You know how it is when you’re playing Ultimate on a weekly basis and everytime you go out, you complain about how out of shape you are? And then a couple months later when you haven’t done any physical activity at all, you realize then what it truly means to be out of shape? That was me today.

Matt and I went out today to play some Ultimate. It was supposed to be a practice for the Beijing players going to the Hong Kong tournament next weekend. And they were trying to get some players not going to Hong Kong to come out and scrimmage against the team. We thought it would be fun to play outside while the weather’s nice and before Matt leaves. Naturally, even before the details of the scrimmage were in place, a generous amount of trash talk ensued. And then the scrimmage got spun into a rookie-alum game. And then jerseys were made.

And I have to say that Phantom, our impromptu “Beijing alum” team, looked far more like a real team in our matching green jerseys than our opponents in all colors “non-green.” (And, as an aside, I have to say that Five Ultimate’s new jersey material is really nice–very light, very soft, very capilene). In spite of all fatigue, and the liberal amount of swill (more scoobers than hucks were completed, but that’s not really saying much), it was pretty fun. Just don’t make me run ever again.

* NOT FOUND *We’ve been living in China for almost ten months. And we still haven’t seen the obligatory sites of Beijing. We had good intentions to when we moved here, but without a firm place on the to-do list, it just never really happened. (You know how that happens…how many of you Chicagoans have actually been up the Sears Tower?). I’m a little embarrassed because I have actually been to a lot of the major sites on previous trips. So, it wasn’t really high on my agenda. And, although Matt’s gotten plenty of the “practicum” of daily Chinese life and culture, the cultural history component might have fallen a bit to the wayside. And, if he left China without having gone to the Great Wall. Well, some might call that a tragedy. So, we went today. Finally.

It just so happens that some family friends are staying with us in Beijing. Their week here has been packed with back-to-back site-seeing, from the Old Summer Palace to the Temple of Heaven, and they’ve hired a personal driver to shuttle them around. This is a good idea for those who don’t want to go with the flag-waving tour groups and don’t want to battle public transportation in a foreign city. And, it’s an especially good idea for long day-trips outside of the city, to the Great Wall and Ming Tombs for instance. We were planning on taking a trip there this weekend anyway, but when they offered to take us with them, we jumped at the chance.

There are several sections of the Wall outside of Beijing that are accessible as tourist sites. Some are overrun by tourists, while some are better suited for hikers, etc. We went to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall which is somewhere in between. You can either hike up or take “The Best Cable Car on the Great Wall.” And, once you’re at the top, you can even take a “Toboggan” ride on the way down. Clearly something to put on the to-do list. We went with the cable car both ways this time. At the top, you can walk along the wall from guard post to guard post. And since it’s surrounded by mountains it’s a really nice view. We lucked out with the weather, and enjoyed a beautiful blue sky. The trees were even changing color, which is not something I’ve seen in China yet.

After the Great Wall, we went to the Ming Tombs. This is where thirteen of the sixteen Ming emperors are buried. But, only one (Emperor Wanli’s tomb) has been excavated. The architecture and tomb structure was interesting to walk around, but I wish they had shown more photographs of the original excavation. Nowadays, there are only replicas of the coffins and burial objects available on view. By the time we got back into the city, it was dinnertime. We had reservations at Bai Jia Dayuan, a restaurant with elaborate courtyards, gardens, and waitstaff dressed like they’re from the Qing court. It was a bit like stepping into a period piece. We ate deer, donkey, and duck, and then watched a brief performance of Sichuan opera in the main hall. Next up: Forbidden City.

* NOT FOUND * A) A box of chocolates that you consume in one sitting
…because you love chocolate
…because it is 4 a.m. and you’re bored
…because you have no self-control

B) A box of chocolates, in which you consume one chocolate a day
…because you are blessed with a sense of moderation
…because you keep getting distracted by the ice cream

C) A box of chocolates that you don’t touch
…because you hate chocolate
…and you are a hateful person

While making my way through this box of chocolates recently, I thought about my dissertation. This happens a lot. I’m thinking about something, and then the dissertation will rudely push its way into my internal monologue. It might have something to do with guilt…or self-discipline…I’m hoping, though, that one day it will be because of addiction. I’ve recently been reading a book on dissertation-writing, that suggests building a “writing addiction.” Rather than thinking negatively about the writing process, write everyday, reward yourself, and gradually it will become habit, and then…hopefully, addiction. Hmmm…maybe that’s what those folks in the dissertation support groups know that I don’t.  I’m going to need to talk to my sponsor about this.

* NOT FOUND *Matt’s back in the U.S. right now since his sister got married over Labor Day weekend. Congratulations Heidi and Ronnie! He’s been there for over a week and a half, and has been regaling me with stories of blue skies, real hamburgers, and other assorted things on his list of foods to eat in the U.S. (donuts, gyros, etc…). He’ll be at Chicago Heavyweight Championships this weekend (can you believe it? I’ve never been to that tournament), so stop by and say hello to him if you’ll be there!

