Just to note one thing: I was up dancing until 4:00 in the morning last night. I can't remember the last time I did that -- but then again, I very rarely have reason to celebrate that late into the night. It was a very fun evening -- began with 58 kuai roast duck -- an extreme bargain, given that most places start at 138 kuai. It was good, too! We then headed up to the bar district to begin celebrating in earnest. I now fully support the consumption of roast duck as a pre-party meal, as after drinking a mojito, two vodka shots, a couple other random shots, and shotgunning my first-ever beer, I am still doing fairly ok this morning, apart from the requisite sledgehammer headache. Also still really tired from all the dancing. I still can't believe the size of the crowd at the club on a Sunday night -- that, and the quality of the music really puts Beijing in a completely different class from Harbin.
Coming back to Beijing really highlights the differences between the two cities, which goes much deeper than just a superficial sampling of club music. My friends and I noticed when we took a cab out to dinner last night that the surfaces of the roads are smoother -- better quality paving. The buildings are newer, and there are a LOT more Westerners here. I'm going to have to make a concentrated effort when I get to Chicago not to start staring at all the white people.
So... well, this is my last blog entry from China. I will definitely write something when I get back home, just to recap the trip, and talk about adjusting to being back in the US. It has most definitely been a wild and crazy time. I can't even begin to process it all right now -- not only am I pretty tired right now, but I'm also extremely hungry (slept through breakfast), and all I can think of right now is how awesome it will be to sleep in my own bed tonight with the skylight open, the coyotes howling at the moon outside, and everywhere, all around me... home.
