September 5, 2007
Celebrating Twenty-Five Wonderful Years
Last spring, we had an amazing opportunity to spend some time in Europe celebrating our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. We started out in England for two weeks where I was teaching computer graphics at a school south of London, and then headed for Southern France, where we spent the next three weeks at a friend's home called FranceHaven. From FranceHaven, we took many day trips out to places like Pont du Gard, the Cevennes Mountains, Aigues-Mortes, and the Cote d'Azur. We then took a train up to Paris, where we spent five days touring around the city. Of course, we visited the Eiffel Tower, but we also managed to do a lot more. Thanks to some great podcasts, we got through the Louvre and Orsay museums smoothly and were able to see most of what we wanted to before dropping dead from exhaustion!
From Paris we flew to Zurich, Switzerland to visit a friend of ours, and see some of this beautiful country. We were inspired by the history of Europe and especially the Reformation. We saw some of the Swiss Alps, and spent time in Geneva, where another friend of ours made good on a ten-year promise by taking us out on Lake Geneva in his boat.
Busy Summer
We returned to China in the middle of June, and our summer was full of activity, as usual. We had several groups and visitors, and made more trips around our area, including our first trip to Longbang, the border of Vietnam. One group who came was from Northern Thailand, and we were all amazed to see how similar the Thai language was to the local Zhuang. In August, we also broke tradition by finally visiting a city in Central China. We went to see some good friends who live in Shanghai. Shanghai was pleasant, but not too unlike many other cities we have seen in China. We think it was worth the 36 hour train trip we took to get there!
After returning from Shanghai, Wendy flew back to the USA to attend a family reunion in Wisconsin, and to help take care of her mom who had surgery on August 30. She enjoyed meeting some of her relatives for the first time, and all her brothers and sisters were there as well. She will be returning to China next week.
Extended Visit
On September 20, we will be leaving Guangxi together, spending a week with our son and his wife in Taiwan (while teaching in a school), and then arriving in California on September 29 for a planned one-year visit in the US. Since we moved to China nine years ago, we have not come back to the States for more than 4 or 5 months at a time, so on this trip we are planning to have a more "fixed" place to live (which will eventually be Los Osos, California). We hope to visit most of our friends and family over the next year or so. We have already put up our usual US Travel Info Page, so check this often if you'd like to know when we might be in your area.
