flying over beijing, you kind of realize how crappy everything is. here's the city that's going to host the 2008 olympics, and as far as i can tell, the city is a big pile of junk. maybe it gets better as you get closer but from my aerial view, everything just looked dilapidated and antiquated. then again, this is a third world country. i hear that shanghai is very modern and very nice but i don't think i'll get a chance to visit down there quite yet. it's hard to imagine that there will be an olympics here in a few years.



i was quite pleased that the airplane steward spoke to me in chinese the whole trip. i put my awesome verbal skills on display as i confidently picked chicken over beef and asked for apple juice and orange juice.



another bright spot: the dinner i had yesterday was incredibly cheap. ten dollars for four of us. and they had little bowls of goldfish on the table as decoration. there was a guy sitting behind us who i swear was like a chinese dick tracy character. he had a really big head and super dark skin. his voice was this crazy deep rumbling sound. guttural and flowy at the same time. i was a little afraid to look at him.