September 11, 2007

The theme of my time here, I am afraid, will be: ‘I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today’… and I don’t eat hamburgers. I owe 3 people (and this is only day two really) 900 renmenbi! Next thing you know I will be making hats in a sweatshop and laudanum will be my nightcap of choice. I’ll be reduced to squalor in this most squalid of places, the kind Australians will sigh and say,’ she used to be such a lovely, pleasant creature! ‘
I feel like I am in an Edith Wharton novel. You know how the Americans on the Grand Tour always go about together and only seem to interact with each other? it is comforting to always be included on excursions with the group but that’s not really why I came here. It isn’t what I expected at all.
Laurens, Kate, Katie, Catherine and I are going to some temple in town… Locating an ATM, French Press and toilet paper are my goals for today.