Friends, old and new

Photos

This week I met up with a very old friend, Vinny. We went to primary and a little of secondary school together, but I haven't seen him in 13 years. Now, thanks to the miracle of Facebook, I connected to a whole bunch of my old school friends and I saw that he was in Beijing. He's been away all summer in Bosnia (I'll get to that) and as he's now returned we caught up on the Friday night for a dinner of Thai food and reminiscing.

He's a great guy, and we have a lot in common as it turns out. Having spent the past 2 years in Beijing working as a freelance photographer, actor, event organizer, and teacher, Vinny was in Bosnia this summer with the Youth Bridge Global international team as an assistant director/documentarian to stage a touring production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The project aims to bring teenagers from the three ethnic groups together in an attempt to reconcile differences twelve years after the Bosnian war. The team developed the production and then took it on a tour of Bosnia - Herzegovina, and Montenegro. Amazing stuff!

After dinner he had invited me to his friend's Olympic-themed costume party (and you all know how much I love a costume party) and luckily mum sent me my cheesy Aussie gear in her care package so I went donned in my thongs, shorts, Wallabies rugby jersey and Ashes cap, carting my Vegemite around to be absolutely clear what I was. It was good fun, and I met a whole bunch of mad, fun people which happens every time I go to an event Vinny invites me to. Needless to say, I'm trying to go to everything Vinny invites me to! Like Swing dance class which totally rocks!

The rest of the weekend was about more exploring. Tash and I decided to explore her area which is a very old and very traditional part of town. She is the only expat living there and because everyone has to be registered with the local police, word travelled fast and everyone knows who she is. Anyway, there aren't many of the little luxuries down that part of town, so we've been looking around for restaurants that don't overcharge her because she's a waiguoren (foreigner), shops that sell decent useful things that don't overcharge her because she's a waiguoren, and bars that are not brothels (yes, she's in that part of town).

Anyway, we admired the sometimes crumbling old buildings, found a local street shopping market, and found the first street in Beijing which I would not eat the food from if you paid me. Beijing is very clean, so much cleaner than I thought it would be, but this street... Food Poisoning Alley we called it. The place wasn't exactly dirty but you just KNOW they'll be using the sink in the toilet to wash things because that's probably the only sink in the restaurant. Hmmm.

Sunday, I went shopping with a work colleague. I've always liked her clothes so she took me shopping... to Zara! Lovely clothes but too expensive for me. I thought, you know, we're working at an NGO, we would all be looking at about the same budget. Well, everyone here plays in the stock market and some have partners who are quite well paid I think. Anyway, I adore her, we get along really well and she's a sweetheart, always making the effort to translate for me and invite me to lunch. Her husband is in IT and works in Japan a lot so I think she is also happy for the company.

So we went to "The Place" which is a standing joke amongst my friends now (How about I meet you at The Place, sweetie darling?). Lots of name brand shops that are cheaper than elsewhere in the world I think, and some cool Chinese fashion brands too. Guess where I'm taking you shopping, Mum? ;) But the best part was the restaurant in the basement we went to for lunch! It is called Macau Street, and though not entirely authentic (more a combination of Macau/HK/South China cuisine), the dim sum were actually really good and the Portuguese Tarts were to die for!

We had a nice long D&M at I felt very close to her by the end of it all. It is hard having her husband away and I am looking forward to our next shopping trip when she returns from her holiday in Japan to check on, er, visit her husband. Afterwards I met Naomi, another the other member of my totally rocking Chinese class, and she took me to The Bookworm - an English language lending library, bookshop, restaurant and events space. It got a nice ambiance, with over 16,000 titles which you can read there, or borrow to read later. A little overpriced (again, this odd phenomenon in Western places of a drink nearly costing the same as a meal) but Nay and I bonded over our smoothies, realising it was probably the first time we'd had a real conversation that wasn't composed mostly of fragmented, broken Chinese. And as I hadn't stuffed my face quite enough I invited myself over to another friend's place for dinner and one (or three) glasses of wine. I was spoilt with a lovely home-cooked dinner of fish and vegs, and for dessert Q tried to poison me with some Chinese chilli condiment. And I though I had an iron stomach.