Audrey's Last Weekend in Beijing

Last weekend was my roommate Audrey's last weekend in Beijing. She is going back to Hong Kong on Saturday and then back to LA for Christmas. I am so sad she is leaving! It was also her birthday, so one of her friend's came up from Hong Kong to celebrate. On Friday night we went to new club called Club Cargo. It was a typical Beijing club: huge, packed, and completely lacking personality. The onoly reason we had so much fun there that night is because Deep Dish was there, so the music was really good. We danced the whole night, and it was defintiely the best night I have had out in Beijing. Of course, it is a rare event for a good DJ to be here, and on a regular night the music would be horrendous: cheesy, booty shaking rap music. I like some hip hop, GOOD hip hop, but not the really cheesy kind. It was good that Audrey's last weekend ended things in a good way. Some of my classmates were also there, but they are young boys, and I don't think they like electronic music. It think they prefer the cheesy booty shanking music!

Saturday was Audrey's actual birthday, and she had invited a whole bunch of people to go to Bed, a Spanish tapas restaurant in downtown Beijing. I was really excited, cause I had heard this was one of the coolest bars in town, and they had good drinks and all the walls were lined with canopied beds that you could lounge on. It sounded to me like the restaurant in Barcelona that my friend Kelly had her rehearsal dinner at. It was nothing like it! Don't get me wrong, by Beijing standards, it was really cool. It had a minimalist, untilitarian design that looked cool, but the "beds" were really just those low Chinese style benches with thin cushions on them. Since we had a large group, we were seated in a private room with a long wooden table. It was freeeeeezing! The whole place was not heated, and it is super cold here, and it even snowed over the weekend. I kept my jacket on the whole time...I really can't handle the cold at all! The drinks were delicious, but the "tapas" were really just Chinese dim sum items. That is ok, I like dim sum items, but it wasn't what I was expecting. Then the main dishes came....these were more like Indian curries. Every single dish consisted of mysterious chunks of meet drowning in a thick sauce of varying colors. It tasted ok, but I would probably just stick to drinks and tapas next time.

The interesting thing about the dinner for me was that I met a Mormon couple. They were in Audrey's class, but I had never met them before. They were really nice, and we discussed the pancakes at Chick's Diner in Utah, BYU (they had just finished there), and why Mormons make so many things with Jello. They were really friendly...it was especially nice to meet the girl as there seems to be a major lack of Western females in China, particularly American females. Unfortunately, they were leaving the next day for India. Her family has always lived abroad, and I think she said her Dad is a doctor for the Embassy or something like that. Anyway, it was stragely exciting to meet Mormons in Asia, cause I haven't met that many here.