This second trip to Beijing has changed my perspective towards this city, and for the better. Perhaps it's because I've met some really interesting people and was actually conversed with as a fellow adult with potentially interesting thoughts in return (!). Perhaps it's because I "get" the city's layout and what it might have to offer a lot better. Perhaps it's because our accommodations this time was ten times better than the last time. Perhaps it's because autumn in Beijing makes everything about it prettier. I spent quite a lot of time playing with my son by Weiming Lake on the campus of Beijing University after we walked my husband each morning to the international math research center.
We also went to Ten Year Cafe every night for dinner. It's a small Western-style coffee shop kitty-corner from the hotel we stayed at last time. It slightly amused me that I was able to direct a bunch of the foreign mathematicians to it after they wondered out loud about any place they can eat outside of the hotel. Apparently the translation at the hotel restaurant was not so good; one of the dishes listed on the menu was "fried human skin." I asked the mathematician that had shared this anecdote whether he ended up ordering it. His whole body recoiled quite dramatically as he exclaimed, "No! Of course not!" Judging from his appearance, I suspected he was Muslim and eats Halal (not that normal people would eat human skin...of course). It turns out he's Pakistini and, yes, follows the Islamic dietary laws. So I guess my query would have been especially shocking to him. My reasoning was that, since it couldn't possible be human skin, really, I personally would have ordered it just to find out what it actually was. According to my husband, this is a line of reasoning that makes a lot of people think I'm weird.
All the employees at the little cafe remembered my son, and marveled at his development since they last saw him two months ago. When we left last night, our last dinner there probably until next semester, I actually felt a little sad. We made sure the employees that played with our son the most exchanged good-byes with him.
So, three days and one (hopefully...not much time to notify people) birthday celebration later, we'll head to Shanghai. I hope I'd like Shanghai as much as I've come to like Beijing.
Right before I took this picture, the people in the background showed up and loudly proclaimed I was being negligent in letting my son play by himself on the grass like that.
I decided I much prefer this patch of grass for him to frolic upon. His dad was giving a talk in the nearby building.
