Jiaozi

Since I miss Chinese food so much I have been making a lot of Chinese dishes lately.  I started with sichuan eggplant (qedzuh), then made sizzling tofu and mushrooms, then egg and tomato, and now jiaozi.  I thought I'd share the process with you so that you could see our kitchen as well.  And Allison's new haircut.  The video is also on youtube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syz6e_cDWrl

The Oregon Coast

Sorry it's been a while.  We are STILL settling in to Portland.  Job hunting has been difficult.  Despite our uncertain position, we are in love with the city and Oregon.  On Tuesday, after having worked in Seattle all last week because that was the only place I could find work, I decided we should drive to the coast and cast our anxiety on God.  This is the beauty we found there.  As we were walking back to the car from the beach, an employer I had applied to on Monday called and hired me!  Finally, I have a stable job.  

And . . . Allison shaved her hair off!

Obama!

A few nights ago, Allison and I went to the Baghdad theater in Portland to watch the election results.  I stood in line at about 8:00 pm to get pizza for us when I heard the crowd in the theater roar.  Obama had won.  I ran back in and stayed glued to my seat for the next two hours.  I was deeply satisfied by both his and McCain's speeches that night.  I do not know for sure that Obama's plan for America will be good but I do know without a doubt that his message of hope and the inspiring way that he gives it are AMAZING.

Portland has been good to us so far but has kept us busy.

Allison and I are happily on our way out of Chicago, out of Oklahoma City, out the east coast, out of everything we know and hold familiar, and on towards Portland!  Tonight we are in Rock Springs, Wyoming, a dry, dusty, rocky place.  Today I was inspired by an idea for a new short story (hopefully, it'll pan out).  We have been driving at least 10 hours a day for the past three and we have about three to go.  We have fought viciously, felt ferociously close to each other, talked deeply, ignored each other, been peaceful, fretted, forgiven, and basically lived out a microcosm of our entire future married life together in this first week after the wedding.  

I'm still working on those pictures from the wedding.  Be patient.  For those of you who can't access the video of the wedding below, go to this link on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOQwHwXcevk

Our Wedding!

Thanks for all your prayers and well wishing; we felt them.

Pictures coming soon . . .

Two Weeks Left!!! Goodbye, Boston

It was a difficult week of goodbyes, mainly because they were never final.  I ate dinner with the owner of the company on Monday and said goodbye then, but saw him two more times after that.  I said goodbye to Maxwell on Thursday but saw him two more times too.  I couldn't feel the visceral impact of the prospect of never seeing these people again for the rest of my life.  Not the way I did leaving China.  Even apart from the dulling effect of running into them again and again, I wasn't much moved anyway.  When I left Chicago to move to Boston two years ago, by contrast, I sobbed when I said goodbye.  Too many goodbyes have left me desensitized since.  I wish I knew better how to feel.  I wish I knew what to say.  I wish I knew what this meant.  Why should I bond so much with a random, great person like Maxwell and then never get to see him again?  It doesn't seem fair.  What was the purpose?  Am I wrong to value experience so much that I'm willing to leave a beloved place and people to seek it somewhere new?  Was it right to leave China?  Was it right to go to China in the first place?  What I want to experience now is community and establishment.  I want to pass quickly and happily through this next week of visiting my brother, the week following marrying Allison, and the week after finding a place in Portland and a job, and then become settled firmly.  I want to stay in Portland long enough that it nearly kills me to leave.  For now all I can do is report that Boston is behind me.

Three Weeks Left!!!

Another week of painting in Boston has concluded.  One to go.  It will be sad to leave my new friends, Nashma and Maxwell.  While I haven't been able to study the Bible with them the way I had hoped to, I have been deeply blessed by both of them and their attitudes toward life.

But two AMAZING things happened.  First, Allison's birthday gave us an opportunity to explore something crazy and different: the Museum of Bad Art.  I tried to submit my own, but I don't think even they would take it.  The art was laughably bad but the real fun was reading captions.  For example on a confusing painting with sad faces blending into each other out of disproportionately small bodes was the caption: "A daring artist challenges our ideas about race, age, fashion, and anatomy."

The other was that I went and ate delicious red snapper at Maxwell's.