Flag raising

So it's like past 7 AM right now in Beijing and I've been up since like 9 AM yesterday. We all went to Sanlitun, which is like a bar area of Beijing. Most people sort of left by 1 AM or so... and all that was left was me, Chris, and Evan because we wanted to see the flag-raising. Dude, Pitzer people know who Evan is... you know Geoff's roommate my freshman year and Jason's suitemate??? He was a grade ahead of us, but graduated a year early. He was teaching English in Shanghai, but decided it wasn't his thing so he's visiting Beijing for a few days before he heads back home on Friday.

OH DUDE, back up to maybe like 11 PM... we were like walking down the street, and every bar has these husslers who are trying to get you to go to their bar. And Chris wants to find one with a good deal on hookah prices. And as we walk past this one place, this guy was like "Hey, do you go to Pitzer College?" to Chris... because Chris was wearing his Pitzer College sweatshirt. And Chris was like, "yeah." And he was like, "Do you know Blake?" I was like, "Does he have a girlfriend named Saiba?" And he was like, "yeah!" And I was like, "Oh yeah, I've seen him around." Turns out this guy, Joe, lives where Blake lives in Ojai. And Christine if you are reading this, tell Blake. Anyway, he and his friend Chris (yes, another Chris... *hehe... thinking about Christine and guys named Chris*) were just drinking and hanging outside of this bar. So we decide to hang with them and get a hookah. We talk to them and Joe says he's been to Pitzer and thinks it's such a laidback and cool school. The two guys are on a different program, also with Beijing University, but they're living on the main campus (while we're on the medical campus). So they got tired after an hour or so and left and we exchanged cell numbers. Evan, Chris, and I were talking about how Pitzer people are just everywhere, either alumni or current student. Evan said there were 4 Pitzer people in Spain while he was vacationing in Europe this summer. I've bumped into 3 people during spring break in San Francisco. We only have like 900 at our school... and in our 40 year history, we've only generated 5,000 alumni. But it is a small, small world.

The three of us tried to keep busy until 5 because that was when we thought the flag-raising would be... it's at sunrise and we weren't sure when sunrise was. We went to this restaurant called The Den for coffee... then we went to this Asian fastfood place for xiaolongbao. Then we just walked around and finally it was like 5. So we head there and at first there weren't many people, but as time passed the crowd grew larger and larger. People were sort of pushing their way through to the front. I stood my ground and Chris and Evan sort of faded away. Dude, I waited for like an hour. I was sooo cold, so tired, so sleepy, and so achey for being on my feet for so long. The little kids who were around me were starting to bug me. FINALLY, the sun came out, but still nothing happened... then FINALLY, some guards people came out and marched and put the flag on the pole... then the Chinese national anthem played... and the flag went up. I found Evan and he said Chris was passed out near a lamp post. We went and he was sleeping soundly. We pretended to steal his backpack and startled him. His eyes were so red and he looked like a zombie. I felt so bad seeing him that tired. He asked if they had music because if they did, it did not wake him up. He and Evan headed straight to their rooms after getting out of the taxi and I came to the internet cafe because I don't want to wake up my host family this early.