Apartment Story

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Not much going on yet. This first few days I haven't left Mike's apartment often. He still has a few more days of having to go into school for a few hours, so mostly I stay home or take short walks around his neighborhood. The first few weeks of the trip was always meant to be just about hanging out with Mike, so I'm OK if I don't spend every day trying to cram in as much sightseeing as I can.

So, that means my activities the last few days have mostly involved playing video games and watching movies...basically all the things we did when we lived in the same house in Montana. And that's just great. That's exactly what I wanted from the time when it's just the 2 of us here.

Tomorrow (I think) is the last day he has to go into school, and he's invited me to a lunch meeting downtown. We'll probably stay down there a while, and I can see some of the gardens I didn't get to last year, or Suzhou's free city museum, designed by I.M. Pei, whose lineage traces from Suzhou.

Next Monday or Tuesday we'll get on an overnight train to Beijing, and spend a few days there seeing things we missed last year before his mom flies in on Thursday morning. Cory and Lacey land in Hong Kong that same Thursday night, so we'll meet on Saturday, although in what city hasn't been determined yet. Probably Qingdao, the large city near where they lived when they were here before.

But until then, it will just be Mike and me, doing the same kinds of things we've always done (there has already been copious amounts of Mario Kart and Rifftrax), and eating at his favorite local restaurants. Sunday we went to a Japanese restaurant a mile or so from here, last night we got kung pao chicken and spicy green beans in Dirtytown (an adjacent neighborhood), and tonight we just ordered pizza from a local chain (and in the process learned how to say "onion rings" in Chinese; 洋葱圈 "yáng​cōng​ quān​"). So far, so good.

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Comments

[Kevin]

Just thought I would let you know that I downloaded a China theme for my laptop in honor of your trip. Now every time my computer makes noise it sounds like Urkel has been let loose in the percussion section of a Chinese orchestra.