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

i miss california. the sunshine. the people. things like wine tasting. things like picnics.

the beach, clean air, and on and on and on.

it’s summer here in beijing. and it never feels like it. yes it’s hot and humid, but i have yet to jump into a bathing suit and splash in water. what kind of summer is that? on a more upbeat note, i got allotted 8 tickets to the olympics!! all to track and field events including the men’s 100 m dash. yay!

p.s. on a very random note, i had a dream this morning that a certain boy to remain unnamed, was sleeping around with like 100 women. and then i went to a party and i saw him bringing a glass of white wine to an ugly chubby blond and then proceeded to kiss her. then later in the dream he flew to space and disintegrated into pieces. i told my friend sophie this dream. she thought it was hilarious. i thought it was disturbing. all my dreams about this one boy is always quite off. i think it’s a sign to to myself, i need to get off of him.

beijing banned a million cars over these past four days in an attempt to test air quality for the olympics. however it was smoggy as ever today even as all the cars with either odd (or even) license plates were taken off the roads.

so i wanted to google– is it true that beijing is now the number one ranked worst city for air pollution in the world? makes me wonder……..that the answer is yes…..
hmmm none of the links to the news articles showing up in the results list is working.

remain an optimist.

and it wasn’t because i was at the offices on a sunday. it was because we had a special visitor today, a potential investor in our company, who is none other than mr. climate change himself, al gore!

i found mr. gore to be extremely personable and he was able to impress the whole office with questions that demonstrated his intelligence and ingenuity on carbon mitigation. this guy knows his stuff, and then some.
al gore was supposed to be our president, but as my boss said “someone up there has a bigger plan for him.”

one-on-one.these are the best.in person, not on msn, not through texts, emails or phone calls. the old fashion way. sitting on the couch with a cup of tea, pillows on our laps. discussing our recent trips. mine to england. hers to mexico. each of them bringing us to contemplate the sort of lives we want to lead. beijing feels more right to me. mexico feels more right to her.

the rat race is less apparent, somehow, in the china’s furious and fast developing economy-i feel like my life is put a little bit more on pause and less on fast forward, here. and i’ve come to realize why. i’m content with what i have. more and more, i am. why drive myself mad thinking and wanting, working to buy material things- a house, a flats, cars, shoes, clothes, when i already have enough? i see daily constant reminders of the breadth of my personal wealth.
so it goes that my life in beijing is not like the lives of people rushing up and down and up and down the escalators of the tube, off the bus, into their homes-bed, get up and repeat. somehow it just isn’t.

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her one-month long life in mexico was about today, and not thinking about tomorrow. china’s tomorrow, china’s glorious, harmonious society racing to become the next big thing. she felt caught up in that. stock markets. red hot stock market, designer clothes, up the ladder, climb that ladder. she wants to live life in the moment. it’s all about now, at a leisurely mexican, siesta sort of way she has decided.
in the meantime, it’s countdown, time’s a ticking around us. for the olympics,
china’s coming out party. 363 days and counting…

tick. tock.