I’m learning a lot about myself by being more or less on my own in a foreign country. One thing I’ve noticed (and those around me have noticed), is that I hate giving up. Especially when it comes to finding a place. I’ve never had a spectacular sense of direction, but I can read a map and judge distance thanks to many years of backpacking and cross country.
That being said, this week has tested my tenacity. On Monday, Annie and I finally went to Friends Café, a nearly identical replica of Central Perk from one of the best, if not THE best sitcom of all time, Friends.
We took two hot and crowded buses to get there but wandered for a while before finding it tucked into the sixth floor of a sleek SOHO building. It was extremely cute, and surprisingly filled with Chinese locals instead of foreigners. It also was the best cup of coffee I’ve had since I’ve been in China (most of the coffee here is instant coffee instead of drip coffee). It was also refreshing to watch TV (Friends, of course) in English and to sit in comfortable chairs (sadly, the famous orange couch was taken by some locals).
We also discovered The Place, a popular mall and hang-out spot. The Place is hard to describe, but I will definitely come back and take more pictures.
The highlight of Tuesday was getting my first article published! See the last post for the link! I took a break from running around Beijing for a day and ran on the treadmill instead.
On Wednesday, the plan for after work was to eat at a Western deli called Bocata and then check out Boat, a bar/club on a boat (!!!) on a river since I won’t be in town this weekend. We took the subway to the Sanlitun area and walked towards Bocata. On the way there, we found a place called “Here” with a really good menu, and since it was late and we were starving, we ate there… at Here. It was amazing. I had a roast beef sandwich with fries (best fries in China… best fries ever?) and a Coke. When we got to Boat, the place was dead. Mental note: Wednesday night is not particularly hopping in Beijing. We ended up walking to Sanlitun and watching a Michael Jackson impersonator and a Chinese girl band over a pijiu.
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