Opium Dens and Damsels in Distress

The last few days have been rather interesting, which is to say they have been spent in Beijing. The first blip of note was a short-lived Beer Pong (Beirut) tournament on Thursday night at Pyro Pizza a block away from my house. The night itself was rather uneventful - we signed up for the tournament at 8:15 and didn't get to play until 11:30, and lost our first 6 cup game and didn't get to advance. I was with Jantzen and Kate's friend Angela's boyfriend Xavier, and entering 3 people for a 2 person sport is not without its problems. For the record, I hit 4 out of the 5 cups we made, and we lost when the drunk Chinese girl on the other team bowed out for this white guy who made their last 3 cups. I'm not bitter though. Btw, in another example of the Small World network of the Beijing ex-pat community, that guy was from Brookline, MA of William & Mary '10 and apparently knew Paul Berry. I wish I was sober enough to remember his name. Anyways I love Beirut and how many places in the world can you play it in a popular establishment, as opposed to a dorm room or a house party? Quite a novel event.

Friday was not the greatest day at work - it might have been easier if I was not drowning pitchers of beer the previous night - and I was looking forward to partying it up that night. Lisa (right in the above picture, trying to flash a gang sign but really flipping off British people), her friend Saloni, Crystal and I arrange for dinner and then a venture to The World of Suzie Wong. It was Lisa's idea, I just read about it in a text message. So while I'm at work, I look up this Suzie Wong character. Apparently it was a 1957 novel adapted into a movie about a Hong Kong hooker with a heart of gold who falls for a British guy. I think I've met someone like that, perhaps at a family reunion. Anyways thebeijinger.com had this to say: "Suzie Wong's is part 1930s Shanghai opium den and part postmodern lounge." That was enough for me.

We arrange for at 7:45 dinner in Wudaokou, cause really, I have no qualms with making my friends come to me. I'll buy them drinks anyways. Ok so first Lisa sends a distressing text message about being lost in the Boondocks and an hour away from civilization. I found out later in the night that she had had quite an adventure trying to see the Underground City, which is apparently a ways away. After failing to find the city, she and Saloni waited half an hour for a taxi, couldn't catch one, waited half an hour for a bus and then hopped onto the wrong one, then waited another half an hour for a taxi once they finally got back into Beijing proper. So Crystal and I had dinner without them at this Korean BBQ place in this really charming back alley. The alley looks like a dump, with sidewalk construction going on and trash everywhere, but the Korean restaurant was awesome! We had really solid food that was about as good as any Korean place in the States. Apparently Wudaokou is like Beijing's Koreatown (incidentally there's a lot of karaoke here). We had a really full meal, including a shitty roll of sushi and Baijiu for only 100 kuai. I had been looking forward to Baijiu after I heard people in my office talking about celebrating over a few rounds of Baijiu. In chinese, Bai (白) means white, and Jiu 酒 means alcohol most generally, and wine more specifically. So I'm expecting a glass of cheap Beijing white wine. Instead we get a sort of small green flask and a shotglass. So I'm initially confused, but in Hong Kong I took a shot of wine with my family so I figured this is more of the same. Well it was similar, except if you replace the wine part with rubbing alcohol. BaiJiu is absolutely foul! Holy motha ****in **** s****a (Kerry should know what I said). I took a look at the bottle after I almost choked - scanning through all the Chinese, I see the numbers 56%. Great, so its like a mixture of absolut vodka (40%) and Bacardi 151 (75%), and apparently with much less distillation. I still don't know what alcohol it was, it tasted like foul gin, but I can tell you with a great deal of certainty that that was no white wine. We did not finish the flasks.

Lisa and Saloni finally get back from their excursion into Northern China and meet up at my apartment. After Lisa takes a few half shots and the rest of us some real shots, we head into a cab to Suzie Wong's. In a weird twist of fate, Crystal's BFF Jimalyn, also Georgetown '10, had made separate plans for Suzie Wong's and so she's super excited to meet her. We get to the club and the entrance charge is 50 kuai for guys, and free for girls. Sexism at its best. Well somehow my friends (I'm just with 3 girls) go nuts over this and they throw money at me and somehow I actually made 20 kuai entering Suzie Wong's. Shhhh. Except for this one woman puking in the lobby accompanied by her boyfriend, glowing probably from a combination of alcohol and embarrassment, this place is classy. The floors are shining marble, the waitresses are dead sexy and dressed that way, and there are a fair amount of high rollers around. It is clear that this is a place to be in Beijing. We meet up with Jimalyn and her friends upstairs, and amazingly there are four other people from Georgetown '10 and I didn't know any of them. In fact, I neglected to tell them I was from Georgetown and when that came up they were shocked. They were all drinking "Chinese Jungle Juice" which was some sort of whiskey mixed with Green tea. I wasn't a huge fan but I had a few. Suzie Wong was quite crowded, and though dance music was playing, there wasn't much of a dance floor. There were some private "beds" where people were lounging around with drinks, a few tables, and lots of people standing. I asked Jimalyn where the Opium Den was and she absolutely scolded me, "That's illegal Cal!" I guess there was no opium at Suzie Wong's...at least none that we had access to. The private beds were probably the closest thing.