It’s been very different being here alone. Just me and Rocky. I’m mostly just going about my business, running errands, doing work, etc, etc. Amazingly, I’ve only had to weather two mini-crises in my time alone, both being mechanical failures (instigated by the user): one, I dropped my iPod nano into a bucket of soapy water; two, my laptop didn’t actually go to sleep like I thought, and instead overheated inside its thermal carrying case. The good news is that both the iPod and the MacBook are completely fine, but they did give me a serious scare. I listen to my iPod all the time, so that would have been only slightly less tragic than my laptop needing to be resuscitated. I count myself lucky that it is back to normal. For future reference: do not try to run wet electronics. And, while we’re at it, make sure your computer is asleep or shut off before carrying it all over the city on a hot day. Do regular backups. You know the drill.

Things haven’t been all drama, though. The weather has finally cooled down a bit, and fall is actually a nice season in Beijing. September is also a very busy month in the local art scene. I decided to forego the madness of openings on Sept. 1, and instead walked around 798 (the art district) the next day–Sunday afternoon–after enjoying a Wellesley brunch in the area. Anish Kapoor (the artist behind the “Bean” in Chicago) has a show here, and it was fantastic. Perhaps the best I’ve seen in Beijing yet. I’m not going to post pictures of it until I take Matt there, though. Instead, I’ve put up some pictures of all of the construction going on in 798…piles of bricks, rebar, assembly lines, bricklayers…all very Beijing.

Well, it finally happened. I had Peking Duck. Not for the first time, but for the first time since I’ve been here this time around. It was pretty good, too–not overly greasy (unlike a lot of food here). The famed Da Dong was already booked when I called, so we settled for the more no-frills Xiang Man Lou (which takes no reservations after 6 p.m.). I went with my childhood friend who happens to be in town and a couple of his colleagues. They’ve been eating in a hotel for two days, so were happy with the change of food and comparatively cheap price. After they sliced the meat from the duck, the waitress asked me if I wanted to take home the bones to make soup. How resourceful! Of course, I said yes. So, they threw the carcass in a plastic bag. Classy.

* NOT FOUND *Well, after Matt’s thrilling build-up to the throwdown of the century, I’m sure people are eagerly awaiting news of whose team won the Beijing Ultimate Summer League championships…sadly, I have to report that my team did not bring home the glory. I think my team played well, and we had the lead through the whole game, but, in the end, couldn’t seal the deal. (Up three points only to lose at double game point?– that last point was ugly…). Oh well. Nevertheless, I had fun. I liked my team and I thought the team captains, Jason and Sandy, were fantastic. I really liked that our team had a number of local players who consistently came out on Sundays to summer league and Tuesdays to skills clinics, and who really improved throughout the season and played well in the finals. I was initially concerned when I heard that a couple of our more experienced players wouldn’t be there, and even more concerned when I saw players show up who I haven’t seen in weeks…you know how it is. While waiting for the bus to take to the fields, I overheard someone say, “I heard my team made it to the Finals.” I looked at Matt and asked, “Is he on your team or my team?” In spite of my reservations, I thought we managed to come together well, and gave Matt’s team a run for their money. My favorite line on the field was when Matt threw a huck to Roger (the 6′5″ Yao Ming-look-alike) who proceeded to run to the other side of the endzone, while Matt looked on in horror and yelled, “Don’t read the disc!” as it sailed over Roger’s head to where he was standing before he took off running. (Roger made up for it by catching a huck later). Summer league is one of those fun, though at times frustrating, experiences…where you have to balance your own competitiveness with a more light-hearted acceptance of the nature of this level of game. One of things I enjoy most about it though is watching the completion of the craziest, most improbable throws and catches in Ultimate (a constant in summer league).

* NOT FOUND * Given how I can be sort of a grumpy player, I was genuinely surprised (and embarrassed and touched) to be awarded my team’s “Spirit Award.” I don’t even know what to say about it. I’ll say this much though: I never came up with any of the cheers, and I’m not really good at public sing-a-longs, so it certainly wasn’t that.

* NOT FOUND * Matt and I like going to zoos. We used to visit the Lincoln Park Zoo a lot, and right before we left Chicago we went to see “Zoolights”–a fun event at night where the entire zoo is lit up in Christmas lights. Last Thanksgiving, when we drove back east to see my family in Connecticut and extended family in Baltimore, we stopped by the Smithsonian Zoo. That was really exciting because we got to see the new baby panda play with its mother.

We had been meaning to go to the Beijing Zoo since they have quite a few giant pandas there. But, we had been hesitating because we feared the worst (making all the warnings about zoos and inhumane treatment of animals completely valid concerns). Although there were some grim parts, it wasn’t nearly as sad as I thought it was going to be. The faded floral motifs painted on the concrete walls didn’t do much to disguise the bleak habitats in the “Pheasant Garden” and “Small Mammal House.” But, the big mammals seemed to have slightly better living areas, and we got to see elephants, an enormous hippo, three rhinoceroses, six giant pandas, six brown bears, lionesses, tigers, etc…

Part of what was fun about the zoo was watching the people watching the animals (for humorous images on this subject, check out Gary Winogrand’s photographs in The Animals). I like seeing how people react to the animals. At the Giant Panda House, one child seemed particularly dismayed that the pandas were all sleeping and exclaimed, “This is our national treasure?!” Sometimes, people liked to watch us as we watched the animals, too. At one point in the “Nocturnal Animals House,” the entire time we were watching a kinkajou climbing around its cage, the man next to us just kept his eyes fixed on Matt (and later in the day, another man asked Matt to take a picture with his son).

