Spring is here

Unfortunately, my spring in Beijing is quickly ending. By the time I get back to Beijing, on June 8th, it will be that weather where it is even too hot to consider wearing pants at night. Beijing summer gives new meaning to putting all your winter clothes away. Which is sad as I have been enjoying a lovely spring so far, birds are on the trees, flowers are in bloom, and it’s lasting many days longer than our 48 hour-spring last year. But I am excited to spend some of that spring in the clean air of Connecticut.

Before my Tuesday departure, I have been wrapping up lose ends, which has involved purchasing about 20 pounds of DVDs for my siblings, removing everything that is out in my apartment and whisking it off to the closet so as to prevent dust build-up, and once again attempting to change my hard- earned RMB into a currency that is usable outside the United States.

Basically, the Chinese don’t want you to covert your RMB to USD. They want you to spend it locally. And whether it is the individual’s subconscious or the bank policies, or a combination of both, here is the short list of what it took to get my money changed:
Five trips to the bank
Valid work license [which involved 8 photos, copies of all my paperwork and $80]
3 forms all officially stamped by my company [2 of which the bank kept]
A bank form in quadruplicate
All forms copied and stamped
$20 in fees
An hour at the bank
3 different tellers [on this last trip]
Signing my name five times on five documents
Entering my password twice
An intermittent muttering of ‘give me my money’
Finally, they forked it over. So, I’m ready to go, take a break from the polluted land of capitalism and expensive housing developments called “Chateau Academia”.

My race is Saturday. I fly down there tomorrow. My racing partner, Tyson is already there and describes the surroundings as this:
“Today is beautiful. Not too hot with a cool breeze. The views here are great. So much green.. Butterflies all over... Flowers blooming... The smell of honey suckle flowers blowing across the road...”
This boy is currently enrolled at the Naval Academy. [Need I say more?] He also says that it is very wet, slick, and full of vegetation, which could make for a messy race, but at least we will soak up the nature [literally as well as figuratively]. So I’m looking forward to it. I’m a little nervous about the potential starving/ freezing/ darkness aspect to it, but I’m sure it’ll be a good time. I haven’t been working out this week so I have all kinds of energy to burn… [I say that now! Ha!]

See some of you in the US soon. I’ll be at my folks’ house starting Tuesday night.