Incubus and Baseball

So I got back from Beijing on Sunday. I was there from March 12th through 16th. I saw the Incubus concert in Beijing. It was fantastic even though the bassist was sick and they had to play acoustic the entire time. Star Live Music Hall was like being in Val-Air. It had a small club atmosphere. Actually, it was a lot smaller than Val-Air. But it was great because not many people were there, maybe a few hundred (mostly) foreigners. I got a few videos on my new camera. It definitely felt like being in America because I had to fight to get in front of these tall assholes who were blocking both me and Claire and would not let us around them. So “elbows up, side to side,” became our anthem. However, we did not lean like a cholo.

I stayed through the weekend because I thought it would be pointless for me to go and come back in two days. My girls from the Shiz met up in Beijing. We all shopped and at night had a decent meal at TGIFridays and went to Sanlitun after that. I’m not sure why but shots are super cheap in Beijing, which is not how it is in Shijiazhuang. 10 to 20 kuai (1-3 dollars) was typical at the places we went and in Shijiazhuang, they are usually 20 kuai minimum. Anyway, it was fun hanging out.

On Sunday, the LA Dodgers and the San Diego Padres came to town and played on Saturday and Sunday at Wukesong Stadium. They tied on Saturday and the Padres won on Sunday. The Dodgers had a press conference afterwards and the Padres did not. Why? I’m not sure. How do I know? Because my friends and I snuck onto the field after the game and hung around, taking pictures and generally just enjoying Americana. My friends stole signs from the stadium. I refrained because I don’t really care much about baseball. Then we saw the coach for the Dodgers in the press box and then some of my friends were a little bit inebriated which may or may not have contributed to us being kicked out of the stadium. It could have been the stealing of signs. Haha, it was great. As we were all standing in the parking lot of the stadium, everyone was arguing about why we were kicked out and who wanted what sign and as this was going on, I waved good-bye to the baseball players as they drove away in their private buses. Some waved back, most did not. Oh well. It was a humorous moment. “Bye, thanks for playing even though we showed why the world hates Americans.”

Then we had to go back to the Shiz since most of us taught on Monday. The train ride back was mixed. This lady was being a huge bitch about letting us stay in the dining car instead of standing the whole time because we didn’t have seats. We had standing tickets. So lately whenever we have standers, we go to the dining car and sit there until we reach our destination. We could tell she was going to be a bitch as soon as she came up to us. She kept yelling at us and saying, “No, no pijiu (no beer) and no, no mifan (no rice).” We know that you have to pay 20 kuai to stay in the dining car but we were willing to do it. She wouldn’t let us order what we wanted and then we watched as other Chinese people pulled out their own food and just sat in the dining car. Some had beer if I remember correctly. It was soo dumb. Then we finally ordered some crappy food that we all ate very slowly because we didn’t want them to kick us out if they thought we were done. Then they kept trying to take our food and we kept yelling at them not to. But it was an alright ride because it was only 2 ½ hours and we were all together. Most of the time, we slept or read.

It was good to be back, especially for me because Beijing is not my favorite city in China even though there are a lot of fun things to do and see. Beijing is associated with travel hassles for me and a lot of other people. The weekend before when I was in Beijing, we tried to get a bus back to Shijiazhuang and they simply said there was no bus. We know this isn’t true, but we ended up scrambling back to the train station to get a train ticket and we stayed in the dining car. To quote Jeremy, “It just isn’t a trip to Beijing if something doesn’t go wrong.” Other friends have missed trains back to their cities because trains have left early or because they didn’t make it on time.