Day 16 - Thu, 6/18/09 - Beijing (final)

Ok, so Beijing isn't exactly accurate, I am home now.  But this will I guess more or less conclude the travel portion of the blog.

The flight was fairly uneventful.  But I had the window seat, there was a nerdy Chinese guy in the middle, and a Hispanic girl on the end.  Now the Chinese guy is completely A.D.D., and he can't sit still and he can't keep his mouth shut.  So he starts talking to the girl in Chinglish, and she answers him back in Spanglish.  I am watching this like a traffic accident.  The Chinese guy gets up no less than 5 times in an hour, and the Hispanic girl is trying to sleep, so she asks me in Spanish if I will trade seats with her. I answer her in Spanish, and it is on.  I am now in the middle seat, and she is yammering away in Spanish.  He sits down, and is talking to her in Chinglish, and I am translating into f*ing Spanish.  Now keep in mind I also have 3 weeks of Chinese and Tibetan bouncing around in my tiny brain, so I am about to have an anueryism.  Then he shows me this notepad he is working on and asks me if I know what it is, and it's, I sh*t you not, Chinese Algebra.  Which is maybe only funny to those of you that know me well, cause it is a reference I use alot.  So thank the lord above, they both finally fall asleep and shut their cake-holes.  But then they turn out all the lights, I can't even read, so I just have to sit there in the dark. 

Anyway, the trip was a great experience.  I have seen and done (and eaten) things that exist no where else in the world.  Though China is very different from the US, it is also similar.  People commit stupid crimes, their gov't doesn't tell them the whole truth, they argue about homosexuality, they want the best for their children.  Their paper doesn't read much different than ours, though admittedly I had the English version.  Some things are very different; they still have the one family/one child rule, they killed like all 10,000 dogs in a city because one had rabies, and abortion is not only allowed it is encouraged.  Women still do everything for the men, a custom I have admittedly grown fond of and fully support and encourage.

I would recommend China for the adventurous; it is not for the faint of heart, the impatient, or the incontinent.