Brett in Beijing

After a very friendly old chinese couple on the plane I was very surprised by how many people were mega indifferent to me since. Like this guy who took the tickets on my first bus: I thought he didn't hear me, but he was (in a mega cool swaggery manner) slowly stepping over to gesture at a sign, he seemed a bit like a teenager ashamed to have to talk to a nerd like me. My friend Jeremy says that behaviour only comes from the many people who come from other areas of China to the ever growing Beijing. The old Beijingers I met were indeed very friendly. Also sometimes there were mega cute young boys who seem to work up the courage to steal up and fire off a 'hello' or 'how are you' and then run away giggling that they have spoken english to an english speaker.

It feels poorer than I realised it would feel. Almost like I imagine Africa or India would feel. But that might be partially because we are always hanging out around J's area, which is poor but developing at the speed of a thousand auspicious horses. J was like: 'look at this, it's the red light area. Hang on, they've all gone, there's only one red light establishment here now, when did that happen, it's all hairdressers and sex shops.' Also there were a few certain areas (huge cranes building or apartment blocks or markets) that J said when
he arrived 4 years ago there was nothing there but poor brick shacks.

We saw a funny fight between a crazy old man and a man whose sunglasses barely concealed the black hole of his indifference. And we saw some frogs that looked like multicoloured jelly candy frogs except they were alive.

Beijing never seemed as dangerous as I thought it might. Apart from when I first arrived and J took me on a black (like black-market) taxi hooning through tight backroads and honking at other drivers in our way while the driver kept saying things that sounded pretty dirty to me and then giggling. For a moment there I wondered if my friend Jeremy had decided to pull some scam on me.

It's an amazing place. I had a really unforgettable time.
The best thing for me though, is catching up with my good friend Jeremy and watching him talk awkward chinese whenever we have to buy food or haggle. He fires a lot of words, and some miss. He is always ready with a gesture of bewildered dissatisfaction for any reply he gets. Often it is because he doesn't understand what they said. He repeats it back to them, and they try to elaborate. But it is only once he hears a key word he understands that he might reluctantly accept to do business. Sometimes we have to walk away and get chased down with a price that is quarter the starting price.

I woke up one morning with Chinese in my head that J had said the night before: 'BU ROU' I think I spelt it wrong. I think it means 'no meat' or 'don't meat' or something. It almost never worked for me. J had to elaborate. It is a fun thing to say. A week later Sophie and Jeremy and me all said it in synchronicity to someone trying to sell us souvenirs at tianamen square. It's just how we turn people down. But that is another story...