Flying in the 20^th century used to be a luxury.

Flying in the 21^st century, on the other hand, is a consumer-driven gateway to a vast and previously unexplored terrain of glitches and minor annoyances that cumulatively test one’s spirit and make one question the validity of human civilization.

So Air Canada promptly misplaced my bag, and I face the reckless prospect of being in Fort McMurray without my clothes. I hope they have a store where I can buy some, although I wonder what kind of clothes they’ll have… I may end up looking like a yuppie lumberjack-wannabe, but at least I’ll be warm.

(more…)

I’m beginning a blog thread on what is rapidly promising to be my most adventurous trip of the year! So, just a couple of days ago I found out that I’m traveling to … Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Where??? Zoom out of the google map that you get from the above link, and it’s, clearly, NORTHERN Alberta… Note that it’s the end of the line - it literally is at the end of highway 63, about 6 hours north of Edmonton.

(more…)

so we staggered home at about 2am, EST, Monday Dec 18, relieved to be home!!

Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home

We were originally supposed to halt overnight in Chicago and arrive this afternoon, but after six weeks of staying in various places and lugging our suitcases around, we decided to slog it through and come home instead of staying in yet another hotel room for yet another night away.

Our marathon journey home began at 1.30 pm EST Saturday, so we pretty much had a 36-hour journey Funnily enough, though, with the time zones involved, we travelled all 36 hours on ONE day - Sunday:
(more…)

So here we are in Dubai! And, finally, some pictures from the trip so far!

Enjoy! Click on the thumbnails for a larger image:
(more…)

So I had quite the experiential whirlwind of a day yesterday, Wednesday Nov 22. Here’s a quick summary of the many intercultural experiences of the day:

* morning : My mom gets a spam email from “gospelnews”, with a document claiming to find references to Jesus in Hindu scriptures. She blows up in a fury and I am the only Christian around for her to vent to. Instead of debating theology with her, I acknowledge the disgusting wrongness of the email and empathize with her as she vents.

* afternoon : The doorman/concierge/handyman/janitor for the apartment building escorts me to a small dusty neighborhood salon, where I try to get a haircut and promptly enter into a theological conversation in Arabic with the right-wing street savvy Muslim barber, who reminds me a lot of my theologically intense friend Dan Gelok back in Texas. On the way back I get to talking with the doorman, who is from a rural village and illiterate, but a devout Muslim who follows the teachings of the imam at the local mosque.

* evening : We drive as a family to meet an Armenian dentist, who has become a family friend to my parents. While there, I am introduced to Hamid, an Egyptian man about my age who has become an ardent student of Indian meditation and yoga. We have a rambling conversation about yoga, meditation, the fluidity of eastern philosophies and the relative blind-fanaticism of adherents of the three main Abrahamic religions. We talk about, in particular, the difficulties of conversing about faith journeys with people who think the Koran or the Bible are the literal words of God with no room for interpretation. Hamid runs into this because he wants to teach Egyptians how to meditate and realize inner peace, but any mention of eastern thought gets him branded as a heretic or an infidel.

* night : My mom and Alexis and myself are playing cards when the doorman’s wife shows up to deliver something for my mother, who invites her to sit with us a while. We find out that the wife recognizes the game we are playing because she has seen the menfolk in her village play the same game, but refuses to join us because women in her village have never been allowed to play cards. She is also illiterate and cannot distinguish the 8 of diamonds from the 10 of diamonds unless she counts the symbols on the cards.
(more…)