Virtually Lost

Thanks for the comments! We miss you all.

Since Marilyn's so busy with class, you'll have to get used to me posting for a while. Plus, I got the internet working in our room, which is a dangerous thing to have when unemployed.

I've got my first interview lined up with a semi-reputable English teaching company. Rather than get lost again, I spent an hour today lost in virtual space online. It was surreal, to say the least; almost the same feelings as being lost yesterday, except I was just staring at maps in my room. We'll see if it does any good. I'll probably still get lost and you'll get to read about my adventures here tomorrow.

I should probably backtrack a bit with a couple anecdotes from our trek here. Since it was only $20 more, Marilyn and I booked our tickets here with a 2 day layover in Hong Kong so we could visit some of my family. It was Marilyn's first time visiting Hong Kong, so I'll let her recount the tale, but we had a great time exploring the city. Marilyn got to meet my mom's mom. We were prepared for the worst, but it was actually mostly uneventful. My grandma has pretty advanced Alzheimer's so she's forgotten most of her kids and started talking to my grandpa, who passed away about 10 years ago. I was never really close to her, since she only speaks Cantonese, but it's still really sad to see her in this condition. In spite of the dementia, she was really sweet to us.

On Sunday we flew from Hong Kong to Beijing. For no apparent reason, our flight was stuck on the tarmac for over an hour. I didn't mind so much at first since we were watching Kung Fu Dunk, a Shao Lin Soccer rip off starring none other than the Jay Chou himself. When we arrived, however, since the flight was late, the plane couldn't taxi to the gate right away, so we had to wait on the Beijing end too. I got really antsy and started annoying Marilyn (a little something I like to call "bothering the beadle"...long story); a pretty regular occasion in this marriage. Mostly it was because we were so close to finally arriving in Beijing and here we were just sitting on the tarmac.

We finally made it off the plane, got our luggage, and took a cab to the Beijing Film Academy. I'll pick up from there in a bit. Marilyn's on lunch break and we're going to rock the shi tang (cafeteria).