I suspect that Tony has been waiting for me to write my next Food-A-Thon post so that he can see how much he needs to one-up me. How tricky of him...

11:30am: With my stomach growling and my blood sugar dropping, I hurried to the Heritage Foundation to attend the talk "China, Christianity, and the Advent of Reason." Although Heritage lets me down philosophically and spiritually everyday, I hoped (and dare I say, prayed?) that their thick wallets would not fail to provide me with sumptuous refreshments. 

When I sat down, I glanced around frantically for any sign of food. How could I possibly sit still for an hour--in the Heritage Foundation of all places--without any victuals to quell the rumbling of my angry belly? 

The talk was given by David Aikman, the former Beijing Bureau Chief for Time Magazine and the author of Jesus in Beijing. I was born in Taiwan and spent six years in Beijing so I figured that David and I probably have a lot in common. Right? 

Wrong. As soon as his mellifluous, British voice began to fill the room, Aikman totally lost me with comments about making China a "normal" country by making it more like the West. Furthermore, he used phrases like "tit for tat" which are very cute in an old Englishman sort-of way but hardly cool. I'm looking back at my notes now and I seem to have scribbled "boring" and "hungry" frequently across the pages.

Indeed, I was hungry. As soon as Q&A ended, the doors opened and I raced to the refreshments table to inhale my chicken sandwich and diet coke. Finally, the sufferings of a starving intern were finally relieved. Very delicious cookies were provided as well--of both the chocolate chip AND (can you believe this?) Oreo  variety. 

Bravo Heritage. Very classy.