This next week is a national holiday in China, and so our office will be shut down. Several of our coworkers suggested that we should do something for it, so John and I decided to go to Chengdu. Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province, the home of that spicy style Chinese food. It's also the home city of our adviser. So we booked two train tickets to Chengdu, and we'll be heading out there tomorrow.

Things are definitely coming together in Beijing. Just yesterday, John and I secured an apartment in Beijing through Craiglist. Our apartment is a lovely three-bedroom, two-bath place with air conditioning, heating, television, washer/dryer, and internet access (though currently only for Windows grrr....). It's pretty far north on Xue Qing road (so far that the taxi driver only knew it as Xue Yuan road). This morning, I was morbidly curious just how far it was from the Sigma building (the off

I'm sitting at my desk at MSRA in Beijing right now. I'm still figuring out my living situation and fighting jetlag, but things are slowly coming together. I don't think it have been as smooth as it has been if not for this wonderful thing called the "internets", which I hear these days is a series of tubes. I just want to fawn over some bsites that are rockin' the sh*t.

1. OneBag:

Just before I left for China, I held a house party at my place. I have friends from many different circles, so it always makes me a little uneasy to see all these aspects of my life in a room at the same time. But it's also fun to realize how varied my existence is at times, so I went for it.

Before I embark on my next great journey, I want to pause and reflect on the neat little things I want to remember from my trip to Latvia. In no particular order ...

• Jumping over the fire during Ligo to prove my virility.
• Learning random Latvian polkas and other dances.
• Beer being sold in 2-li

Take me to another place ...
Take me to another land ...
Make me forget all that hurts me ...
Let me understand your plan
-- Arrested Development

In case you haven't yet heard, I'm returning to Beijing! This time it will be for a three-month internship with Microsoft Research Asia. Hooboy ... I never thought I would find myself working for Microsoft. I mean, I applied for an internship with them as an undergrad, but I didn't really consider it seriously because I knew I would probably have another offer

I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that phase.
Even your emotions had an echo
In so much space

And when you're out there
Without care,
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much

A couple of years ago, I wrote this entry about how doing something simple like cleaning my room empowered me to feel good about my life. Well my life is very cyclic, and I've found myself again in the same kind of funk. In fact, to be precise, I'm stuck in Phase Two. So I did some self-diagnosis. I am in a funk because I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything. I don't get

It was summer in the Doldrums of Nodd, or maybe it was summer in some other period. Mephistopheles wasn't sure.

So much had happened since he last sat and collected his thoughts, and he wasn't sure where to begin. And he didn't want to begin. But Kain interjected, "This story must have some context, or otherwise they won't understand."

I flew to Atlanta this past weekend with my cousin Ramya. My other cousin Sandhya lives there, and I wanted to see her place and all that, and I also wanted to give Ramya a birthday gift (of sorts), so I brought her along. It was a fun weekend. I'm not much big into seeing sights and all of that, so we just bummed around, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Woop woop

I wrote this one while my trip was finally starting to wind down. Can you hear the panic in the words?

Hoo boy ... how on earth did I get here?

I've told my crazy Europe story more than twenty times by now, and I'm still not sure what to make of it all. So I'm going to report it in many different versions. In this one I started to sort through all my bills and realized they told most of the story.

1. United Kingdom
   • Flight from Chicago to London: $647.50
   • Food and (mostly) drink in the UK: $200
   • Train from London to Nottingham: $19.97
   • Missing the train to Nottingham: $65.84
   • Car Ride from