The past few days have been a blur – I haven’t been feeling too well and I’ve been taking it really easy. I spent Sunday with the Brassers, Monday I went to PriceSmart, a bulk goods store like Sam’s Club, and browsed around, Tuesday I wandered around the embassy district, and today I moseyed down around the Forbidden City. I’ll give you a few highlights of the past four days:

1. The weather has been spot-on perfect. Bright blue skies, minimal clouds, and a nice breeze is all we’ve had for the past three days – no smog or oppressive grayness.

2. I went down to Silk Alley with Mike T. (the teacher – Mike B. is my friend of Calvin fame.) Mike T has been almost everywhere in Beijing, but he hadn’t been there before today. Silk Alley is one of those “flagrant tourist” spots – it’s a market where everything is overpriced (but you can haggle) and I always keep a hand on my wallet. Silk Alley dead ends into a US embassy, but you can’t get there thanks to a large wall of barbed wire and Chinese guards with automatic weapons.

3. Today I had the strangest dish at lunch – it was beef jerky in a peppery sauce. It came on the recommendation of a waitress, and I don’t have a clue as to what it is called. But it was really good.

I still haven’t heard when classes start or what I am supposed to teach. I’m trying to be patient, but it’s getting hard to be calm here in Beijing.