The Preamble

In ten days we will be leaving for Beijing. I’ve been waiting for this for five years. This will be my fourth and longest trip to China, but the previous three adventures have all been to study language or to keep undergrads out of trouble (oh ye! nefarious and beautiful language. You are a drug; bringer of joy and misery. The gods will curse me for not keeping up with it, and I’ll be drinking prune juice instead of green tea in the first two days of our trip. How do you say green tea again?). More importantly, this is the first time that my wife will visit  China, which makes me exceedingly happy. Each previous trip has come with a very sad departure, and I’m glad that I won’t have to say goodbye to her this time (saying goodbye to friends and family will be hard enough). To say that this is a major change would be to narrate our life story. A six year long-distance relationship. We get married, we don’t live together. We live together, then we move to Beijing. The vicissitudes of a graduate student.

I must say that I never much considered myself to be a blog person. Writing brings anxiety, which makes sense for my chosen profession. Like a trapeze artist scared of heights. But in the past year I’ve found so many good blogs (here, here and here) that I figured I’d give this a whirl. I’ll try to write about Beijing and our perspective of living in China with as much honesty and vigor as I can muster. I’ll probably also write about America. Nothing clarifies American society more than leaving it. Plus traversing the Pacific is like growing from the present into a distant and hazy future.

For now, some frequently asked questions that have come up:

1.      Are we packed yet? No. But we’re close. I just ate baked beans for lunch. It was the last thing in the cabinet

2.      Where will we live in Beijing? We don’t know

3.      What will Andrea do in Beijing? We don’t know

4.      What will I be doing in Beijing? Research for my dissertation.

5.      Will I be done with my PhD when we return from China? No. No no no.

6.      Will we be making a baby in China? No. Please stop asking.

And away we go.