endings

My time in Beijing is nearing its end—my last days here are usually a greatest hits tour of friends, places, food.  And while I’m terribly eager to return to my husband and dog, to my home and its many comforts, to friends, to family, I am inevitably thinking of all I will miss here. 

• sights like this (China’s National Center for the Performing Arts):
  

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• the opportunity and joy of needing to be a bit more awake and aware just to get through the day, to really have to pay attention to avoid small inconveniences (a missed subway or bus stop) as well as major mishaps (for instance, anything that could lead to a run-in with the authorities)
• small grumpy dogs riding around in bicycle baskets:

  

• negotiating and understanding a different political system and also trying to carefully observe its outward manifestations, as that is my bread and butter.  For instance, this sign spotted today in the subway, highlighting the need for better legal consciousness:

Sadly, those who most need legal consciousness in this society are not those likely to be riding the subway, but those riding around town in shiny black Audis and Mercedes with blacked out windows.

• excellent coffee shops on every corner (Meadville, I'm talking to You.).
• sights like this, at the Lama Temple.  I especially appreciate the guy on the right making his most cherished prayer wishes especially clear:

• the challenges of thinking and expression in a foreign language, imposing an economy of words, the need to convey meaning with only the words you might have available to you.  Come to think of it, that might help explain signs like these:

•  have I mentioned the food yet?
• my lovely, incredibly generous friends:
  

• cats hanging out in the above-mentioned cafés:

• buying bubble tea and getting to watch a short film, strangely resembling an airline safety video, with an oddly subversive pro-Taiwan message:

   

• random occurrences like at my dinner this evening, when this man showed up with his 12-year old nephew, urging him to practice English with me, creating an instant opportunity for cross-cultural understanding and kindness:
  

I'm still mulling ways to continue blogging from the coziness of home...stay tuned!