After a wonderful trip back to the US to see my family and friends, it was back to Beijing for me yesterday - and this flight just seems to get easier and easier the more I do it. It blows my mind to think that I used to regard the flight from the US to China as a long and arduous journey.

I flew on United Airlines this time, which is probably going to happen more and more often now that United has opened up a series of direct flights from Beijing to the United States and back. This time I flew through Washington (Dulles International) departing Boston at 8:00 AM and arriving in Beijing the following day (thanks to a twelve hour time difference) at 3:30 in the afternoon, which turned out to be just about the perfect timing.

The flight from Washington to Beijing had so few people on it that we were all able to stretch out in our own row and get some sleep. I don't think anyone watched the in-flight movies; everyone just conked out and got as much sleep as they could. I couldn't sleep for the beginning of the flight, since I'd slept through the wait at Dulles, but after about seven hours on the plane I finally curled up, put Smashing Pumpkins on my headphones and slept for the remainder of the flight.

Unfortunately I left Prince Caspian on the plane - alas, that great hero of Narnia will have to continue his transcontinental adventures without me. Luckily my friend Dan has a copy, so I can pick up right where I left off without having to track down a pirate English bookseller.

when I landed I hit the ground running, brewing up some Starbucks coffee and unpacking my Christmas-laden bags. My friends oooed and aaaed at my new copy of Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You! but weren't as impressed with my new Kurzweil book. Alas, no one around me seems to appreciate neurolinguistics, cybernetics and artificial intelligence quite as much as I do.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is - I'm back, Beijing, and this time I brought over eighty packets of Carnation Instant Breakfast (in both Rich Milk Chocolate and Strawberry flavors). And three pounds of gummy bears, but those are admittedly for my Pakistani friend and not for my personal consumption...