Beijing 1.5
A young guy holding a sign with my name on it leans on his hand against a rail by the entrance of PEK airport. I dispel his boredom by waving and pointing to myself. He and an older fellow usher me out of the airport beyond a pack of hungry taxis waiting to pounce. The air hit me rather hard, especially when we got onto the highway. I could taste and feel the particulates on my face; a virtual tailpipe shower. I managed to juggle breathing and holding a conversation with the young guy in the front seat. Bad Boys 2 dominated the conversation. I didn't mind all that much as he, Scott, could speak English tolerably well. As we got closer to the hostel the roads got narrower and narrower, until the size of the hutongs brought cyclists nearly pressed against my window. After we reached the hostel I checked in and sat on the bed in my small single room for a short while. During this time I referred to the image of the globe in my brain and attempted to remove the pusphin over Cleveland, Ohio and relocate it to the other side of the planet. After about a half hour I fell asleep and found a little bit of comfort in the recognizable sound of crickets chirping outside my window.