After Saturday night KTV with the CNReviews crew, on Sunday Stick andI met up with Heather and Will. They’ve been living in our complex since the fall, although we hadn’t met. We know some of the other teachers in their school, in fact my old TA was transferred away from me to Heather’s school.

But I actually met Heather via her blog, Heather’s Feel Good Revolution, which I’d been reading for a while, and trading comments and emails, until the other day when I made fun of Fengtai, and she mentioned that she also lives at the outskirts of the city, in a lovely little complex called Yihai. And people tell me nothing good comes from my sarcastic remarks! Ha!

Anyway, we met up on Sunday evening and they introduced us to a lovely cafe in Xidan, where Stick and I were delighted to find panini and smoothies. We’ve really been missing Andiamo’s, an awesome sandwich and gelato shop back in Amherst, so it was perfect. (I plan to return the favor by introducing them to Biteapitta.) It was great to talk with those two, they seem to be in a similar place along the China comfort continuum, from jet-lagged gap-year newbies to the long-term crowd, with their Mandarin and cultural fluency.

“This was a good weekend, Meg,” Stick said, once we were back home with a beer. “Can you get me some more friends off the internet?”

1. Wagas in Xidan « Rice-Cooker Gourmet Says:
   May 29th, 2008 at 7:21 pm

   […] abot needing to blog?) But in the meantime, here’s a post on Simpson’s Paradox about Wagas, a rocking restaurant in Xidan, which totally took care of my smoothie and panini […]

2. Kevin Says:
   June 3rd, 2008 at 6:25 am

   that’s a far cry from the usual dumplings!