I have returned. No parades, no celebrations, no fireworks – never any fireworks, not in So Cal. But I’m back. This gets one wondering in reflection. What am I coming back from? And where am I going?

I am coming from China, Beijing, fantastic places I’d only seen in pictures, smiling strangers, watchful Big Brother, keeping the crayon between the lines, dozens of people each with a life and a story that’s worth listening to, endless nights, senseless regulations, crowded subways with TVs showing the Olympics, late-night cab rides, a tireless mass forever striding forward, millions who can never be lost but must struggle to be found, people who want to enjoy their lives just like everyone else in the world, late night pancake breakfasts, my pointing fingers as a means of communication, answering 98% of questions with “yeah” or “dway” though I haven’t a clue what I’m being asked, great food and cheap beer, pretty Chinese girls, other pretty girls, Olympic medals and medalists, having a blast haggling, a great many forms that must be signed and stamped and picture attached and seal added and signed by official, a city that never sleeps, guards and volunteers, stark contrasts, official deceptions, intertwining and blending cultures, and a very, very fun summer.

I have a few weeks of sun-soaked afternoons.

I go to new challenges in life and school, rainy weather, FOOTBALL!, possible acquaintances, possible acquaintances of acquaintances, small places with big stories, bad food, fish and chips, cars on strange sides of the road, big red buses, hot old subways, my financial destruction, awakenings, and my future man, my future.

But let’s not overdo this. Too much thinking is a terrible, wasteful thing, Humphrey van Weyden.

Yesterday I visited Lama Temple. Photography is not permitted inside the buildings, so I couldn’t snap one of the 18 meter tall Buddha statue, among other things. Afterwards I wandered about through the alleys in the vicinity of the temple. Pictures up.

These were two entirely different trips on two entirely different days, but I decided to combine them to squeeze a reasonably-sized photo gallery out of it. Unfortunately, we got to Beihai Park somewhat late in the afternoon, and they had already closed down the White Dagoba for the day, so we didn’t get to see the best parts of the place. Pictures up.

The marathon course leads through Tsinghua, and the ladies went for their run today. I managed to kick myself out of bed to go watch it. It was sort of drizzling and looking slightly menacingly like rain, and I decided not to take my camera. So no pictures, sorry.

There was a group of soldiers, sitting at the ready (now there’s a funny phrase) nearby, checking up on the progress of the race (presumably) on their cell phones while waiting for their call, should it come. A vanful of cops was nearby, ready to spring into action on a similar call.

We could guess the progress of the race from the helicopters, who were circling the leader like great sharks who’d caught a scent of blood. We could tell it was close. And then it came: first a car with the official time, second a truck full of photographers, then one last car with the camera. And then Constantina Tomescu, running with great strides at a pace I’d have a hard time sustaining for a mile. Soon after her four closest pursuers, led by Zhou Chunxiu and Zhu Xiaolin, and then the rest of the field.

The fans cheered them all on, clapping and shouting for every single runner that came through the field. Regardless of who was running there just then, the chant was always “zha-io”, let’s go. I probably slaughtered that spelling. A Korean lady got her “minga” sounding thing that sounds so familiar since the 2002 World Cup.

Once the runners were through there came an ambulance, some cops, some random vans and cars, more cops, a Volkswagen fuel cell car (oooh), and perhaps some more cops. And then I went back to my room and watched the finish on the telly.

Thursday night, I decided to change up the routine and went for a stroll by the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube. I haven’t a tripod here, so out of the 180 pictures I took about 50 turned out viewable. Which actually isn’t bad. On the other hand, I did pass some people who made my camera and lens look like cookie-cutter next to a Katana. But hey.

***

“You may call me Joe,” he would later tell me.

Joe, whom I’d passed (by virtue of walking faster) on the way to some place, where I stayed longer than he, and then again on the way back, began this conversation by calling to me, “Excuse me, sir! Why do you walk so fast?”

“It gives me a sense of purpose,” I told him. I think he understood.

