Late Night in Beijing

Some good memories of Beijing, since I've wasted too much of my time at the wangba tonight already for a full post:

- Sitting in the window of a hospital watching the fireworks go up over the bird's nest before being removed(peacably) by Red Guardsmen wielding pvc pipes
- Being the sole USA, El Salvador, and Zimbabwe fan at the Olympic Rowing preliminaries
- Watching some very excitable Australians at said event run about in their full Aussie regalia (Australia hotpants, Australia fedoras, Australian flags worn as capes) chanting the Australian theme song (ozzy ozzy ozzy! oy oy oy!)
- Finding some freaking Fuwa dolls
- Climbing into the unrestored (off-limits) section of the Great Wall
- Spontaneously cracking up for no particular reason with the woman behind the register at KFC (this actually isn't exactly uncommon; every once and a while someone will find my passing absolutely hilarious and I can never tell quite why)
- Getting lost somewhere in Beijing and winding up walking past some kind of rocking party at the Agricultural Exhibition Center (?) and wandering through China's embassy row at two in the morning
- Meeting some random Yale sophomore in the exhibit at the Chinese Museum of Science and Technology
- Seeing a totalitarian state from the inside, and learning to appreciate intellectual freedom