On the grand occasion of our trip’s one year birthday, we didn’t do too much. After a late night eating hotpot, we slept in before heading out to what’s become our usual breakfast joint (see above photo). The past four days, we’ve had the same breakfast- Joylani gets a bowl of rice porridge and we split a serving of chicken dumplings and a serving of pork buns. Its pretty good and I’m glad that after just a few days here, we’ve found some good “spots†(i.e. the drink shop, the ice-cream lady, the breakfast place, the pork sandwich place, etc). Between our nice hotel and Beijing’s hidden charms, we’re really enjoying ourselves here. Originally, we were going to do a multi-day sidetrip, to Inner Mongolia or up to Manchuria, to break up the monotony of nearly two weeks in Beijing. While I think we would’ve had a great time wherever we went and we would’ve had plenty of time and energy to do it, we’ve decided to just stay in Beijing until we fly out. One, and to me quite surprising, Beijing is both pleasant and interesting. There’s more than enough stuff to keep us occupied indefinitely, whether we focus on the big sights or just the small stuff. And two, with this portion of our trip winding down and our visit home fast approaching, I think we both do and will appreciate having some time to process and reflect on it all. Its gonna get crazy once we get home, so it’ll be nice to focus on savoring this last week abroad.
More time in Beijing has its other advantages. For one, we don’t have to rush. We can really delve into the place. Hanging out with friends the past few weeks, I’ve realized that although we’ve visited a lot of places and learned a ton, we haven’t gotten to know individual cities and countries very well. And although nobody can really grasp Beijing in two weeks, we’ll get a better feel for it than if we stayed less. After breakfast today, I headed to Tiananmen Square to visit Mao’s Mausoleum. I don’t know why, but I was just really curious to see his body. Visitors are kind of rushed through and the corpse probably has an inch-thick layer of makeup, but it was interesting nonetheless. Then after a midday nap, Joylani and I went out to explore the city a bit. We wandered around a market for awhile, before visiting Joylani’s favorite store: Carrefour. Then we ate one of my favorite meals: sidewalk BBQ. It wasn’t an incredibly exciting day, but it was no doubt enjoyable.
Since I’ve already touched on it a bit, I’ll write a bit more on my current thoughts of this trip and out upcoming visit home. While Joylani’s really excited, I’m not really. I know that I’ll have a good time at home and it’ll be nice to see people, but I’m sad, I guess. Not sad about going home, but sad that this part is over. The past year has been amazing and I’d do it all over if I could. I’d go back to India, do the Annapurna Circuit again, and dive Komodo in an instant if I could. I already have a yearning to go back to places we’ve been to experience and relive some of the past year. After such an incredible year, how can I not? Yes, after our visit home, we’ll spend some time in Korea and Japan before traveling for a few more months, but our planning has shifted from strictly “where next?†to discussing our reentry to America. Now we talk about where go we want to go before we head home, how will we get home, when will we get home, in addition to job stuff and other everyday life practicalities. The light (darkness 
) is at the end of the tunnel and this fast-approaching visit home us shaping up to be an emotion preview of sorts.
The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his own room.
-Blaise Pascal, Pensees