Today at 6 am I met Liu Tao and a friend on a bicycle for an early morning run to the tombs. I am quite pleased to say that, despite two weeks of iffy food consumption and continued difficulty getting fully hydrated, twenty-seven years of Western nutrition won out and I was not the one asking for rest breaks. We turned back before reaching the tomb. We do this again tomorrow.

Went for a walk this afternoon, wandering more or less the way the bus goes, which is lots and lots of crowded streets. The concept of an unobstructed path seems very much out of place is the barely controlled chaos of the streets. Something like the infinite hall at MIT, or that neat multifarious yet continuous walkway from behind Smiley to ... Crookshank? on Pomona's campus, just could never happen here.

I get a fair number of stares from people, but maybe less than I would have guessed. One popular one is the over-the-shoulder look as bicyclists pass by. And since bicycles go slowly, it's a long look. I want to learn how to say, "Don't stare at the guilo!" Also today a small child was walking forward, saw me, and instantly started walking backwards towards his mother, eyes quite fixed on me.

I decided to try the dining hall, but was too late for lunch. At dinner, I chickened out when I saw that everyone seemed to already have a big metal bowl. Instead I got a fried bread thing with bean paste interior from the outside window. Any other Pomonans get nostalgic for Frary? Not the food, but the rituals. Lining up in the stairwell before the hall opened. The peculiar feeling in the air when you get to the door ten minutes before the meal's over. Oh, and that wonderful conversation over the waffle irons:

"Are those chocolate chips?" "Yes. Yes, they are." "Where did you get those?" "I brought my own." "Oh."