life. in china. captured through the eyes of a nomad named jen.

i am one of those types, the anywhere but here (ABH) types. which is how i found myself in brighton in 99-00, then london in 04-05 and now bj 06-tbd.

always feeling that life is more exciting outside the states, i have two home away from homes (AFH).

Home AFH #1 (england) really felt like a country i could see myself living in forever when i was a whee young girl of 21 years. back then, i envisioned myself living in brighton by the sea in a flat, happily ever after. so during senior year of college, i scoured the job sites hoping for a position that would require a yank like me. 

i didn’t want to be the california bubbly girl hugging and asking how are you, with people i hardly knew. i wanted to be the dry, sarcastic wannabe brit who asked hey are you alright? i wanted to debate current events over a drink in the pub. and when the rain became to much to bare, i wanted to take romantic weekend trips to portugal, spain, etc… i wanted to, i wanted to….

but then i wanted to work, live, try my hand at making an impact on china’s environment. so that brought me to england again. however the purpose was to get a masters degree to do my china thing.

london town was great. as a poor starving student, i felt the buzz of the oh so cosmopolitan city by the thames. and i was hypnotized enough to say, well when im tired of home AFH #2 (china), i’ll move back to london. my home AFH #1 .

remember, ABH (the states). that’s me.

now as fate would have it, my company retreat has brought me back to england for a week and a half. thus, currently i’m straddling a mental space between home away from home #1 and home away from home #2 China.

it’s weird. i didn’t expect it, but london doesn’t feel like home AFH really anymore. things are familiar enough. i can get around the city without pulling out a map. i have some really good friends that live here. the city is so beautiful and it feels great to eat non-chinese, veggie friendly food. but i feel like i’m just a step above a tourist. and this is making me appreciate what i have in beijing. the ease of making new friends when good ones have left and not worrying about money.

at the end of the day, i think those are two fundamental things that will make it hard to leave beijing for london.

so yes, perhaps i’m closer to shedding away the ABH mentality–my mantra of “ SF by the time i’m 40 ” is slowly being chipped away at.

35 in SF?

wheeeee. retreat to meet the other six offices-kenyans, bulgarians, russians, english, and more. first, i’ll be in bath on a farmhouse. then play time with my friends in londown town with a possible sojourn to cornwall.

let there be sunshine.

the ubiquitous coffee chain is set to close its doors at its forbidden city location.

the closure comes after a decision by the palace management to have all retail items be sold under the palace’s brand name. starbucks rather then selling its coffee under a diff name, decided to leave the former home of 24 Chinese emperors altogether. since its opening, this particular starbucks has sparked controversy that it was “trampling” chinese culture. so it appears that visitors to the Beijing olympics will no longer have the privilege of sipping a cold frappucino after a hot, sweaty tour of the imperial grounds. no big loss here in my opinion.

what is a big loss, is that one of my favorite bookmarks on the toolbar of my mozilla– the China Development Brief (CDB)—appears to be in trouble. CDB, is my essential online source for in-depth, comprehensive reporting on NGO activity, development issues (helath, environment, labor,etc) and job adverts for China’s progressive community. The offices of CDB was raided on July 12, and the editor Nick Young, an English expat, who started CDB in 1996, was charged with conducting illegal surveys under a law passed in 1983. CDB has been ordered to cease its publication activities for its Chinese edition. Fingers crossed that Nick’s friends in the UN, World Bank,and upper echelons of the Chinese Community Party will exert their influence on the police to reverse their decision and thus let CDB continue providing vital information to China’s development community.
More on the CDB closure can be found here Nick Young’s Statement regarding the closure of CDB.

my blog is no longer being censored! hip hip hurray!

this means i get to tell everyone that i’m recovering from my first nasal infection ever from the awful pollution that has been invading the humid air of beijing these days.

i really don’t like summer here.

i still like beijing. being in beijing means going to a random party at 130 am last nite and seeing about 30 crazy spanish people dressed up in white t-shirts and red bandanas. to party like they do in pamplona.

i know, i know. all i do is rave about the diversity of people in beijing and the fun randomness that comes with living in this city. but it’s still new to me. and i don’t think the quirkyness of beijing and the types of people it draws will ever get too old.

p.s. there was a guy named nacho at the party. no joke.