Dinner with Courtney

You know how sometimes something really bad will happen, but the result will be something really good? For instance, getting a really, shall we say, incompatible roommate and having to switch rooms last semester was inconvenient and upsetting, but it led to my sharing a room with Courtney, and that was wonderful. She is one of the funniest people I've ever met, she was friends with all the cool kids, and she had an enormous DVD collection. What more could one want in a roommate? She's still in Beijing, though no longer at ACC, and yesterday I took the subway (changing lines three times) to Wudaokou to meet her for dinner.

We went with her boyfriend The German and her roommate, Julia, to a nifty Korean place for non-greasy, non-Chinese food, which is always a pleasure. And we spoke English - I am so over the language pledge, have I mentioned that? - and talked about actual things, and my brain was happy. We talked about wanting to have our obituaries in the New York Times, about education, about the first major world event we remembered. This really reflected the difference in our ages: the German's was Chernobyl, which took place when he was 13. He said that afterwards they didn't eat grain or drink milk for five years. Courtney and Julie remembered the first Gulf War; I was only six or so and didn't even know we had had a war until years later. Mine was in eighth grade, when my History teacher Mr Morrisson told us there was a threat of nuclear war. "There was no time in the nineties when that was not the case," The German informed me.

And then after much good, brain-strengthening conversation, we watched a movie, and since the subway stops running at 10:30 in Beijing, I was obliged to spend the night on the couch. Crashing on the couches of friends with apartments is one of my favorite things; it makes me feel so grown up. Courtney has her own washing machine, which, far more than the five years age-difference, makes her seem like a grownup.

In other news, I have my email back up and working. My quality of life just went up 235%.