whaaaat..? I'm going to try to post, even though the entire blogger interface is all basically in a crazy language that I don't understand even a little bit. I've been in Beijing for more than a week and I think I've "learned" (by which I mean I can sort of recognize) 10 characters (out of, what, 8,000?), and they are, basically: me, vegetable, bathroom, woman, thank you, hello, goodbye, train, internet cafe, dumpling. Oh, and "happy new year." So I guess it's more than ten. Still. Dude. Few things are more demoralizing than feeling quite smug and proud of yourself for attempting to order yet another plate of stir-fried vegetables in Chinese, only to have the waiter inform you in a broken accent that they, in fact, "don't speak English."

I'm stuck in the big city o' smog until my visa(s) get approved. The Russian visa is basically impossible to get in Beijing proper, so I'm going to head south first, to Kunming, and wander around Southeast Asia for a bit before coming back up this way and hitting the Trans-Mongolian.

Time on the ol' interweb's running out...more soon and hopefully photos too, at some point...!  ¶ 9:31 PM