Silences and Reasons

There's not much quiet here, not in a town of this size (and I'm not using "town" ironically; even with 2.something million in the downtown area, Shijiazhuang is very much a town) - any empty space in the twenty-four hour construction is covered up by the creepy mantras of chanting schoolchildren or the occasional Christmas …

Unfinished Homes

I biked to work the morning after the first real rainfall I'd seen in months. The hulking shells of unfinished apartment buildings, master works yet in progress, loomed into the grey sky and faded into the milky sky mere blocks from wherever I was. A while ago I went to a friend's house. It was her …

The Music of Trains

There is a certain magic to traveling, to watching the world pass you by as a new place makes its slow way closer to your feet. It's a magic that isn't brought about by purpose, but rather by lack of it - seeing the world for its own sake rather than having a goal to …

Above Clouds

Today I will watch the sun rise and fall twice. I wish there were words to describe how beautiful it is to look, from seven miles in the air, down over the summer Arctic - endless brown mountains mirrored in the glassy waters; dark and chill depths covered by tiny giant pieces of an ice-perfect, …

Full

No matter how much I have to write about, sometimes I find myself at a loss for words, with nothing I can say. For about nine months, starting last September, I was trying to write a story. I had a few very clear scenes in my head, but no matter how many ways I arranged …