I live in Beijing.

by Chris

I've been in Beijing for 12 days. I feel like I live here...except I've lost my wife !

This past weekend I played in my first lacrosse tournament in China. The biggest tournament of the year here is the Beijing Tournament with teams from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, China and a team from California.

I played on a team of American ex-pats who live and work in China...team name : The LaxPats

It was very hot (mid-nineties) and very humid. Except for the fact that I almost died from heat stroke we did very well...in fact, we won the whole tournament.

On day two of the tournament, roommate BD and I were hungry and went looking for food in some building near the fields. We wandered into a hotel/conference center and ended up exploring the basement...until we found the employee dining room and kitchens. BD, being ever resourceful, just walked into the kitchen and started ordering food in Chinese.

Even more remarkable was the fact that they made it for us ! They arent open to the public and we certainly arent employees...a little confidence carries you a long way in China.

above, Chris eating his breakfast that BD willed into being. Fresh hot flat bread, eggs, some sort of shredded potato and a glass of soup with capers in it...freakin delicious.

There was a pool near the fields so our team decided that before the championship game we would have a dunk and a swim. It was hot.. I attribute the one hour we spent in the pool to our victory in the tournament. We had a few beers and cooled down as best we could.

The LaxPats relax and soak up the sun.

Other big news this week was that I got a rental bike!

She might not be the coolest bike, but she gets me to work in about 20 minutes.

The bike ride to work (and home) is an adventure every day, below is the start of the journey. I can't take pictures of the rest of the journey or I would be run over by a bus or the thousands of other bicyclists. This week I'll find a safe spot to pull over and take a picture of the morning traffic madness.

This is the building I work in. Its very nice and in the heart of the Central Business District.

Friday was the last day of our company intern, Justin, from California/Hong Kong. He sits right across from me so I'm gonna print this picture out and pretend he's still there.

I also made my inaugural trip to the Supermarket with roommate Tom. We went to a western style store, a french chain called Carrefuor.

The place is huge !

Good Christmas, a whole aisle of Dumplings ! Woooohooooo !

We've had dumplings every day since that trip...until we ran out.

Total number of dumplings eaten in one week : 182

I'm not even joking, my roomates and I can put away some dumplings, especially if we've had a few beers.

We boiled the dumplings then friend them in sesame oil...and had lots of dipping sauces.

The most popular sauce has been the brown vinegar/soy concoction we now call swinegar.

One day, I was looking for the salt in the kitchen.....I found it.

A big sack of MSG...lol

Ahhh China...what other wonders do you hold in store ?

Next update - My first trip to get a haircut and pics from my weekend exploration.