holiday packing

I'm currently pacing around my parents' house, trying to remember all of the things I need to take with me back to Kuwait. I tried making a list, but I keep getting new things and thinking of different things to take or not, so making sure I have everything on a list has become futile at this point. I also keep getting "honey-do" messages from a certain you-know-who (the best you-know-who in the world, by the way). All that to say, packing is slow and highly unorganized at best, and it seems to continually be interrupted by one of three things:

1. these little sweethearts

Rebekah, 2

Nick, 4

2. sports/dinner/hunting commentary with the family

3. lunch, dinner, and parties with friends

My solution is to try and keep things in one general area of the house and then throw it all in my bags before I go to the airport on Saturday. That's probably why I often wait until the day of departure before I pack for any trip.

Time in the States has been good this Christmas. Generally, I try to maintain a low-key schedule when I'm here, just to be sure that it's relaxing and that I'm not totally exhausted by the time I start teaching again. Inevitably, those good intentions are shattered because a lot of our friends are in town for the holidays, too, so it's hard to pass up opportunities to get together. I can always sleep on the plane...and if Chris were here, I know we would be a lot busier!

Reads for 2012

It's the holiday season, and for me, that means stocking up on good books. I got some great gifts this year, and I've been scouring the web for good deals, as well as searching for some of our books in storage that I haven't read for awhile. I came away with some old, some new, and some borrowed...maybe even one blue...but here are the six I'm most excited about. (Yes, there are more than six total.)

Hot Chocolate for Couples, Cindy Sigler Dagnan (borrowed)
The Gospel for Muslims, Thabiti Anyabwile (new)
The Man Called Cash, Steve Turner (new)
Trusting God, Jerry Bridges (old)
The Meaning of Marriage, Tim Keller (new)
Little Princes, Connor Grennan (borrowed)

There are also a few that I have recently read and would recommend.
If you like suspense, action, and realistic fiction, try Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child.
If you want a non-fiction account of an adventure, try Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
If you'd like to look at Jesus' life and his effect on the world, try King's Cross by Tim Keller.

Happy reading!

The Great Wall of China

Here we are, at the one and only Great Wall of China. We actually didn't make it there until the third or fourth day of our trip, simply because there was so much to see and do in Beijing itself. We also wanted to visit the Wall on a day during the week, when it would be less busy.

The section of the wall that we went to was at a place called Badaling, about 70km northwest of Beijing. It took us an hour to get there from the city on a train, but it was relatively easy to find. (Thank God for Lonely-Planet-type travel books!) The views from the train were somewhat picturesque, from city suburbs and open farmland, to mountainous terrain and sights of wall sections in disrepair. From the train station in Badaling, there was almost a kilometer-long walk up to the base of the actual wall,  lined with touristy shops and even a Subway restaurant.

The Wall has some modern day additions, including the handrails that can be seen here and some bathroom facilities at a few points. I guess that makes it more accessible to visitors. Some of the wall sections are extremely steep, while others are flat, and the steps in any of the parts are completely uneven. In the above picture, you can see me sitting in the middle of the wall; we decided to hike up to the highest point we could on one side of the entrance, so we took some time for a break half way.

At one of the steepest points, we decided to stop and ask someone to take our picture. In hindsight, this probably wasn't the wisest idea, since there was a giant drop-off right behind us. In the background, you can see the wall climbing up the other side of the valley. This particular section of the Wall is shaped like a "V," in that the entrance to this part of the wall was built at the bottom of a natural valley. That means that once you're actually standing on top of the wall, the only way to go is up!

Back at the bottom, we stopped just to finish soaking it all in. At this point in the afternoon, it became more crowded, which also meant that Chris and I were being "spotted" more. From what I've gathered, Americans (and westerners in general) are rare tourists in China. Most of the tour groups we saw on the whole trip were from other parts of China, so we inevitably stood out. This group of college students we ran into was so happy to meet us and practice speaking English, so we obliged to take a few pictures. I can only imagine how many different blogs and smartphones we appeared on that week, because the Great Wall was not the only place where people wanted to take pictures with us. Because we had gotten so many looks, we started making up what people were saying, just to be funny. My caption for this one is, "I can't wait to show this to grandma!"

Here's Chris just being Chris, and declaring the excursion for the day a "win."