My three day trip to Beijing made me like pillows, Facebook and Chinese people.

I did three nights in Beijing last week and here is an attempt at recollecting my thoughts during this visit. For background: my friend had a training there, I had leave from work that week and was able to secure a good deal on the flight (about 440'000 MNT, which equals 325 USD) and I could stay with my friend at the hotel which was paid for by her work.

Our flight was an early morning one; O and her dad were going to pick me up at 6 a.m. I showered and packed the essentials: black top, extra underwear (wherever I go, I always forget to bring extra socks and underwear, but this time I was prepared), extra socks, party dress, high waisted denim shorts etc. I set aside my jeans, striped shirt and "tangerine tango" blazer to wear to the airport, and got into bed by 10 p.m. Needless to say, I lay there awake until almost 2 a.m.

When girlfriends travel together and are stuck waiting at airports or in hotel lobbies, they probably take photos of themselves making duck faces and post them on Instagram. My friend and I play Word Search on my Galaxy S2. It's always fun getting annoyed at all the stupid, made-up words. We set a new high score, beating mije, Mije, Due and other mijes.

On this trip, yet again, I noticed how polite and helpful Chinese people are. Even friendly... Drop me off somewhere in Mexico, Poland or Italy, and I'm sure I can make my way through and communicate with people somehow. Drop me off 1.5 hours south by plane and I feel like an alien. None of the words make any sense to me, no matter how I try to open my ears. None of the letters (well, characters, to be precise) speak to me. Here, I understand what it's like to feel completely lost linguistically.

And yet, people were patient and helpful. Even though we acted like deaf, mute, uncivilized, blundering buffoons most of the time, they smiled and were so... accommodating. Another thing I noticed was how demure and well-behaved they were, in general. O and I, whenever we were frustrated or surprised, or found something funny, everything about our body language and booming voices would express that emotion to the fullest. Only to be followed by pin-drop silence... and we'd look around and notice that we're the loudest and most animated people around.

Note: Publishing this years later. Interesting to read these details now. Don't know the date of the original post, probably end of 2012.

On positivity

Everything is always in motion, morphing. Just remember that and embrace it. Like an ocean tide, it ebbs and flows. Like a wave, it can be rough sometimes, and other times smooth sailing. I feel like the most important thing is to be able to ride that wave, the highs and lows, with ease, grace and full acceptance of what they are and their very nature.

Everything is constantly changing. People, circumstances, our bodies and psychological states. Sometimes abruptly, or sometimes so slowly you do not notice. As long as you accept this fact, you will realize that everything is just going as it should and while it may seem horrible and grave at the time, it really is there as a perhaps harsh learning experience.

Everything makes sense in retrospect.