... I found it on my computer a few days ago. A little anachronistic, but enjoy.

Tuesday

I was Baby in Dirty Dancing last night.
Not when she was in that ever-famous corner, but when she enters that after-hours staff party with a giant melon in her arms, wide-eyed and breathlessly taking in dancing and movements she never could’ve imagined.
Who knew that Chinese people could dance?
Who knew that Chinese people could salsa?
Who knew that Chinese people could salsa really, really well?
Who knew that Chinese people kick frickin’ ass at salsa?

I met up a friend for sushi at a hailed place in Dongzhimen, a near-mythical place rumoured to have the freshest, best, most price-worthy made-for-order sushi buffet in all of Beijing. It also seemed nigh impossible to find. Granted, this town ain’t exactly sushi heaven, but it’s still a pretty tall order.
The rumors were right. Not only could you order sushi and sashimi, there were also barbecue dishes, shrimp tempura, warm dishes, and salads, and as many soft drinks, juice and beer as you could possibly want, all for 100 RMB. All the dishes were delicious, the staff was incredibly friendly, and the interior easy on the eyes. Next time I need a sushi fix, I’m going there.
Afterwards, she invited me to come with her to a salsa club she frequents on Wednesdays and Thursdays. After warning her that I knew nothing about salsa, I came along, not really expecting anything.
It was incredible. First of all because it was free entrance and Ladies’ Night to boot, meaning soft drinks and beer was free. Second of all, the ambience was wonderful. Mostly Chinese people, a few foreigners, but you could tell people went there to dance, not to get drunk or any of the usual reasons for going into a club. And last of all, THEY ALL KNEW HOW TO DANCE.
Sure, some of them did pretty basic salsa, but the hip movements were definitely there, and most of them were very good to top salsa dancers. And this was in all age ranges! I saw everything from a 90-year old gentleman to girls my age, lots of middle-age people shaking it like the best of ‘em, couples, groups of friends, singles… and everyone danced with everyone! My friend disappeared onto the dance floor with a middle-age Chinese man as soon as we got inside, him twirling her nigh professionally – it was so unbelievably cool. I literally spent the entire time there watching the dance floor, talking to people (mostly explaining I couldn’t dance) and having a great time. My friend went on and off the dance floor, we danced some as well, and watched some of the better dancers together.
One of them, a young Chinese guy, was the best dancer I’ve ever seen in my entire life, period. He had imagination, flexibility, moved exactly to rhythm and just looked so happy doing all of it, it was incredible. Also, he must be gay, but still. And one of the Chinese girls he danced with, a skinny, waif-like thing, was maybe one of the top three best girl dancers I’ve ever seen. Those two together was just incredible to watch – they had huge smiles on their faces, did all kinds of cool, unexpected moves and looked like they were having an awesome time. In fact, everyone in there looked like they were genuinely, contentedly having fun, and that is actually a novel experience in a club.

Thursday

Today I spent money. Chunks of money. I bought plane and train tickets for my parents, but I also – finally – bought myself a Palm Pilot.
For those of you who think that sounds incredibly dorky, it may be in most countries. But here in China, this semester, I’ve been fiercely envious of people carrying those slim little things containing about 10 dictionaries, whereas I’ve had to make do with my crappy heaving Oxford. It’s so easy to look up characters in the Palm too, it takes about 5 times longer to look it up in a paper dictionary. Still, I’ve put off getting one because a) installing the software seems really, really difficult and expensive and b) I rationalized I didn’t need one at my level.
And then I realized that Mike (the American with the excellent Chinese, or rather one of them) was leaving in a week and he was my best shot at getting the software cheap. So I took a deep breath and went to Zhongguancun (the place to get electronics around here), and got myself one. Going to Zhongguancun in itself is a harrowing experience, since it’s like running a gauntlet between the hordes of aggressive salespeople, but also because I really don’t like buying electronics in China.
Installing the software was really difficult – not that expensive through Mike, but difficult. I literally spent the entire afternoon, 5 hours, installing, downloading and unlocking, but now I’m the proud owner of a slim little device containing 7 dictionaries covering most Chinese words I’ll encounter and a couple I definitely won’t. The searching is so easy and so fast, it’s handy carrying around, and I’m so in love with it I literally jump up and down if I think too much about the awesomeness that is Palm.

In the evening I had a lovely dinner with a Beijing couple interested in moving to Sweden. Being Beijingers, they were lovely to me and, as usual, arrogant to everyone else, but that’s just something you have to put up with. Man, and I thought Stockholm people were snobbish and arrogant, they’ve got nothing on born and bred Beijingers. Still, they were fun to talk to and the meal was nice, and I’d like to think I did enlighten them about Sweden.