Biking, Summer Palace, Night out, Sick

My first night at this hostel I met a few girls who took the trans-siberian train from Russia and they invited me to hang out with them. The next day we went biking 2hrs there to the Summer Palace and then 2 hrs back. It was ridiculous because on our tourist map it told us where all of the McDonalds were and so we used them as landmarks. At first biking in Beijing was frightening but the bikers have a whole huge lane to themselves and we learned that there is safety in numbers so we stuck with other bikers. Carrie is from England and she's 22, she already has her career underway pretty much. She is a sports event manager and so she works closely with Britains soccer teams and makes sure that the events run smoothly. Apparently Britain has a lot of issues with violence at soccer games. She pretty cool and strong minded. Then there's Johanna who is from sweden and is quite a tall gal. I didn't talk to her a whole lot but she seems pretty cool and has 2 older brothers so she's pretty sporty. Then there is Larissa who's the same age as me and she likes hiking and the outdoors and is also from Sweden. Larissa also likes salsa dancing which is pretty sweet and has like 3 other siblings.

In the evening I went out partying with this randomn crew of ppl from my hostel. I really liked some of them. There was this chick named Fiona who is from Scotland and has red hair. Her personality is quite fiery like one might expect from a Scotswoman. We ended up down some back alley with our multitude of nationalities including, Japanese, Brasilian, New Zealand, Norweigian, British, Scottish, Canadian and then we met some Nigerians and hung out with them. Some of the boys we were with were buying some weed from the Nigerians. THey were pretty nice. THen Bob Marley came on and we danced the night away. I was surprised that the Japanese boy could dance.

Last night, the day after going out I was quite sick. My stomach did not agree with anything that was in it and refused to keep anything in it. I always hate puking because I cry too, it's a nasty feeling. Well this girl Jana from Israel that I had met earlier in the day totally took care of me. She has 8 siblings back home and she's the second oldest and so she knew what to do. She brought me water and tea, an extra blanket and some pills. I was so grateful because the worst feeling ever is needing help but not having anyone who you can ask.

Today I'm taking it easy, seeing what my stomach will take and then maybe tonight I'll go to the Silk Market to buy some Christmas presents and a sweater since I lost one a few nights ago. Carrie, Larissa and Johanna are going out tonight so maybe I will too, though we'll see how I feel.