Running out of time in Beijing...

It’s crazy how quickly time flies by. I have less than a week to go before I’m done with work and can start traveling. Thus, we went out hard core for the past few days, culminating in a full weekend.

Monday: We had visitors from CSHOR (Meg and Joyce) fly in from S. Africa to help us with modeling, and Karen, one of our CF doctors, was still in town visiting. When we have visitors, we eat – a lot. We went to Hatsune for a delicious Japanese lunch with Karen. For dinner, we went to Dadong for Beijing duck. We closed out the restaurant. After eating, we talked until it was almost midnight. Meg, who is an epidemiologist, is fascinating. She is fun yet brilliant, a combination that I love and admire. Now I seriously want to be an epidemiologist and model how diseases spread. PhD Hui? Perhaps.

Tuesday: I helped to organize a dinner with Professor Perkins, who is in Beijing with his wife. They are in Beijing for 2 months so Prof. Perkins can do research, so a group of us took them out to dinner at South Beauty. His stories about China in the 70s, and its development over the past few decades were fascinating. He’s been visiting every year for 30+ years. The changes must have been incredible to witness. After dinner, I met a HBS admit who happened to have been in Beijing for work. We had a drink together and chatted. She was super nice but super overworked.

Wednesday: We took Meg and Joyce to lunch at Middle 8. I love the food there, even though it’s clearly not authentic Yunnan cuisine. That night, Grace organized a Taiwanese dinner. Everyone got lost trying to find the place, but the food made it all worthwhile. Since they did not have shaved ice (rather strange for a Taiwanese place), we hit the Bellagio for dessert.

Thursday: Spent the day working at NCAIDS and planning my Japan trip with Kumi. That night, dinner with work people at Shin Yeh, another Taiwanese place. The food was good but the best dish of the night was the mango ice – literally mango puree in a cup. Simply incredible. I’d literally go back just for that. Afterwards, drinks at LAN, my favorite bar in Beijing. Love the funky Alice in Wonderland décor and the fruity cocktails. Courtesy of Promen (we’re pro-men!), we had 2 for 1 drinks.

Friday: Lunch with Meg and Joyce at Pure Lotus. It’s been a week of visiting my favorite restaurants! That night, I briefly went to Bar Blu to meet some other HBS admits in Beijing then headed to Lido for Ethiopian food at Beijing’s first Ethiopian restaurant, Ras. Kumi, who just got her Chinese driver’s license, drove us there. We managed to find it without any major problems. Having a car made us all realize what a fairy-tale life we all lead in Beijing. Anna was right. In many ways, we are like princesses in Asia. We go out every night and live in nice apartments with pools and gyms.

Dinner was chaotic. About twice as many people as we had expected showed up, but it was fun to eat with our fingers nonetheless. Afterwards, we went to a bar opening for a new bar on a boat. Not surprisingly, the bar was called, The Boat. The place reminded me too much of a frat party, so we left to get some more food before hitting Q Bar. It was a late night.

Saturday: I got up early to grocery shop for my sushi party the next day, hit the gym and then grabbed brunch at Alameda with Karen. Then I met Kumi, Alice and Tiffany to head to Three Shadows Gallery in the new 798 (798 is the art district). None of us had a map but between our memory of how to get to Ras, directions given over the phone, a text message, and Tiffany’s fussy sense of directions from previous trips there, we made it without getting lost. It was far – past the 5th ring. Ironically, on the flight on the way home to NYC after my first trip to Beijing, I sat next to a curator at the International Center of Photography. He was telling me about this place – he went for the opening of the gallery and is on the advisory board. After almost a year, I made it there finally. It feels like my time in Beijing has come full circle.

We went to 798 to relax at a café then drove to dinner at Lemon Leaf, a Thai hotpot place. I normally don’t like hotpot, but the Thai-flavored broths were really good (we tried a curry based broth and a tom yum based broth). Afterwards, we hit Luna bar for a friend’s birthday. Open bar. We got teased about our crazy schedule, which somehow leaked out to the public.

Sunday: Kumi, Chia-Li, Reshma, Sabrina and I got up to go to Chuandixia, a well-preserved Ming village outside Beijing. Again, Kumi drove. We were all suffering from the effects of overdrinking the night before, and unsurprisingly did not find this place in the 2 hours we had anticipated. The village was neat, but we got stuck in traffic on the way back and Kumi missed her flight. I hosted a sushi-making party which went well. But getting everything ready was stressful as we got back 3 hours after we had all anticipated.

Monday again: Last night, I just needed a quiet night in. Chia-Li and I grabbed dinner at Nearby the Tree and then watched the Nannie Diaries. Today, I am planning to stay in, by myself (can’t even remember the last time I did that!), and pack. Tomorrow is Salsa night and Thursday is my last night in Beijing for a while. We’re planning to grab drinks at LAN and dinner at Rumi. I fly out Friday morning for San Francisco. Funny how fast time flies. I’m both excited and sad. Leaving will be bittersweet.