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Monday, April 11, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
An update for the sake of updates
So currently plans are in order for wanderingchacos.com, zhongwenvocab.com, and theveritasway.com. Suffice to say I am keeping busy with all of them.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
A change of address
In the not so distant future, the blog will be wanderingchacos.blogspot.com
I am looking to launch a travel photography website this winter. The address will be www.wanderingchacos.com
I am looking to launch a travel photography website this winter. The address will be www.wanderingchacos.com
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Back on the beaten path
Life back in the states is different now seeing it with new eyes. I find myself more often keeping quite when I would often be gabbing away. It's different trying to be "you" again especially after you realize that you don't really like the person you once were, but you have friends saying, "you're different in a way I can't quite put my finger on." I'm not sure what to make of it. Looking back I cannot stand the person I once was before my trip. It makes me wonder, what was so appealing then? What do I offer now?
I'm still trying to reconcile the things I have learned from Narnia as I attempt to assimilate back to college life in the Land of the Free.
I'm still trying to reconcile the things I have learned from Narnia as I attempt to assimilate back to college life in the Land of the Free.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
What now?
What do you do when you have a life changing experience and you are no longer the person you once were? How do you resume the life you once lived? Do you simply brush the experience off as a nice memory and acquiesce back to life as though it never happened? Would it be wrong not to make serious changes to the way I once lived in this prosperous land?
The answers to such questions still elude me. I do know that I am not the person I once was. Praise God!
How do I go back to my life expecting the standard of living I once was so comfortable with now knowing that most of the World does not have such blessings? I had always known the statistics and had the head knowledge of how lucky I am to be an American, but now its heart knowledge from personal experience. I have faces to tie now to such sobering statistics. Those facts now carry weight and burden my mind. I am thankful to be burdened with such knowledge and experiences. I can continue forward being grateful for all that I have and making the most to bless others with that which I have been given.
The questions haunt me, but I am grateful to be haunted. I will continue to seek the Lord and pray that He would show me how to move forward and address such questions. Praise God it's not all up to me.
The answers to such questions still elude me. I do know that I am not the person I once was. Praise God!
How do I go back to my life expecting the standard of living I once was so comfortable with now knowing that most of the World does not have such blessings? I had always known the statistics and had the head knowledge of how lucky I am to be an American, but now its heart knowledge from personal experience. I have faces to tie now to such sobering statistics. Those facts now carry weight and burden my mind. I am thankful to be burdened with such knowledge and experiences. I can continue forward being grateful for all that I have and making the most to bless others with that which I have been given.
The questions haunt me, but I am grateful to be haunted. I will continue to seek the Lord and pray that He would show me how to move forward and address such questions. Praise God it's not all up to me.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
My time in Beijing has been wonderful. I don't quite believe that I am coming home on Monday but that is something I will have to get over. We have a weekend of touring, which is something I'm not extatic about because I'm so burnt out from camp. Yesterday I went to the Temple of Heaven(TOH). The TOH is believed by the Chinese to be the center of the universe. The best way to describe it is as being similar to NYC's Central Park. When you are inside it feels like another world, one would never guess that they are in a city of 22 MILLION. During my time there I was able to snap some beautiful photos of the Rose gardens and elderly people that gather there. Photos are something you guys will have to ask me about. I would love to show you them, but I'm paranoid about my images getting ripped off.
Today the crew is at the Wall; I stayed behind to recoup before getting back home. Right now I'm sick with something and I have started taking Chinese medicine to help battle whatever it is.
See you guys soon.
Today the crew is at the Wall; I stayed behind to recoup before getting back home. Right now I'm sick with something and I have started taking Chinese medicine to help battle whatever it is.
See you guys soon.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Reflections
To end my time at SE with a night of dancing is exactly what the Good Doctor ordered. It was the perfect stress release; something everyone needed. It's starting to hit me that my time with all these people, whose presence I have taken for granted, is coming to an end. Most of whom I will never see again. That has been something that has really struck me these last few days. I never realized how much Lydia, Noming, Xiao Li, and Xiao Gong meant to me. This place has so many wonderful people. They are responsible for helping change the way I now see the world. That was something I NEVER saw coming. I guess that's why I travel. Its why I wanted to do this. I wanted to be stretched beyond my comfort zone. The process has been both brutal and beautiful all at once.
Currently I do not fully believe the fact I'm leaving because this place has grown into an estranged pseudo home for me during these last two and a half months. It's going to be just plain weird to leave and never come back.
In regards to the other blogs: I want to apologize for how brief or how are they are to follow. Often I would only be able to jot a few things down before having to run off to another activity. If anything didn't make any sense I would love to better explain it either in person or via e-mail (kwerneke@gmail.com).
