Mopeds and Maddy A

One month after leaving Silver Spring, Maryland, my three favorite bands all conspired to come to town, blatantly rubbing salt in the open wound of my homesickness. I don't know what I ever did to Fleet Foxes, Wilco, and Joe Jonas to deserve such a spiteful act of cruelty, but so it goes. As long as Tupac waits till I get home to stage the elaborate comeback we've all been dreaming about since seventh grade.

Having just missed the presence of my idols, I was feeling a bit miffed, like I was missing out. Until another US celebrity saw the injustice in this and decided to come to me...

As part of my epic quest to become a world renowned English teacher, I've had to go to a bunch of epically boring training sessions scattered throughout Beijing. Last Wednesday, my boss signed me up for session about encouraging kids to speak more. My beloved roomie Chris was also signed up to go, so we waltzed in that day at 2:30pm, only to find out that we had messed up the time and were half an hour late. Oops. At least no one from center was there, right? WRONG my BOSS was also at the training session unexpectedly. BUSTED.

Anyway, after the training, my boss comes over to talk to me. Thinking I'm about to get a verbal beat down, I'm manically going through my mental rolodex of excuses and preparing my most pathetic puppydog face. He walks closer, and CLOSER, and in a big, BOSSY VOICE....

he asks if I want a ride back to our center...

ON HIS MOPED

SWEEEEEEET!

So having dodged that bullet, I follow him back on the subway to his apartment, where he's got his shiny red moped parked outside. I should've prefaced all this by saying this guy is only 25/26 years old, a graduate of Pitt, also a History major interested in law, and HILARIOUS! We were cracking jokes like two old comrades from the scouts (girl scouts), it was fun (in a strictly platonic way, don't worry Mom and Kyle). By the time we got to his apartment we were buddies. And then we got on his moped....

WOW, to say mopeds are fun would be the understatement of the century. I love to bike, but this was like a bike on steroids with WINGS. I have a new appreciation for characters in books and movies who discover new modes of transportation (A WHOLE NEWWW WORLD, I felt like Jasmine, (platonically) riding the magic carpet, or like harry just getting his nimbus 2000). Unfortunately...

Mopeds are also terrifying! Beijing traffic is horrific, like one big traffic jam somehow moving cohesively at 50mph, and we were right in the thick of it. It's the ultimate combination of "this is so cool," and "this is soooo stupid." I also felt like a huge nerd/creeper, because all the other girls riding on the backs of mopeds were so smooth; legs crossed gracefully, riding sidesaddle, arms folded in their laps or holding a purse. Meanwhile, I'm straddling the seat, suffocating my poor boss (who was probably seriously reconsidering his offer), my arms belted around his ribcage in a panic stricken death grip (again, do NOT worry Mom and Kyle, I was only trying to survive) and alternating whooping and screeching like a depraved baby owl.

Okay okay okay, BUT ENOUGH EXPOSITION. Here's the whole point. As we are weaving and racing through the streets, too fast too furious, beijing drift, I see a big stretch limo with a siren on top of it. "Greg, its a limo police car!" I say. And then there's another one, and another one. It's a convoy! And then a svelte little BMV drives by with a small, blond woman inside. Greg and I turn to each other...

"was that who i think it was?" Greg says.
 "TURBO SPEED" I reply

We zoom up to the car, and lo and behold, it is! ITS MADELEINE ALBRIGHT! The very first female secretary of state under Clinton, I did a report on her in third grade! WHAT ARE THE ODDS!?! Luckily, Greg was also a history major and equally as excited about this.

We sped up and drove parallel to her car. Trying to come up with a gesture that communicated my deep respect and admiration, I wound up doing a weird, vaguely British hand wave. That seemed to confuse and frighten her, so I ditched it and went with a hearty American wave and a thumbs up, which she threw right back at me. Take that Joe Jonas.

So it was a good day. I became great buds with my boss, which is a huge relief, and we shared the eternal bond of having sighted Madeleine Albright in Beijing. When I mentioned a "small, blond lady," all my coworkers thought we were gonna say Lady Gaga, and then they were hugely underwhelmed, so I've learned to tell the story a little differently, but I still think its awesome.

Once again, to all family and friends back home, thank you for all your great emails and for being such great friends, you all really got me through the first month, and now that we're very comfortable and having a lot of fun, I'm very grateful I stayed, not just so I had the chance to meet Ms. Albright but so I could keep on exploring this great city with my awesome and sassy roommates. We've been having a great week, celebrating the National (week-long) holiday vacation with trips to the Summer Palace, Great Wall, and Ikea haha, which I can hopefully write about soon. And I got a haircut! But that is a blog for another day. It was a tough transition at first but it was made bearable with all your support and encouragement, and looking back I'm just very thankful. So thanks again!

PS BOOK CLUB: My friend Kayla and I are starting an online book club, so please get in touch through email or facebook if you're interested, and create an account at goodreads.com, everyone is welcome! Hopefully it can be one more way to keep in touch and keep doing all the things we like, poems, songs, paintings, everything. Okay, will keep you posted how that works out.