first post from beijing

I can't get on blogspot or facebook due to the censors. Hopefully I can get around this soon, after the 60th Anniversary of the PRC is over. But I can post using email, thankfully.

I've settled into a sort of life in Beijing already. It feels so strange, how comfortable it is... How busy I am, how relaxed I am. How familiar this city feels, the 3rd time here. I don't know if this is the same kind of surreal feeling I used to get, walking on the streets of San Francisco, presenting a self for the first time in Shanghai... But it almost feels as if I had never left Beijing last summer. All memories feel so ethereal, without the concrete objects to touch and sense. But at least, my sense of self is somewhat more grounded than before...if nothing else, age comes with permanence.