Eric's Beijing Diary

Thursday morning I got the visa paperwork from the university in China. The travel agency sent that material with my passport to the Chinese consulate in LA. I should have my visa in a few days. Yesterday I drove down to the old Flying J truckstop in Eloy and had the buffet dinner. Kinda strange sitting in a truckstop again after seven years. Hard to believe it has already been seven years since I moved here to the East Valley. I spent the seven years prior to that in the trucking industry, traveling the highways of America.

This will be move number 37 for me. I think. I counted twice and got different results. But actually, it’s kinda hard to decide just how to count. For example, I moved here seven years ago. I have lived, since December of 96, here in the Phoenix area (except for the summer of 97, when I was working in Alaska). But during that time, I have lived in five different places in three different cities. So what should I count? And what about the seven years that I was living on the road? Should I count each truck separately? That would put me at about 40. Anyway, even in the worst case, its less than 49 (my age) so we're still down to less than one move per year, which isn’t bad.

I am a gypsy. A wanderer. Born to move. No matter what kind of hobby, or project, or work I was involved in, there was always the feeling in the back of my mind that I might not be around to see it through. When you move a lot, moving becomes the norm. The expected. But, as I mentioned, my life has been a mixture, because, for example, I lived basically in the North Dakota area from 1981 to 1996. That’s fifteen years. But during that time, I traveled throughout the 48 states, and most of Canada. Speaking of Canada, I also spent six summers in Saskatchewan going to two graduate schools. Should I count that? You see, my life has always been a combination of staying in one place, and yet not staying in one place. The more things remained the same, the more they changed.

And how many places will I live in China? Will I be on the move there, too? Or will I finally settle down? And where will I retire? Funny how you start thinking about that stuff when you get pretty close to the big Five O. At any rate, it will be interesting to see how my approach to living in China is influenced by the way my life has developed to this point. Stay tuned…