Ill adopt your second child for a train ticket

So we are in Beijing now. We have spent the last few days at a charming little hostel right close to Tianeman square. But National Day is on the first of October and due to the proximity of our hostel to Tianeman it will be closed for the next few days. Not sure what National Day is? Oh but neither did we. But its the most special day in China and to ice the fucking cake it also happens to be the 60th anniversary since the events of 1949, of which I am sure you are all well versed. But to cut a long story short even though 5% of the population is traveling and moving between cities on this most wonderful of days it creates an impossible situation, travel-wise, for us. Virtually every train, bus, and hotel is booked straight through the beginning of October.
But Beijing is beautiful: excellent food, better communism and a whole-hearted commitment to martial law, not to mention the crippling language barrier.
But we have found another hostel nearby to stay tomorrow night and finally found transportation out of this city. Not on a train of course for those are all booked but rather on a 13 hour bus from Beijing to Xi'an.
Some Beijing highlights: hand-pulled noodles, enormous bottles of tsingtao for fifty cents, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and duck liver served with thin pancakes, cucumber, plum sauce, and bean sprouts.
We must also take a moment to acknowledge the markets here in Beijing. Never in the whole wide world will you find such a large group on individuals commited to the savage ferocity of selling the same thing as their neighbor. Really the only safe way to walk through a market is with your hands in your pockets, dake glasses on, and you eyes committed to the pavement in front of you. Not an ideal position to survey the goods albeit but I have found no other way.
Sorry that this post has no pictures: imagine is sitting in Tianamen sqaure, strolling through the Forbidden City, and sweating out faces off walking up the Great Wall. There will be pictures as soon as we come into contact with a computer that has not had the USB ports ripped out. Oh and did we forget to mention that Nate doesnt like tea? Unforgivable.

p.s. I am positive Chinese woman are better looking than Korean ones. The jury is still out for Nate.

Taking Fruit From Strangers

So now I'm in Korea. Everything is going well, except for the one minor hick-up upon arrival. I guess I just wasn't prepared for how messed up I would be after being folded into an airplane seat for twenty hours. Who knew? But so I arrive in Busan, South Korea, greet Nate and hop into a cab for the short ride back to his apartment. Ahh but I left my passport in the cab. So far I have been in Asia, halfway around the world, for a total of about fifteen minutes and already I have discarded what could probably be one of my most important possessions at this point. Its pretty much like a walked through customs, out the airport door, and handed my passport to the first strange Korean man I met and told him I would just meet up with him later to get it back.
Oh, but luckily for me Koreans are the most rule abiding, honest folk I have ever met. Three days later I am able to pick my passport up at the airport. Just the one little hick-up.
Now we are biding our time, waiting for our visas to China to clear. Nate is busy teaching the future sons and daughters of this great country his own mother tongue, and also I believe how speed dating works. I'm really not sure but I think it would be a safe to say that that isn't part of the official curriculum.
Just a moment ago I was on my way from Nate's ninth floor apartment out to the corner store and a Korean woman in the elevator offered me a bit of her apple. She told me that it would be good for my health and that I had better have a slice. Of course, not wanting to offend I accepted. It was much sweeter than any apple I have eaten in the United States. Delicious.

p.s. I quick word to the wise: be careful with your chopsticks when you may have had a bit too much to drink, they tend to sometimes get away from you.