Our Lovely Vacation Time

Our vacation has been blissful the past 3 weeks.  

The first week was our traveling/adventure week.  I’ll throw up some pictures of our trips to Xi’an & Beijing in the next post. Just to be anti- chronological. ;)

The last 2 weeks have been amazing & relaxing, with:

Cooking new creations, Baking old favorites, 

Watching Fringe and new movies, Playing Mario-Kart with friends, 

Going out for coffee, Evening bike rides, Mornings with tea and reading my Bible, 

Chasing the cat around, Celebrating our anniversary, 

Hiking the mountain, Finding a new trail on the mountain, 

Shopping for things we need, Buying things we probably don’t need, 

Listening to jazz music and occasionally dancing in our living room, 

Trying new international wine, Making cards for my students, 

Cleaning out the extra bedroom, Reading by the beach in the morning, 

Running by the beach in the afternoon, Picnicking on the beach in the evening, 

Sleeping in, Staying up late, Eating ice cream, Eating meat on a stick, 

Finding an import store and buying more than we should have, Yelling at the cat, 

Spending all day at a friends house doing nothing in particular, 

Barbeque with a real grill and real hamburger meat, 

Meeting my mentor for Starbucks coffee, 

Reading and finishing two books—okay, they were children’s novels, but it still counts!

(Tuck Everlasting and The Series of Unfortunate Events) 

. . . And more relaxing amazingness!

The next 4 weeks will be a bit more structured.  We will have Chinese class from 8:00-10:00 a.m., then we will stick around school (to start work projects) or workout until noon, then we’ll probably be going to lunch with friends or coming home.  There is still much freedom to be had and more relaxing to do, but the bit of structure will  help more productive things to happen.

New staff arrive on July 26^th, so then many more exciting things happen at that point.  By the beginning of August, the relaxation is to a minimum, and work starts up again.  No real work responsibilities are expected of us until around August 6^th (a week before school starts), but it’s nice to get some things out of the way.  

I am so glad to have this break, because we know it is so necessary to rest, in order to actually do the jobs we do, and be there for the students the way God is calling us to.  Thanks for supporting us in our lives here... We really do love it.