Thank you to all of you that have taken time to read my blog.
Currently I do not fully believe the fact I'm leaving because this place has grown into an estranged pseudo home for me during these last two and a half months. It's going to be just plain weird to leave and never come back.
In regards to the other blogs: I want to apologize for how brief or how are they are to follow. Often I would only be able to jot a few things down before having to run off to another activity. If anything didn't make any sense I would love to better explain it either in person or via e-mail (kwerneke@gmail.com).
Thank you to all of you that have taken time to read my blog.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
One last trip to the stables
This is the herdsman's son Asihan(Ah-sih-hon) and I had to say goodbye to him for the last time. He is such a sweetheart and is easily one of my favorite elements of camp. We practice our kung fu on one another.
3 more days till camp is over
This week has been a great snapshot of the entire summer. It has gone relatively as well as it can go. We have had a pack of boys that love to rebel, which creates plenty of headaches for all of us. It has been an up close and personal opportunity to live out being merciful. Let me tell you it has been tough as nails as I like to say because these kids just continue to spit in our faces metaphorically as we continue to let them stay here. Tomorrow is a new day and the Lord really hit me like a train with Titus today and we will see what happens with the boys.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Videos
Hey guys if you want more than my random posts hop onto youtube and see the beauty for yourself. the web address below will take you there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RG9-myylV0
http://www.youtube.com/user/leprechaungiant1#p/u/1/Aap1B7IIskw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RG9-myylV0
http://www.youtube.com/user/leprechaungiant1#p/u/1/Aap1B7IIskw
Addition to..
I have have finished and added to my post entitled One last adventure for the 3 amigos.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
A day of nothing and goodness
Today was our day off and I was able to lounge around, snap pictures of the beautiful wildflowers, and enjoy time with my crew. Today we went to some sort of festival being hosted by Heishantou's police and they had Russian dancers that were interesting to say the least. Tonight we went up to the top of the hill and enjoyed a bonfire.
Lately the weather has been crisp and chilly. It feels like Fall is already on its way. Its been in the 40's and 50's with high winds because the camp is very exposed and relative unprotected. We are surrounded by mountains on one side and jumbo hills on the other. Both geographical features are not very near so when the thunder cracks the sound is absolutely incredible. I mean Bose has nothing on natural acoustics.
On our way back from the bonfire the truck wouldn't start. So Mike popped the clutch and we rolled all the way down this steep hill. I had the great joy of riding in the box holding the roll bar. Then when we reached the bottom Mike tried to get it into 1st or 2nd but the barbed-wire gate was closed so the other Mike had to jump out and race to open the gate. Unfortunately for the gate Mike was not fast enough. I am only kidding. We stopped and driver mike realized he had the gas line pulled out. We eventually made it back to camp and it made for yet another interesting day in China.
Lately the weather has been crisp and chilly. It feels like Fall is already on its way. Its been in the 40's and 50's with high winds because the camp is very exposed and relative unprotected. We are surrounded by mountains on one side and jumbo hills on the other. Both geographical features are not very near so when the thunder cracks the sound is absolutely incredible. I mean Bose has nothing on natural acoustics.
On our way back from the bonfire the truck wouldn't start. So Mike popped the clutch and we rolled all the way down this steep hill. I had the great joy of riding in the box holding the roll bar. Then when we reached the bottom Mike tried to get it into 1st or 2nd but the barbed-wire gate was closed so the other Mike had to jump out and race to open the gate. Unfortunately for the gate Mike was not fast enough. I am only kidding. We stopped and driver mike realized he had the gas line pulled out. We eventually made it back to camp and it made for yet another interesting day in China.
One last adventure for the 3 amigos
The Three amigos (Mike, Tyler, Me) were able to be blessed with a short trip to Manzhouli, a town that rests at the end of the Trans-Siberian Rail Road. It is a place where Russians like to vacation when they want to go somewhere cheap. One could compare it to Tijuana for the people of San Diego.
We hopped on a bus and took it for two hours. When we got there we had lunch with a travel agent named Alice. An absolute sweetheart that we hope to use to generate tourism through the camp. Sunday 7-25 we went to an expo of some sort and it had the world's most random assortment of things. It had art, manufacturing parts, tools, food processors, art, 4-wheelers (which I got to ride), and nice road bikes. It was free and fun. While we were there I was able to score some art and barter the price down via Mike's excellent Chinese. After that we went and looked at beautiful wooden Russian homes. After that we stumbled into a fallen sculpture park that no one seemed to care about any more. There I snapped a few pics because Russian/Communist style art is just plain odd. After that we walked further down to a Babushka doll park which was down right creepy. It hosted stacking dolls to represent most countries and random cultural things like Finding Nemo or Jesus. Again, it was so interesting to see how the US dolls were decorated by either Russian or Chinese artists. See pictures below.
