Somewhere around 5am we both woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, even though we made it to midnight last night. This must be the other end of the lag we had for the first few days in Beijing: 7pm or so I'd be fighting to stay awake, trying to reset my clock. Sunday wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We got in at 8am, came home, slept until 4, then continued the day as normal (hot wings and beer for dinner, a fitting return to American food). I thought we'd gotten off easy but it seems my body is still getting its cycles in order.

I'm already halfway through developing the 30-odd rolls of film I shot: just finished Xi'an, now in Summer Palace, then Beihai after that. I haven't scanned any yet or even looked at the 700+ digital pics. For now, I'm just happy the film came out—for the whole trip I couldn't stop imagining all of it zapped by the x-ray machines. Looks like there might be some good ones in there, and I even did pretty good at guessing exposures without a light meter. Will post scans as soon as I get a chance.

I know I should write something about the trip itself, but I think I need more time to digest it all. I don't have many impressions that come to mind because we didn't really get a chance to experience things: we spent most of the trip being herded around town with only a few hours for each location, busy watching the clock to make sure we didn't keep the driver waiting. More like touristing than travel. Next time (whenever that is), we'll be on our own schedule, taking as long as we need to get a proper impression of the place. For now, though, I'll write in upcoming posts about: Life in the Expat Bubble, Falling for a Tourist Scam, Buying Things and Spending Money, Eating China, and.. whatever else comes up as I structure my memories of the last two weeks.