Hit and Run, Alumni Dinner
Day 5 and 6 (I’m typing this on my iPad so ignore the grammar)
W started Friday off with some crazy lightning and thunder storms. First off was the Great Wall adventure where we thought we’d reach the end (yes there’s actually a spot where you can reach the end) but as you’ll see in the photos I upload one day, it just kept going and we just didn’t have the time. The toboggan run was closed due to weather, which is something I was really hopping to do. While there, I found a furry little friend who I’ve named rags.
Next stop was the long awaited duck lunch where they carve up a duck at the table. It was delicious! After that, we headed to tiananmen square where people were taking photos of us left and right. It was crazy! Ilya James and I were asked to take a photo with a Chinese girl (she was very excited), and there was one guy who followed us for a good 10 minutes. Later on, I was asked to take a photo with someone while sitting on the steps of the imperial palace. Now I know how Beyonce feels.
The alumni dinner was next on the list. David and Bridget were there, as well as Lucas Chang, the lawyer from Morgan Lewis, and the VP of operations for emerging markets for Lenovo (his name escapes me for now). There was another alumni there that owned his own tech firm but I didn’t get a chance to talk with him. The VP from Lenovo was very knowledgable and we engaged in some good discussion about where he saw Lenovo headed in the tablet market, where they saw their largest growth potential, etc. We had David at our dinner table. We talked about the chinese culture and the opportunities this country has to offer. After the dinner, we all met up at a bar down by a massive replica of optimums prime from transformers (it was pretty cool). There, we met a couple guys from Colorado but not much else went down. The second stop was a bar that David and Bridget frequent, getting long islands for 25 Yuan (around 4) vs the typical rate of 50 (around $9). We called it a night and locked down two rickshaws. So, 2 of in one and 3 in the other. The guy with three struggled all the way back to the hotel. W raced each other, and our rickshaw driver was hitting on every girl we went by and would look back at us and giggle.
We saw a guy get hit by a cab, take off, then the friend of the guy ran after him but was a little too slow. Crazy night.
The next day we had our free day. We got a slow start, leaving around 10:30. We grabbed a Starbucks and hopped on the subway. The first stop was the summer palace, a gorgeous retreat for the emperor filled with awesome buildings, lakes and forest. After about 2 hours, we set course for one of the oldest tea shops in Beijing. W grabbed some tea, then found a random traditional Chinese snack shop for lunch. Funny thing - we were using chop sticks and the cook comes out and shows us that were supposed to use a spoon. I seemed a little backwards. Last stop for the day was the pearl market, where i hand picked some gifts for my family and girlfriend back home. W made friends with one of the shop keepers so if you’re ever at the pearl market, stop by booth 214 and talk to Baibo. He’ll hook it up. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the grocery store where a Russian apparently said she said “he was speaking to me” in front of Ilya, not knowing he spoke russian. I was flattered.even though China is right next to Russia, I’m still a little surprised at how many Russians there are here. The night ended with Ilya, James, Fiona, Haley and I downing Tsing Tao and watching Dave Chapelle clips. Now I’m on the bullet train to Shanghai with my fellow classmates, and James just gave me shit for writhing about watching Chapelle. Suck it James!