Although there are signs everywhere that say not to feed the animals, we still saw quite a lot of this. Especially at “Bear Hill.” I imagine this happens a lot as the bears would walk around, occasionally stop, sit down on their hind legs, put their front paws in the air, and appeared to be begging (pictured above). The crowd found this incredibly entertaining, and one man even poured Coke thirty feet into a bear’s open mouth. Other people threw popcorn, fruit, dried squid (the bears didn’t eat it), water bottles (and, I’m not kidding, the bear took the cap off the bottle, put the bottle in its mouth and guzzled it down)…

At one point, we saw a crowd of people stopped in front of a tent. It was a setup where, for twenty kuai, people could get their picture taken with a trained monkey wearing a striped tank top and diapers. (A disturbing side note: this is the first time I have seen a diaper in China. Babies and toddlers wear pants that are open from front to back. This allows parents to let their kids stop anywhere–in any public space–and just do their business right there. We saw a lot of this at the zoo. Seriously, that has to stop. I mean, if a monkey can wear a diaper, your child can, too). It was a little weird to see a blatantly domesticated animal inside a zoo, especially since his compatriots were not too far away in cages that pretended to simulate and protect the wild. I imagine that that booth was quite the money-making venture, though.

The Aquarium is located on the premises of the zoo, and was surprisingly nice. They had a pretty big shark tank and plenty of different weird sea creatures on exhibit. They even had one of those escalator tunnels where you could see the fish all around you (like at the Mall of America!). We even stopped to rest our feet and watch the sea lion and dolphin show in a big arena– it was really entertaining. I never tire of watching a man “surfing” on a dolphin and sea lions breakdancing.

* NOT FOUND * As I mentioned a couple days ago, the air was amazingly clear. It was so clear that we could actually see the mountains at sunset (Matt was shocked that they were so close). A brief thunderstorm moved the clouds away and we could even see stars in the night sky. Armed with little folding chairs, we went out in the middle of the night to take a better look. We walked around a bit looking for a viewing spot that didn’t have too much light pollution (extremely difficult given the number of construction projects lit up in the city). I thought that we were just going out because stars in Beijing are so rare, and because Matt–having studied astrophysics in college–likes stars. Unbeknownst to me (though not to Matt who for whatever reason forgot to mention this to me), it turned out that the Perseids meteor shower would be viewable that night. And, believe it or not, we were able to sit in a small park in our neighborhood and watch shooting stars. Amazing.

* NOT FOUND * The other day at summer league, my Chinese teammate was kind enough to run to the xiaomaibu (local ramshackle convenience store) to pick up a couple bottles of water for us. I was surprised when she returned with “Pabst Blue Ribbon natural mineral water.” I mean…really??? PBR strikes me as an odd choice of brand+logo to knock off. And, after finding the website for the Zhaoqing Blue Ribbon Blue Fort company, I really was convinced that it was a case of one company really liking another company’s logo and deciding to blatantly copy it.

But, according to this 1992 article, “Pabst Brewing Co…licens[ed] its Blue Ribbon brand to the city of Zhaoqing, 60 miles west of Guangzhou. Pabst also sold to the city, for practically nothing, the equipment from three mothballed breweries in the U.S.” And, you can read their securities information here, which mentions that the Zhaoqing Blue Ribbon marketing company which was “established to conduct the distribution, marketing, and promotion of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in China…also sells mineral water and non-carbonated soft drinks bearing the Blue Ribbon label produced by Guangdong Blue Ribbon.” Well, what do you know?

Seriously, when I took the picture of that bottle of water, this was originally going to be a “haha, isn’t that absurd?” post. And certainly not a mini exposé of international commerce. But, now I actually find the story behind it pretty interesting.

* NOT FOUND *At summer league today, everyone kept marveling at how blue the sky was. From the big, puffy white clouds to the visible sunset, we couldn’t believe how unpolluted the air appeared. This was also the first time this summer that we realized how little shade there is surrounding our field…as we had all forgotten what it was like to be under the direct rays of the sun. In preparation for the Olympics, the central government is doing a trial run of some of the procedures they will be implementing next August. With less than a year to go, the struggle to improve air quality is definitely at the top of the list. It will be wonderful when they enact the traffic regulations later this week: removing half the vehicles from the road and presumably congestion and exhaust along with it. Rumor has it that today’s clear skies were a result of factories being shut down in Tianjin. Perhaps the brief thunderstorm tonight was also part of a government scheme to clear the air? Between cloud-seeding and rocket launching, I wouldn’t be surprised.