huge blood clot on it. Then you deep fry it. Why doesn’t Minnesota have this? They fry everything else. It’s warm and crunchy on the outside and cool and refreshing on the inside. They sell other amazing things here. Deep fried 100 year tofu that made me think I was going to be sick just walking past it. Noodles, dumplings, soups, dumplings filled with soup, candied fruit, meat, hairy looking fish, fried silk worms, whole fish, crickets, 什么的。 The vendors are really funny. Their English is limited to the words “buy,” “hello,” “free,” and the name of their goods. This leads to the hilarious man at the far end who stands on a chair shouting “buy one sheep penis, centipede no money.” I’ve had some bad experiences with 
centipedes and was excited to eat a fried one but I could feed myself for 4 days on the amount of money it cost for a single centipede so instead I opted for some fried scorpions. I’m not joking, or 
bragging, or anything, scorpion is really good. It is fried past the point of tasting like anything but a delicious crunchy piece of …something. I’m a big fan. I suspect it would be the ideal snack food for a movie. (Kukui Grove Cinemas, think about it.) I’m going to bed. Thank you those of you who have sent me emails. It looks good if you actually post it on the website. Gives the school evidence that people are actually reading me. Any input is great and the emails definitely improve my day. Ok. Thanks again.
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