Quirk

Rrgh. Well, there are Internet cafés. I also have a cell phone (011-86-10-13699127132, though if you're in Beijing you start with the 136... and if you're not you do 010-136...) so you could easily buy a phone card appropriate for calling from a pay phone. That's almost certainly the easiest way (keep in mind that I may answer in Chinese and require you to talk while I find a place where I can speak English), but if you get internet you can also email me; the problem with that is that it's best for me, obviously, to come and see you in the afternoon which is soon after you get back. If you don't call me I'll get back to my room at 4:15ish and check email, and then check again at 5 or so; it would make sense, after all, to have dinner. I'm going to assume you're less movable than am I, as you'll be in a group of friends, and at any rate if I want to speak English I need to be somewhere with no classmates or teachers, because then I'd be bound by the language pledge. (Honestly as I said I feel like I shouldn't speak English anyway, but I never promised not to contact my friends, and we're allowed to go speak English with English-speaking friends or relatives or whatever.) But if you /do/ make it into Beijing proper, that would probably be significantly easier for me. :)

天啊！！ Yes, it's the former!!