Oh, Those Wild Kazaks

Oh, Those Wild Kazaks.

Why I Woke at 6 am: Re-heated Noodles, Sausages and Dotars

Why I Woke at 6 am: Re-heated Noodles, Sausages and Dotars.

How to Have Fun for [nearly] Free: A Guide for Foreigners in Far-Flung Cities

How to Have Fun for [nearly] Free: A Guide for Foreigners in Far-Flung Cities.

displaced.

I’m between lives right now.

I packed almost a week ago, and am now just sitting in a tumulus sea of suitcases and piles of clothes and stacks of books and floating papers.  I don’t even want to be at my house anymore, because it just seems like a place.

And yet I’m kind of nervous about the apartment I haven’t seen yet in Beijing.  Things just so randomly worked out well last time – and have so far this time too.  I’m hoping they will; I’ve worked hard organizing, but had so many almost-setbacks, and small (to medium-sized) disappointments along the way.

I’m realizing that I will miss the community here.  It seems like I’ve been too busy this past year to fully enjoy and appreciate it.  I will leave college with a good half the things I planned left undone, even senior year mostly unlived.  It just seems we never had time, or time was never there – and now it’s past.  So I will leave half-satisfied.

back to life again

Back to Portland, sleep deprived.  (Forty-plus hours of travel between Friday 1pm China-time to Sunday 9am Standard Pacific)

Getting used to life here; missing all the little things.  And a long, full four months ahead.

By the time I head back to Beijing it will be hot and smoggy, and I will have again skipped an entire season.

Rain, Portland

I’ve been wanting to write for two months now, but all my life is occupied by things I must do first.

And I think I have to wait a few months yet to clear my head and write – actually have undivided time.