DAY 1 (FOR REALSIES)

15:45BST 7/9/08HOME INN - BEIJING
so last night, mr. lei told me that i needed to get a good rest and then to call him when i woke up. he was horrified when i called him at 6:30. come on, if i only get one day in beijing, do you really think im going to waste it on sleep? you can do that when youre dead (ps, its unseemly to talk about death in the morning). so we had to choose which places to go to because a lot of stuff closes early here and we are on a schedule. lei xiancheng had never been to the heaven temple so we decide we would both be tourists (yo che?) for the day.

after grabbing some street food (eeeeek! still alive, dont worry), we took the ditian (subway - $.35 for a ticket!) to the temple grounds. HOLY GOD this place is huge. leave it to the chinese. the grounds were beautiful, there were random pagodas and statues and gardens and fields and huge ancient junipers that smelled amazing. i learned a lot about the big buildings we saw, but im afraid im going to mislable them so instead i will post a couple pictures [later] to give you an idea and go from there.

potent potables include the 70 year old door that is only opened for emperors over the age of 70 (dont want the youngins getting lazy); the nine heavenly circles whose center enables you to speak 'sonorously'; more animal sacrifice than your body has room for; and a shirt on a passing girl that said 'go go sprash' (i reeeeeeeally wanted a picture of that one).

because we got such a headstart, there was time to go to tianmen square and gaze upon the amazing face of the good chairman. my battery died just as i got one picture with him. we paraded around the mao museum (literally around it - its only open in the morning :( ), the people's great museum (could be goofing the name, sorry), and then went to the national theatre which is affectionately called ji dan (chicken's egg). i find it humorous that mr. lei was confused when i told him that western media dubbed the olympic sports complex 'the birds nest' (because it so obviously looks like a birds nest!!) yet thought it was supposed to be obvious that this rounded glass building would be called the chicken's egg. sidenote: its not any old egg, it is a chicken's egg, get it right or pay the price.

oh, and i used a squatter... ugh.

now im deader than a doornail and trying not to fall into a beautiful deep sleep that would have me miss my dinner date with dr. zhou's friend, feng bei.