He told me, among other things, why Michael Phelps wouldn’t do very well in the next Olympics: too many girls throwing themselves at him after these games. You hear that, Sara? Back off, for the glory of your country.

The game was at 18:30 – USA vs. Argentina, women’s field hockey. Not the most exciting event, not by a longshot, but hey, it’s the Olympics.

We arrived outside of the “Security Check” tents around 16:30, right about as the drizzle changed into rain, thunder, and lightning. Having all umbrellas are waterproof jackets of some sort, it wasn’t all that terrible. We tried to go on inside one of the security check tents, only to be sent to the next one. There we would be sent to the next one, where we would be sent to the next one. Finally we were herded into one of the tents, squeezing tightly with many others. Here we remained squeezing, toe-tapping, grumbling, until 18:40. But hey, at least the game was delayed, they said. When they finally started letting people through, they did so by opening two – of the eight or so available – metal detectors. Not cool; this would take a long time; people were here for two hockey matches, and there was some tennis going on somewhere, also. But luckily we were towards the front and got through after a couple minutes of pushing and shoving.

We made it to the stadium fairly quickly after that – but whoops, surprise, the game started on time and we missed more than half of the first half and three of the four goals. Grrr.

You remember how every event here in Beijing was hopelessly sold-out, and how tickets were only available on the black market for very hefty sums? Bullshit. There were plenty of empty seats at the hockey game, at the volleyball game some friends saw, and at the handball game some other friends saw. Somebody else got tickets for 5 bucks a pop. Not quite so glorious, I guess.

As you all know, I’m sure, today is the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The final part of the Olympic torch relay went through Beijing today, and part of the track was close to Tsinghua University. We set out to see it with great excitement, only to eventually be told that that part of the track was blocked off or cancelled, apparently for security reasons. Very disappointing, of course, but it was still fun seeing so many excited people.

I read a couple of days ago an article about the way the Chinese cheer along the torch relay track. It described first the scene we could see all the time on television – runner changing runner every 50 yards, all jogging in the same monotonous pace and way. Nothing exciting, indeed. But all along the track were spectators, cheering the runners on. The author called this “mandatory cheering”, to what he felt was the government prescription for this. I had my doubts either way.

Today changed all that. Mandatory cheering? Are you kidding me? People are just excited; the Olympics are very much a matter of national pride for the Chinese people. think the pictures show this well enough. Mandatory cheering my ass.

Hi kids,

here’s an important message from your uncle Krystof. The Long Shen Dao website has been located, and we believe it is in your best interest to visit it, now. Go to http://space.menllo.com/longshendao#musicplay to check it out. The site doesn’t work in Firefox for some reason, but it seems fine in Internet Exploder.

Long Shen Dao, you may recall, is the best (and only, but in no way does this detract from the previous) Chinese reggae band. Your uncle Krystof heard them perform a couple of days ago and now does not want to turn back away from the light. Check out this gallery for a couple pictures from that performance.

Thank you.

On Sunday we went to the Great Wall. It’s big. Some parts are very tourist-packed, others not so much. We walked as far as we could in the area we went to; further parts were closed down for repair. Overall I’d guess we could have walked maybe 5 km on the wall. Pictures up.

Before the reggae festival (read below!), we went to the Beijing Zoo. The Pandas, of course, take a central role in the zoo, and have the nicest habitats – although I thought they could have been a bit more “natural”. The young pandas enjoyed them, though. Most of the big cats, on the other hand, only got small, stinky cages. It was rather sad to watch them lie there. The elephants got just a dirt patch with some mud. That’s it. I don’t remember the other zoos I’ve been to all that well, but I think I was less bothered by them.

By the way, I finally confirmed my suspicions that I was messing up the colors of my photos when exporting them from RAW into JPEGs. I’ve been exporting them into AdobeRGB rather than sRGB. If you thought some colors on some of the older photos looked kind of washed out…you were right. I reexported and reuploaded a couple photos that I thought were most affected by it.