for those of you praying for us, i’m sure that images of the children couldn’t come soon enough. trust me, i’d love nothing more than to have pictures of these incredible children up so that you can pray with their cute little faces in mind. however, i’m also sure that many of you parents know that keeping up with 150 k-12ers is a full time job. so, i’ll do my best to keep you posted in little doses.
for now, these are my little buddies jerry, tom, and nate ( respectively ). please continue to pray for us and these unbelievable kids. you’re prayers are always appreciated.
one of the key aspects of a good chinese tour are the sucker shops. they start you off on what appears to be a cultural and diverse learning experience, leaving you to the wolves at the end. it’s much like how every ride at disneyland ends in a souvenir shop. regardless, hear’s the shots.
this is us stretching a bunch of silk-cocoons out to make a conformer.
and of course… the birthday boy, bringin’ sexy back
before i start, i’d like to give you a real time update of what’s happening. as of yesterday we are at the Bring Me Hope camp in beijing. the kids haven’t arrived yet, so we have a little bit of time to catch up on what we’ve left you out on so far.
more garden
i was cut a little bit short during my last post. here’s a picture of the crew staring down the obnoxious cicadas.
and one of the oh so happy birthday boy
next we moved along to a gorgeous museum and while we couldn’t take any pictures inside, here are a few of the surroundings
and finally, our long walk to the bus. this was the first of many places we had hoped the driver would find us.
so, there is a growing concern that there isn’t yet enough “legitimate” content posted from our trip. and while i have a hard time agreeing completely, i understand ya’lls fascination with the touristy business. unfortunately, i’m soon to be late for our flight to beijing, so here are only a few pictures from the first garden that we went to.
and a sweet one that nellie got
of course, nellie and i must make mention of these fantastic signs. click here to see the slideshow.
today is ryan’s birthday. well, it is in america at least. since you won’t be able to sing him birthday greetings over the phone, leave something annoying for him to read here!
today we did a little shopping and sight-seeing. we came across this little gem which the chinese affectionately call the “pee-pee boy.” studying the picture below you might have noted the great emphasis befalling his anatomy. while slightly crass, such devotion is not without intent. the pee-pee boy, after being submerged in water, will pee only when boiling hot water is poured over his head. this is often used to demonstrate the temperature of tea to guests. should the pee-pee boy wiz on you, the tea is good, should he trickle… well, you’re probably getting last nights tea.
needless to say, some of you can expect one of these in your christmas stocking.
dear bloggers,
as we touched down in shanghai, i began my regular post-flight routine. find signal, get mail, read blogs. however, despite a swift completion of the first two, the third was causing me some trouble. blogger, squarespace, wordpress… all the greats running, slower than christian bales career between newsies and batman begins.
ding! the proverbial light-bulb went off.
so, i played a little game - “stump the chinese firewall.”
doing standard google query for “noodles”, “rice”, “apple inc.”, etc yielded normal results, as you can see :
however, i conveniently “lost connection to server” every time the subject matter was in any way, well… democratic. note the highlights in the below:
i’m no economist or or social-journalist. i’m just a guy that wants to see what’s going on in my friends lives. so all this is to say - it’s a shame that the government here finds your exploitation of freedom repulsive. if you don’t see my comments, it’s not because i don’t love, it’s because china hates you.
in my opinion, the 24 hour travel day is a huge test of personal strength. many a men have cracked - missing connecting flights, sleeping through an important air-meal, or accidentally entering a women’s restroom in a bizarrely modest culture; we all have these unfortunate travel mishaps and most of us are better for them. however, it is the seasoned traveler that enters the last leg of this race with a euphoric and effortless ease about him - more cunning and creative then when he began.
as we hit our final stretch, in a busted down bus toward shanghai, we found such a fusion in time-passers. tired of practicing chinese conjugations, ryan wisely inspired us to evolve our technique and test out our chinese expressions. this type of genius might be baffle some of you less experienced travelers. do not worry, careful study of our art will help you channel your own delusions… genius.
** changing gears **
on a more serious note, God has been so gracious to us blessing us with safe travels and good rest thus far.
** back to the pictures **
based on the friendly asian expression, leave us a comment and cast your vote for the person you believe to leave this country with the most friends!
we’re on a stop over through hong kong. here’s a snapshot from the airport.
a little history according to michael. hong kong airport resides on a man-made island, constructed solely for the airport. i didn’t get a good shot of the airport but imagine an 80 terminal apple store with white, brushed-steel trim, and the rest of the mall inside the store.
onto shanghai!
to all land-dwellers
after hours of shopping, packing, and waiting in line for the latest harry potter we’re off to china. we will keep you as posted as possible, so please stop by again soon. feel free to send us some blog-love while we’re away.