After rolling from Suzie Wong's, we managed to get separated from the Jimalyn crowd and took a taxi to Coco Banana. Once again we had another 50 kuai entrance fee for the dudes and open admittance for girls. This place was a true dance club and packed. I think everything's more crowded in China, and if a dance club in the US is filled, then one in Beijing is on the verge of an explosive reaction. There are just so many people in there bouncing off each other. Well we carved out space and did our thing, and it was pretty standard except for the gay Chinese guy who put his shoulder around me. He said something in decent English, and at first I thought he was someone from my office. Awkward. He might have been actually, but then he asked me where my sister was. What?? "Yeah, where's Emily" he repeated. Um, I don't know you, but if I ever do have a sister, I'll advocate to her being named Emily.

We run into the other Georgetown people again, this time with Peter Kong accompanying. Crystal and Lisa and I all know Peter through different means so that was kinda cool. We all eventually met up as a big group at Bellagio, a high-end 小夜 joint (place for late food). And the food was really good; Jimalyn made sure to order her favorite things in the restaurant, including the famous ice dessert which was like a less sweet version of ice cream accompanied with red beans, the things in bubble tee and mangos. That was great although I probably shouldn't have thrown away another 50 kuai on that meal. Finally at 3:00 am, Peter Crystal and I decide we need to bounce. Crystal actually has to meet her aunt at 8am for some sort of trip. We all live in the same general area and get into the same cab. After dropping of Peter, the cab takes me to my place and I burn another 50 kuai, get back to my apartment, put on the BS report and crash. Its 4am and its been a long day.

But its not over. My phone blows up just before I fall asleep. It's Crystal - her key is not working and she's locked out of her apartment building. She was not that drunk, it was simply a Chinese-made key being unable to open a Chinese-made lock, probably a fairly common phenomenon. After freaking out for a few minutes, she decides to take me up on my offer and crash at my place. Finding a cab at this time is not an easy task, but she finds a driver sleeping in his car and knocks until he wakes up. This would have been less complicated if she remembered where I lived, but luckily she speaks Chinese and my instructions were effectively relayed to her cab driver. If this had been Molly, we're probably reading about an international incident in the news of a drunk American girl freaking out in Beijing at 4am. Anyways Crystal finally gets here at 4:30am, and while definitely unnerved, manages to contact her aunt and was out by 9am. It was an exhausting ordeal for me but probably 3 times as tiring for her.

Its been a long post but I have a few comments to add. First, I always love the NBA Draft and this year's was pretty cool too. I particularly enjoyed this comment from Bill Simmons' draft diary after Memphis drafted Kevin Love (and before trading him to Minnesota): Just took a quick look through reader e-mails from the past hour and everyone seems to agree: We're all excited for the Gay-Love Era in Memphis.
I love what the Celtics did in this draft. I don't know what the general prevailing attitude is back in Boston, but I've been a Bill Walker fan for 3 years (without ever having seen him play). I liked him when the OJ Mayo hype had been going around and every comment about Mayo was about how he led his West Virginia HS to the state championship along with teammate Bill Walker, then led his Ohio HS to the championship along with teammate Bill Walker, then put on a show in AAU ball along with teammate and best friend Bill Walker. It was exactly the same as the articles about Greg Oden, when they were talking about all his high school accolades and mentioned that every single honor he received was shared by his teammate Mike Conley. At that point I knew Conley would be good too and I was right there. So I watched Bill Walker with interest in Kansas State's first round game against USC, and with Beasley and Mayo in that game too, Walker was still the best player on the court. Not kidding, look that game up if you don't believe me. He's a 6'6" swingman with a very good medium range jumper and above average athleticism and a good handle. He does everything well. The knee injury probably hurt him a lot so that is a big question mark, but he was a Lottery-pick talent before it. Also I remember JR Giddens from his Kansas days - he seems like he'll be good value for #30. I know both these guys have character issues but so does most of the NBA.

Ok I gotta roll, I'm heading to a party thrown by Kate Egan today (imagine that sentence in senior year of high school) which could be interesting. I'm a little worried that this will be my 4th straight night of drinking and my wallet and liver are feeling it. But this is Beijing - go big or go home.