I've been lazy!

So, it has been a crazy week and I feel way behind on this. So much so stuff has gone on that I’m going to cop out and and some structure to my stream-of-consciousness writing by breaking it down day by day. So, without further ado:

Thursday, July 12: The absolutely incredible Beijing Acrobats. No, these people were unbelievable – someone in my group said it best: you know its amazing when they are doing things that you know you could never no matter how much/long you trained. It is crazy stuff like the little guy on Ocean’s 11/12/13 with flips through hoops, a lady that apparently has no spine/bones she is so flexible, some ladies that can pile like 10 people on a single bike, some dudes that can do handstands, one handed, on another dude’s head, another guy that was bouncing around on one hand up and downstairs. Really, it is all hard to describe without seeing it, but I’ve attached some pics:

Friday, July 13: Had an interesting day as I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to have lunch with an executive director from a top investment bank. She was nice enough to host me at a great restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel where we had a great discussion about my potentially working after grad school in Hong Kong. I learned a ton and I think that I now have a better idea about where I want to focus in the future – more to come after my visit to Hong Kong in two weeks where I will meet with a few other companies. I am so fortunate to have people that connect me with folks like these!

Saturday, July 14: So, this was the beginning of the unbelievable, endless Great Wall of China Weekend. No, like seriously. So, it started out with our planned Chinalink group trip to a piece of the wall about an hour a away. We hopped on the bus about 8 AM and trucked it over, and then spent about three hours walking up and around it. The weather was absolutely perfect – overcast and a little misty, which made the hike up the countless steps bearable and made for some mysterious looking pictures (see them below). The most fun part was coming down – it was basically a toboggan that ran down the whole side of the mountain back down to the parking lot at the bottom, and let me tell you – I would have hiked up 10 times to come down this way. The only thing that sucked was some slow people ahead of me, but in retrospect maybe that was good b/c I might have killed myself going too fast. So, we here at lostinthered productions are now trying a new thing so that you, yes YOU, can also experience the “Great Wall Dismount” (thanks Rich for that one!) via a video I took while coming down – I'm new to this video upload stuff so please let me know if it didn't work....

Saturday, July 14 GREAT WALL PART 2 (!!!): So, after we got back from the first Great Wall Trip, we showered and got ready for Great Wall trip part 2. So basically, there is this annual night party they have on the coast, on the beach, at the end of the Great Wall. Think about that – an all night party, at one of the 7 wonders of the world, on the beach, with 8 DJ’s spinning from 6 PM to whenever AM the next day – amazing or what??? So we got tix, took the bus (that was advertised as 2.5 hours to 3 hours, but ended up closer to 5 hours) out there, and arrived at about 12:30 AM. The party though, was incredible…the DJ’s were fantastic, and I had never been to an outdoor party on the beach overnight, let alone at the Great Wall of China…
To make it even more fun, it was Rich’s 26^th B-day, and we got 19 of the 22 Chinalink folks to go. It was really cool seeing it get light on the beach (unfortunately no sun rise b/c it was cloudy), and the 5 hour bus ride home kind of sucked – good thing we were all exhausted – but I still can’t believe I can say I partied all night on the beach at the Great wall. See vids below - the first is peak time in the middle of the night, the second is 4:38 AM with less people, but still going strong (again, new at this vid stuff so let me know if it doesnt work). Also a couple of choice pics:

(At this point in the night, probably about 2 AM, had to be 500+ people...)

(Rich the birthday boy)

(Shadow dancing at the Great Wall)

Sunday, July 15^th: Dead to the world. Well, until I woke up at about 4 PM, at which point we met up with: My beautiful sister Teresa and her new husband Ulrik!! They are on their multi-country/continent 3 month honeymoon and were coming through. So great to see them, the last time was at their wedding in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 27^th. Met them at this incredible massage place where we can get very good full body massages for about $18, but the crazy thing is that includes all you can eat, made to order food along with it. What???? So was great to get a massage after dancing all night and then I’m sure Teresa and U enjoyed it to after their 5 hour-delayed flight from Mongolia.

Monday, July 16: Dead to the world as I had my midterm on Tuesday, so basically spent studying all day with Rich and Chris (“The Twin Towers”…6’3 and 6’4 is pretty damn big here in China) at a coffee shop, then coming home and basically passing out from the remaining after-effects of Saturday night.

Tuesday, July 17^th: No problem on the midterm, I think. Studied pretty hard so should be decent enough. Went back out to meet Teresa and Ulrik for…well…um…a massage??? It’s hard to resist for $18, and then its an even better value proposition when you factor in the free all you can eat food and drink?? Need to justify the decadance. This time I even ate before AND after my massage – I could get used to this. Then I had a great night of sleep at my sister’s hotel – they decided to use up some of the points they have built up as consultants on the road all the time and got a suite at the (as the travel guides refer to) as the best hotel in Beijing the 5 star St Regis. And lemme tell you, it was soooo great. I love my dorm/frat house here and all, but lemme tell you it was really nice to have central air, no mosquitos, a marble bath (and crazy, it was my own – the suite has two baths) and HBO/ESPN, etc. I crashed hard, with the excuse that I still had after effects of the Saturday night/midterm studying.

Wednesday, July 18^th: Spent the whole day hanging with sis and brother-in-law (or as my friend calls him, BIL). By whole day I mean I played hooky with class too. We went to the old emperor’s summer palace, which was AMAZING. Right there with the Great Wall as the most amazing places. It is sort of Versaille like in how beautiful it was with lakes (all man made with hard labor), beautiful buildings, and sweeping views of the city. It was mostly built end of 1800's early 1900's by this spoiled emperor-ess that diverted navy funds to build it, and they used some cash! The terrible part – FORGOT MY CAMERA! This was a great place for pictures, but at least Ulrik got some – will have to get them from him the next time he has access to a computer and can upload them.Wish I could show you guys the pics b/c so gorgeous, but not this time. It was seriously probably the most beautiful day there has been since I got here (it apparently stormed all night Tuesday night which cleaned things up a lot – Tuesday day was very gross and very hazy from pollution) so it was sunny and breezy. And just was great to spend quality time with the family. We went out for a little while that night so they could get a glimpse of the nightlife, but then came home pretty early and crashed hard again in their super-comfortable suite. Life is good!

Today, July 19^th: So, I woke up at 7 AM to take the 45 min cab ride back to campus for class. Then, um, I got right back into bed and slept until like 10:30….
I’m seriously not one to normally play hooky – like, I really believe that just going to class is the bare minimum – but I was just so comfortable there in their penthouse suite and the A/C was so strong, and the apples so delicious, and the marble bath so…marble….
I couldn’t resist. Then while Ulrik got up and worked on his pre-term stuff for school (he is going to Harvard B-School next fall) Teresa and I got what I have been craving this whole trip – Mexican! Never had a burrito been that delicious! In addition to the extra sleep, the morning was worth it to spend more time with T – was so to say bye, but they are going to have an incredible time on their next stop to Tibet. Teresa and Ulrik, please be safe!

Tonight – the famous Peking Opera – will report back more promptly this time.