Today is the first anniversary of our arrival in Beijing. It's amazing how quickly this year has gone. I'm already feeling a bit panicked about how little time there is left in our planned three year tour-of-duty here. As you've seen in this blog, we've had amazing adventures, learned a lot, and eaten much good food.

I don't know if we'll ever feel truly at home in such a different and really foreign place where we can't read the signs and are visibly not local, but we definitely know our way around and have a quite comfortable life. Most important, we've made good friends here and the boys are thriving at their amazing international school. (Oh, my job is great too...)

In some ways we've come full circle. I'm sitting in a hotel room tonight because we're in the middle of a move back to the same downtown apartment complex we stayed in temporarily when we first arrived in China last year. While our house and life in the suburbs had benefits (e.g. close to school), it was just too far away and inconvenient. A lot of the places we like are close to this new apartment, and the very good subway system is easily accessible. The kids even like the longer bus ride to school since they can mess around with their friends on the ride.

Anyway, while I miss Seattle a lot, I'm super glad virtually every day that we made this move. It's been a great adventure so far, and I'm sure the next year will be even better as we get to know this amazing place and people even more.

Happy Thanksgiving!