...aaand WE'RE BACK!

It's official, I'll be heading back to Beijing for the summer of 2011!

Through the graciousness of the Tristan Perlroth Summer Travel Award Committee, operating out of the Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, I will be participating in an internship with the Confucius Education Institute in Beijing, where I will be teaching "cultural English" (we'll see what that means) to Chinese citizens (demographic details are currently murky). I will also be making a solid effort at general cultural immersion, since I feel like I was a little too concerned with my studies the last time around.

Here's what that means for my blog:

• Let's be honest, blogging about one's job, any job, carries a lot of personal and professional risk. Blogging about one's job in China during one of the biggest political crackdowns of the decade, while removed from the aegis of Yale University, is really just tapping trouble on the shoulder and asking it out for coffee. Ergo, details about my work itself will be sparse out of necessity.
• But you, my dear readers, few that you are, will hear plenty about any and all further adventures to be had around Beijing. I think, I hope, I've worked all of the "tourist" out of me; or at least, I've evolved into the more venerated "explorer." I'm going to try to get a better sense of the real rhythms of Beijing, not just the shiny facade presented to Westerners on their cultural sojourns. Can I do that in two months? Probably not. But trying is going to be so rewarding.

So please, stay tuned. It should be worth it. Maybe I'm just inflating my own cause here, but I truly believe that the events marking China's current evolution are crucial in their significance, not only to China but to the rest of the world.

P.S. YAY TO ME FOR MY 100TH POST! ...alright that's done.