After having a wonderful day of walking and exploring the town Alice took us out for a Russian dinner which was HEAVENLY. We had two types of steak, potatoes, glorified potato salad, borsch (like tomato soup with lots of meat and veggies).With each passing bite I could not believe my luck, here I was with my guy buddies having one of the best meals of my life and the rest of my teammates were back at camp working their butts off. I felt like I had one of those tribal challenges on Survivor where the winners get pampered while everyone else is miserable sitting around the fire eating rice. It was so good. MmMm...
We hopped on a bus and took it for two hours. When we got there we had lunch with a travel agent named Alice. An absolute sweetheart that we hope to use to generate tourism through the camp. Sunday 7-25 we went to an expo of some sort and it had the world's most random assortment of things. It had art, manufacturing parts, tools, food processors, art, 4-wheelers (which I got to ride), and nice road bikes. It was free and fun. While we were there I was able to score some art and barter the price down via Mike's excellent Chinese. After that we went and looked at beautiful wooden Russian homes. After that we stumbled into a fallen sculpture park that no one seemed to care about any more. There I snapped a few pics because Russian/Communist style art is just plain odd. After that we walked further down to a Babushka doll park which was down right creepy. It hosted stacking dolls to represent most countries and random cultural things like Finding Nemo or Jesus. Again, it was so interesting to see how the US dolls were decorated by either Russian or Chinese artists. See pictures below.
After having a wonderful day of walking and exploring the town Alice took us out for a Russian dinner which was HEAVENLY. We had two types of steak, potatoes, glorified potato salad, borsch (like tomato soup with lots of meat and veggies).With each passing bite I could not believe my luck, here I was with my guy buddies having one of the best meals of my life and the rest of my teammates were back at camp working their butts off. I felt like I had one of those tribal challenges on Survivor where the winners get pampered while everyone else is miserable sitting around the fire eating rice. It was so good. MmMm...
After dinner Alice took us to the Moscow Ballet which just happened to be in town during the Russian-Chinese Festival that was taking place that weekend. It was especially fun because we were in a glorified black box theater, and so there were only a 100 or so people that could fit.
This story to be concluded tomorrow...
The ballet was wonderful and a real treat. Something that absolutely shocked me was that a number of people were having full volume conversations with one another during the performance. I was so ticked.
The next day we went to Hulun Lake which is super jumbo, but these days it has dried up and has gotten super polluted. I still had a good time taking pictures. After that we got to ride on the last steam locomotive that is still being used for actual work. This was a huge treat to see something back from the days of Mao still going strong.
All in all the trip was exactly what the good doctor ordered and was very much appreciated.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
On Road or Off Road?
I’m pretty sure i just had the most fun/interesting/random night ever tonight!!
It started out where they wanted some americans to entertain the Chinese tourists at a bonfire tonight. so Kelsey, Andrea and I decided to go. We rode with a man named lee which is where the fun began. we got into his very nice Toyota jeep and proceeded to drive like a madman up the hill while listening to 50 cent streaming profanities and sushi was falling from the dashboard onto my lap. While we were in the car we were laughing to each other and saying that he was probably trying to impress us and other things like that... when we got out of the car we learned that he could speak fluent English and had studied in the UK for 6 years. Oops! Lesson learned: never assume a Chinese person does not understand English.
When we got to the fire the tourists stared at us for a while. Then the real party began. In china they like to blast loud music during bonfires instead of enjoying the quiet serenity one usually expects during the fire. it's so funny. It turned into a dance party where we taught them the electric slide(which was too hard so we ended up doing the choo-choo) and did the can-can around the fire. We sang a few songs for them (they were bored after the first one) and then roasted a Chinese rendition of a s'more. It has been such a blessing to have weekly fires when you don't get to have the luxury of hittin up the cabin each weekend.
We wanted to go back because it was getting late, dark, and cold. We had lee drive us back. We got into his Toyota Prado and rocked out to some Linkin Park, Maroon 5, and Eminem. We were having so much fun and were jokingly begging him to bring us to Monzhouli (a beautiful city a couple hours away). We got back to the camp and then he was like, well, would you like to go to Heishantou? We were like YES! So then we started driving and he was like, "off road, or on road?" We of course said off road! Then we proceeded to go off roading to a small town 15 mins away while listening to Sweet home Alabama. It was glorious. The sunroof was open the music was cranked up and we were having the time of our lives. He offered us beers, to be nice, but we declined so instead we all got coke. Probably one of the funniest and most random nights ever.
A Cute Article
I was reading the NYT and stumbled across this wonderful article called, "Daily Paper for Children Defies the Craze for Digital," is worth checking out.
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