in beijing!

i have now been here about 36 hours. the 13 hour plane ride from los angeles was wonderfully tolerable. as i was comfortably situated in an exit row. to my left was a couple from green bay en route to pick up their first chinese daughter. to my right was a recent fordham business grad with hopes of learning chinese in four months.

so far this is really hard. im really excited to be here. but that doesnt really compensate for how much i miss home.

it gets bright late here. or maybe it is just that ive been up early these past two mornings. i was up at 6 today. and sat on the bed and watched the city light up while listening to stars and doing sudoku puzzles.

oh youre so silent jens.

i won tickets to see stars tomorrow night in boulder. i also bought two last week. so now i have four.

so to celebrate i bought a jens lekman cd. because of an email from raf:

heard this guy jens lekman that the kids are into in the car yesterday.
he's really likable and melancholy in a way that probably makes all the girls fall in love with him.
he's swedish or something and the song "black cab" is a hit.

snow.

i woke up this morning in boulder. and it looked like this:

the longest winter.

it may not look like it. but this has been the longest winter break. ever.

charlie. denver.


alex and tom. casa bonita.


sam and ellen. brooklyn heights.


dad and yehyeh. san gabriel.


jesse nick and alex. boulder.

testing.

i am leaving the comforts of home in exactly one week. a week from friday i will be in china.