Cosmopolitan cities and wordly traveling styles.

Spent the weekend in Chengdu with Kathryn and Phil. Amazing opportunities abounded: sushi, Brazilian barbecue, donuts, and TOAST! Toast is very important, folks. You don't realize what an integral part it plays in your life until you come to a Country Without Toasters.

Anyway, the journey to and fro' this cosmopolitan metropolis was fraught with dangers nothing much. My time spent on train and bus rides throughout the southwest can almost always fit in to one of these categories:

1. Sleeping. This is the best way to pass the time, but 99% of the time it is impossible to attain, not in the least because the man next to you insists on spitting continuously into the aisle.

2. Playing cards.

3. Playing jian.zi. This is very difficult to accomplish in small, confined places (ie, trains, buses and elevators -- trust me) as it is the Chinese equivalent of hackeysack. (Also, I accidentally kicked a dog across the pavement in the courtyard of our hostel when playing it, and had to hold it for about ten minutes to soothe my conscience.)

4. Playing mah jong. This is also very difficult to accomplish, in that I don't actually know the rules.

5. Playing Trivial Pursuit. This is quite entertaining, as Phil carries the cards wherever he goes. Did you know a whale's tongue weighs four tons?

6. Playing "Physical Challenge". This is where someone lays out a challenge for the other person to do, such as kiss a cab driver or sit on that weird staring guy's lap for the rest of the trip or down half a bottle of baijiu. These are almost always declined.