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and being away from technology. i even had to use a pay phone…glad I still had the 12 year old calling card in the back of my wallet.
with so many miles logged in just a month, my luggage has taken a real beating. i’ve used a traditional carry-on roller-wheels-suitcase, a standard internal frame backpack, super-cool mountainsmith cubes, and any number of duffel bags & purses. and although i consider myself a seasoned and savvy traveler, i still haven’t found the perfect carry on (don’t even get me started on style…i’m just talking function) well my type-a personality is flitter-fluttering over this new travel companion. although the ZUCA may have the same amount of panache as vibram 5 fingers, having color-coded cubes to organize all my stuff, sporting a light weight frame AND providing a place to sit in over-crowded public places just may prove to be worth a fashion faux pas.
i’ve been away for a bit. visiting with one of my best-est friends, taking a train across the country and then driving back with my mom, and hanging out in the windy-city with my sis. i also leave for a backpacking trip in the rockies this weekend. i love summer.
When I leave Texas, I always go home with way more than what I started, but this may have been my best score yet. My visit could not have been better.
Today is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. I can’t believe that China (mainland) still refusues to recognize that so many were killed. I don’t understand how a culture that has a picture of a scantily-clad movie star advertising jewelry on the side of a public bus, can still be living like it’s the middle ages. I encountered so many wonderful people in Beijing each with a personal voice and unique story to share. It’s so interesting to me the ideas that the government chooses to supress and the others it lets in. I can’t wrap my brain around it.
I so very much enjoyed my time at Tiananmen Square. I could have stayed all day just people watching. It was such a strange feeling to be on the other side of “majority” as a young, American female. It took a little getting used all the staring and picture taking, but I had to embrace it or go crazy! What I loved is that I felt like I was able to communicate with lots of people w/o ever saying a word. Smiling really is a universal symbol that can disarm just about anyone. I liked feeling like I had my own little United Nations meeting helping to gap the cultural divide.
I can’t imagine seeing a 40-story building on fire in the middle of beijing. If the news reports are correct it is the mandarin oriental hotel that was on fire. The financial district of beijing is so congested, but I guess it’s like any other major metropolis, but with buildings that blow your mind. In the first picture below, the main building is the new CCTV building that the Chinese are so proud of. I think that the building just to the left of the new TV building is the hotel that burned. The second photo is a view from my second hotel room (The Shangri-La Kerry Centre). I think the way I’m positioned here has the mandarin oriental hotel on the other side of the TV building. The architectural accomplishments of Beijing are astonishing. Size, shape — it’s all relative. It’s such a pity to see so many months of hard labor literally go up in smoke. I hope everyone is ok.
I’ve also attached a couple of other interesting architectural sights I saw along the way…
***Just an interesting FYI. The locals call the new CCTV building the ‘underwear building’ b/c it looks like a pair of men’s boxers. Hilarious.
I’ve had the wonderful LAURA MARLING playing virtually non-stop this week. I originally heard hear while in this shop in Canterbury this summer. We listened to her lots post pilgrimage, but with the changing of the seasons she was put on the shelf only to be rediscovered this past week. her debut album — Alas I Cannot Swim — is so fantastic. perfect for even these lazy winter days filled with baking, crafting, and reading. I just wish that I had been able to go to an actual CD shop to pick up her music. The cover is so lovely and here is a quote from her website:
…the music is part of a ‘Song Box’, designed by Laura, which contains postcards, trinkets and stories – plus a concert ticket to her shows in March. ‘The idea came of a conversation I had with a guy who owned the studio I was recording in,’ says Marling. ‘He said he was depressed with the way music’s going, because nobody buys records any more and people are listening to MP3s on bad headphones, using music for wallpaper.’ So, she designed the chart-ineligible, beautifully printed ‘Song Box’: ‘I want people to love music,’ she says, ‘I want people to treasure it, not just my songs, but treasure music.’
I would LOVE to get my hands on those postcards!!! In the mean time, I will have to settle for her pleasing my ears instead of my eyes too. Go buy her music!
Wow. Two weeks in China was amazing. What an interesting and conflicted culture. I look forward to re-reading my journal in a few days, especially as I go through my pictures. I took in all the sights of Beijing (The Summer Palace, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square & The Great Wall) and I also traveled to Xi’an to see the Terra-Cotta Soldiers. Many days were spent at the Pearl Market and Silk Street bargaining myself to death. I was fortunate to meet several locals that showed me different types of the city: 5-star and no-star.
As I enter Thanksgiving week back home in America, I am thankful for the entire experience and the way in which my world is a bit smaller and more personal.
Here are just a few shots…more to come.
I am content.
Today.
In less than two weeks I’ll be getting on a plane again. This time I will be headed all the way around the globe and I will land in Asia. Tokyo first, then onto Beijing and then onto either Moscow or Vietnam. This is a trip I have been looking forward to for 30 years.
Two whole weeks.
I just don’t know where to even begin… (well I did begin by purchasing a new camera and I can’t wait for it to arrive in the mail.)
I can’t believe just how much has happened in a year. I sure wouldn’t have thought it back in January. I need to make time to document it all properly because I don’t want to forget.
Soon.
I love camping in the fall!
Not ready to end the journey…
Even though I was having an amazing spiritual experience in England, there’s always room for a little shopping. Little did I know that Canterbury was so hip. One afternoon we had a few hours in the city center and I came across this little jewel and I would have sworn it was heaven! Of course, it must have been meant to be as it’s called: Triple H. All I have to say is Orla Kiely. I’m talking shoes, clothes, paper goods. I picked up the best little journal, but apparently I haven’t managed to snag a photo of it…yet. Here were a few other things I saw there.
I can hardly put into words right now what an amazing time we had. Hiking the Pilgrims Way through Southern England was fantastic. The students we were with were quite wonderful and the journey itself was extraordinary. I’ve got pictures to sort through and a mini (or full sized scrapbook) to get started on. I also have have a new job that begins tomorrow. But I feel more centered and grounded and ready for this something new.
It’s nice to be back.
Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail
This is my last week at work. And it seems that I’ve been reduced to an emotional cripple as I continue to have emotional outbursts at random moments throughout the day. You might think I’m completely hormonal as I have ecstatic highs and then seemingly without a trigger begin to cry.
I guess I haven’t begun to process it all yet. I have hardly written in my own journal and I certainly haven’t had time to craft a thing. I’m not only preparing for my vocational transition, but I am also going on a spiritual pilgrimage if you will.
My husband and I are leaving Saturday for England with six high school youths from our church. We are truly a hodgepodge group as we journey together, each coming from a different place, wanting to achieve a different goal, but alas, all arriving at the same place. Together, but differently. We will walk about 40 miles of the old Pilgrim’s Way, or Canterbury Trail. We will stay in hostels and churches and even an old barn. The week will culminate with our (hopeful) attendance of a session or two of the Lambeth Conference. This is a once every 10 year U.N. meeting of bishops from around the world. Pretty cool if you’re into the whole Anglican/Episcopal thing. I’ve said it before, but for myself, it’s like going home to the mothership.
I’m too tired and too contemplative to put it all into words. The logistics of packing snacks for 9 people, training my replacement at work and preparing my house for my house-sitter have overridden my ability to put my thoughts into a linear structure. And all of that coupled with the fact that end a three year commitment on Friday and begin a new career the day after our return … crazy.
I’ll have time to think about it all one day. Right now I need to finish packing and go to bed.
(photo courtesy of Destination 360)
