Look at what time does to us

A week ago at this very moment, I was hiking in the hills along the Great Wall of China, tracking over frozen lakes and chatting about the most random things with a new found friend. The weather was such that my beads of sweat turned to ice and the water in my bottle was naturally, refreshingly cold.

All of that now in contrast to the sweltering heat in Cambodia and an awakening to my present reality; school-cleaning starts in 15 minutes, the kids (well, teens) will be arriving beginning this afternoon, and lessons begin on Monday.

Here’s to the start of a new chapter in my life.

How to train a Jedi

I am damn well feeling like Queen Amidala at this very moment. I have 2 neat, red pimples on each cheek. I don’t even know how to describe what I feel about that, but I have never had so many pimples before. And this is probably all thanks to the air in China, thank you very much. I think I will just go train a Jedi now.

I was re-reading The Last Lecture (or rather, just bits of it) a few days ago and the same emotions as when I first read it came over me again. It sort of gives me the same lump in my throat as whenever I read A Prayer for my Daughter. I didn’t write about it here last time, but if I were his kid, I would probably have read his book a hundred times over before I even turned 12. It is just such a moving book, and there are a lot of lessons to take home from it.

one night in beijing

theres a song that goes “one night in beijing”…

one night is definitely not enough. I LOVED BEIJING. it was awesome, other than the grey polluted skies. and oh, it seems I bring the dust storms with me. dust storm in sydney, dust storm in beijing. not good for health.

so… I climbed the great wall, walked the tiananmen square, toured the forbidden city, ate street food. it was so interesting. if it wasn’t for my back pain troubles that bothered me on the last 2 days I would probably have seen more.

and yeah, I can speak terrific chinese I never knew I could. but it just came out, china accent and all. awesome.

it was a wonderful week and time spent with my rents, goodness knows I miss them so much now. in many ways I’m all alone.

thanks for a much needed much appreciated break. thanks for everything God.