TUESDAY 08/26

-Woke up late, finally feeling rested. Calm soon turned into near-panic as I tried to figure out what I wanted to do for the next week between classes and the games. I felt the clock ticking and pressure to make the most of my time. After re-reading my ACC literature, I realized I didn’t really have time to travel anywhere and that helped limit my options.

-Called Alan, who agreed to help me find Capital University of Business and Economics (where ACC is located) and my dormitory within the University compound. We met at the Dawang Lu subway stop. The subway was intolerably hot and crowded, and I began to rethink my plan of using it to transport myself and my luggage from the Media Village to school.

-Alan showed me to the school, straight up to the ACC building, and gave me an introduction to the neighborhood as we walked. I wasn’t ready to meet anyone from ACC yet so we stopped just shy of the office. For lunch, Alan showed me to an impossible-to-find North Korean restaurant (there’s no sign, it’s located in a decaying building in a back alley off of a non-descript road) and we enjoyed bowls of the best Bibim-bap I’ve ever had in my life.

-Previously we were thinking of going to the Beijing Zoo, but Alan was meeting a friend for dinner and we were out of time. I followed him back to the newly-renovated Qianmen district where his hostel was. In the hostel, we had our hides tanned by a pair of Finnish guys in doubles game of pool, which wasn’t really that fun. I left Alan there and walked back through Tiananmen Square to the Line 1 subway. It was a miserably long, crowded ride home and by the time I got out of the subway at the Media Village it was dark and rainy. I met Brian again outside of the logistics office, but he was on his way to an office dinner.

-With nobody else around and nothing left to do, I went back to my room, packed, ate instant noodles for dinner, did laundry and watched “Mr. Right” on HBO. I also switched my cell phone into Chinese—the first step in my planned Total Immersion Regimen.

-That night we had crazy lightning and thunder unlike any I’ve ever heard before—abrupt, shredding groans instead of the low rumpling I’m accustomed to.