Beijing

We had the funniest experience tonight. As expected, a student and a driver waited for us at the airport and delivered us to the hotel. The assistant manager deposited us in our room (very fancy & large), and then came back a few minutes later to take us to be photographed. We were slightly puzzled. Anyway - we were brought to a photography studio in the hotel and were told that our photos will be taken separately and also jointly. More puzzlement. The photographer, who spoke no English but was clearly a very artisitic type started out by throwing a fit at the fact that Avi was wearing a t-shirt and not a jacket. But after he understood that that is all Avi has, he started seeing the potential in his unusual face and in his clowning around. So he took something like a 100 shots (seriously) of Avi in all kinds of poses ranging from Rodin's The Thinker to Avi making silly faces. It was completely hilarious. Then I had a session too (only 30 photos or so, with my glasses at an angle and holding them in my hand in a pensive pose), and finally he positioned us in all kinds of loving embraces. He promised to give us copies tomorrow and we ended the evening with his assistant taking photos of all 3 of us together. We had to sign releases allowing him to use our photos and I bet Avi's will be centrally positioned in his advertising.