30,174
thirty thousand one hundred seventy-four. that is the number of miles i have flown from june until now.
in june i went to kyrgyzstan. i was there for only eleven days. violence erupted while i was there, and i came back to comfortable america with many questions. i did not have much time to search these questions because in late june i left to taiwan.
i have not known any place more humid than taiwan. i haven’t exactly needed to add booklets to my passport, but i’ve been around the equator quite a few times and i still stand by that statement. taiwan was a great experience. all in all, sort of like an ideal mission trip.
then came china. china was a different beast. smaller team, but more children. longer stay, more work, less sleep, and my body inevitably failed, twice. yet this was an even better experience. more to come on a later day.
then came hong kong. a few days to relax, recuperate, and debrief.
returned back home late last night. i have a lot to process. first year of seminary is done, and i’ve been on summer break for roughly twelve week. of those twelve, only three have been spent in the states with weddings, packing, unpacking, moving, spending time with friends and family. the other nine have been on international turf. i have not had much time to simply sit and ponder, which i guess is an ideal luxury many cannot afford. yet i think it is a necessity if i am going to milk these experiences for what they are worth.
needless to say, yet i will say it anyway, this summer has been full of experiences. i cannot begin to recall all of them now or categorize them as bad or good. but everything will be subject to recollection and processing. i suppose it’s good that it’s only the beginning of august and i still have approximately one month of unplanned time before heading back to school. i will probably be spouting all sorts of nonsense on here in the coming weeks.
but until i process and debrief myself, my answer to any questions regarding my summer’s experiences will likely be something along the lines of “good good, and your’s?” so until then, i’m back, and i don’t think i’m going anywhere, at least for now.
