BEIJING -- Newton postulated that an object in motion stays in motion. I'd like to build on his work and state that a language student on spring break stays on spring break, unless his teacher calls and asks why the hell he's absent.
It happened on Wednesday. I was in a tiny Tibetan market down a dirt alley not far from my guesthouse in Xining. I bought a Pepsi, two apples and a pack of gum. I'd just given the man my money when my phone rang. It was my reading teacher, Brown.
"Su Bin," she said, "Why aren't you in class?"
It was 8:55 a.m. Language students were in a small break between the first and second parts of the day's first class. My teacher used her break time to give me a ring on my cell.
School found me, hundreds of miles from the classroom I decided to miss. Vacation was over. I thanked Brown for her call, finished buying the supplies and an hour later got on the Lhasa Express back to Beijing.
I've been back here for nearly a week now, but I'm been focusing on finishing loose ends that I started writing in the backwaters of Qinghai and Gansu. With my Gmail Drafts folder finally clear, I'll again start writing about my life in Beijing. As you'll see, things have changed in the past couple weeks. It's fucking hot now, and there's plenty of news on the chicken wing front. More soon.
