Xizhimen Continued

Alrighty so yesterday I wrote a pretty long piece about Xizhimen, but I left out two very important things: CET itself, and the jiaozi fanguan (dumpling restaurant). Well don't worry, the edge-of-your-seat wait is finally over. First, lets start with my old school. The first thing I noticed is the gate is completely different. The old white gate we used to love climbing over has been replaced with a slick metal gate that is complete with an LCD screen that projects the date and time. The gate looks nicer, but I feel like that'd be easier to climb... Awkward encounter: I enter the complex, and I walk to the old office where the shi fu's would chill, and sitting there is the same grumpy shi fu who no one liked. Well it didn't take long for me to remember why no one liked him. I knock on the door and say hello, and of course he ignores me, so I start talking and saying how I went to CET last year and was just visiting and wanted to say hello, but instead of saying something nice or at least smiling, he just grunted and continued to watch his TV program. Well fuck you shi fu, I hope you choke on some noodles.

As I walked through the grounds of 北京教育学院, I had a chance to look at the new students studying there, and I have to say, the group looks shitty. The first semester we were at CET, there was a group of Middlebury kids who took the school's language pledge way too seriously and acted like they had a stick up their ass. Those kids weren't fun and as a result no one from my school hung out with them. Well everyone I saw from this current program looked as if they had multiple sticks up their ass and I'm sooo happy I didn't study there this semester.

Now at some point last year a vicious rumor spread that my favorite restaurant had closed down. It's pretty common for restaurants and bars to close down in China, so there was a distinct possibility that this place really was gone. Still, business had always been so good there and a world without my jiaozi fanguan was too horrible to even think about. Seriously, when in China we probably ate there 2-3 times a week. After asking around, I had heard a few different variations on the fate of the place, so I was still unsure of what I'd find once I returned to Xizhimen. Well, I'm pleased to announce that not only is the place still there, it has received a complete make-over that makes it even more awesome than before! I got some of those delish dumplings I've been craving for so long, and they tasted great!

So there you have it: the jiaozi fanguan lives, and CET is now filled with tools.