Hey everyone,
I've decided to get back into the game! I don't have any good reasons for the long hiatus. I guess me making this type of announcement presumes that I've got a long list of readers who have been patiently waiting for me to resume my posts. I'm not sure on how many people have been waiting but I've now got a long list of pent-up observations that I can't sit on any longer.
WHY DID I STOP?
I think I stopped posting for a while because I was having some difficulties with the move from Austin to Beijing. I had many things I was not adjusting to easily and it sapped my mental energy to put together posts. I had such a good life and so many long-time friendships in Austin that I realized that I had literally become unable to cope with a different social environment.
I was luckier than most people moving overseas in that I had at least a dozen of my colleagues who made the move with me. Unfortunately, with my enviable and great social situation in Austin, I hadn't really cultivated my work friendships. The issue isn't with anyone else I know. It's just that I had to change my outlook on how to interact with people, change the types of activities I initiated and alter my social patterns to fit the single- and dink- (and sink-) lifestyles in Beijing.
During this transition period, I just wasn't in the posting mode and while I still made observations, putting fingers to keyboard after work proved a difficult task.
WHY DID I START?
Well, I did have a crush of observations that kept occupying my mind. I would find myself writing observations in my head while sitting on the bus to/fro work (1+ hour each way). The only way to allow other thoughts into my head was to release these thoughts to the blog.
Over the last few months, I've been changing some of my social habits and find I'm just a lot better adjusted to Beijing. I've been heading out a lot more, meeting more new people and just enjoying my lifestyle in China. Don't know what's changed, but I'm just a lot more centered. Strangely, I think that socially adjusting to Beijing has less do to with it being in China and more to do with the fact that it's the BIG CITY (and that it's not Austin). I never thought of myself as having trouble with issues like this. I always used to think of myself as a social animal but... I guess it's not the same thing.
In my previous trips all over the world, I've always managed to meet people, have fun and enjoy myself. This didn't matter if the trip was for a few days, a few weeks or even a few months. I think the key in my mind is that they were simply trips. I was always coming home afterward. That changes the social dynamic involved. After a few months in China, I think it hit me that I had actually _moved_ here. This wasn't a long trip, it was now home. Trips to the US would be just that, trips. Anyway, it was very sobering to realize I was this kind of person. I'd always thought that I wouldn't have trouble with a transition of this nature. Go figure, eh?
I have also recently talked to some people who keep journals and I found myself getting envious. The discussion of journals kind of forced me to look at why I wasn't keeping up with the blog. Laziness was no longer an option. Apathy was never a reason. Self-doubt ... well, that's always a work in progress. :)
Now, here's hoping that my Chinese New Year's Resolution #1 doesn't fall by the way-side. Any one of my legions of fans should be free to call me on it if I fall behind again.
