Eric's Beijing Diary

Last night Mel and I took Dad to see Les Misérables, the film adaptation of the Victor Hugo classic. More correctly, it's a film adaptation of the Broadway musical, which is based on the Book. Hard to believe I'm 58 years old and I've still never read it. You know how you have a list of books in the back of your mind that you know you should read? Like Gibbon's Decline and Fall, or (need I mention it) War and Peace. The only problem with this film adaptation is that Jean Valjean is too young. I guess in the book he is really old. In the movie, they show the scene where he is dying, and it doesn't make sense. The way the story has been going, you kinda have the impression that he should just be getting ready to start living. But otherwise I really did like the movie. Probably a lot more light-hearted than the book, but quite artistic and absorbing. You should see it.

   Click to enlarge. Today, Mel took me to the airport. Dad came with us and we stopped at Monti's for lunch. Monti's is housed in an old adobe mansion, built in the early days of the Arizona territory. It is the oldest continuously occupied building in the Phoenix metropolitan area. I wouldn't call it cheap--it's not McDonald's. But they do have pretty good burgers, and the adobe environment is nice. Naturally air conditioned. it's the type of home you really should have in a desert climate. Except it's not a home anymore. I think it's been a restaurant now for many more years than it was family mansion.

My plane was late out of Phoenix, but I still got to Seattle in plenty of time to make my flight to Beijing. I have always been struck by how much easier it is to leave the United States than it is to leave China. I suppose that's partly because I am a US citizen, but no official ever checks your passport when you leave the country. The airline does, I guess to make sure you have a visa for the country you are entering, but there is no stamp on my passport to say that I left the US. Not so with China. You need permission to enter, and you need permission to leave.