We finally got to Libya, a little worse for wear, but we made it here.
Tuesday did not really go as planned for us; things took longer than expected, things went missing, problems arose, but we somehow managed to get to Libya with almost all of our things. But I'll tell that story once it's resolved.
So we are just trying to get over our jet lag and get ready for work tomorrow. Thank you so much for prayers. We will update soon, and with pictures!
It's almost time, and we need prayers!
Well, it is just 5 more days until we move to Libya for a year. It seems really really crazy. And we have so much to do. Why is it that we waited until the last minute to get everything together. I don't know; we must love killing ourselves. My one consolation is that I'll be able to sleep on the plane. So I can go full out from now until then, and I think I'll be able to recover.
Having said that, we could use some help, specifically in your prayers. We need prayers for the following things:
- that we will get everything packed up in time for the move
- that there will be no troubles with the flight or going through customs
- that we are able to recover from jetlag quickly
- that both of us find favor at work
- that we will be able to be comfortable in a new environment
- that we will be able to find a place to worship with other believers
- that we will be a witness to our fellow workers with our work and attitude
- that we will be safe throughout our stay
- that we will have fun!
Thank you so much for your support in all this. We love you!
Having said that, we could use some help, specifically in your prayers. We need prayers for the following things:
- that we will get everything packed up in time for the move
- that there will be no troubles with the flight or going through customs
- that we are able to recover from jetlag quickly
- that both of us find favor at work
- that we will be able to be comfortable in a new environment
- that we will be able to find a place to worship with other believers
- that we will be a witness to our fellow workers with our work and attitude
- that we will be safe throughout our stay
- that we will have fun!
Thank you so much for your support in all this. We love you!
We have a date!
So we finally have a date for our moving to Libya: September 8th.
We'll take a 16 hour flight to London, and then from there, head to Libya.
Now, whenever we say that we are going to Libya, people generally freak out, so let me inform you a little of what we are going to.
First, check out their amazing flag.
Now, you might be thinking there's something wrong with your browser, but it really is only one color. That's it.
Next, it's the place where the hottest temperature was officially recorded at a whopping 136 degrees in the shade. (Although, this is official recordings. It may have gotten hotter elsewhere, but not officially.) I don't think we'll be experiencing that kind of heat since we'll be along the coast.
It also has one of the highest per capita income of the African countries, mostly due the loads of oil they have there. If we were going to be driving while there, it would probably be very cheap to fill up.
And there's lots more to know, but we don't know them yet. We'll keep you updated as we learn more.
We'll take a 16 hour flight to London, and then from there, head to Libya.
Now, whenever we say that we are going to Libya, people generally freak out, so let me inform you a little of what we are going to.
First, check out their amazing flag.
Now, you might be thinking there's something wrong with your browser, but it really is only one color. That's it.Next, it's the place where the hottest temperature was officially recorded at a whopping 136 degrees in the shade. (Although, this is official recordings. It may have gotten hotter elsewhere, but not officially.) I don't think we'll be experiencing that kind of heat since we'll be along the coast.
It also has one of the highest per capita income of the African countries, mostly due the loads of oil they have there. If we were going to be driving while there, it would probably be very cheap to fill up.
And there's lots more to know, but we don't know them yet. We'll keep you updated as we learn more.
A Beautiful Day in Our Neighborhood
We realized that with our leaving soon, no one was going to be able to experience our little neighborhood in Little Tokyo. So, we decided to take a Sunday stroll, and take you along...by camera.
This is a view of the shopping center that is just around the corner from our apartment. It houses one of our favorite places to stop: Yogurtland. It's a self-serve yogurt place with 16 flavors and twice as many toppings to mix and match to your pleasure. You pay by the ounce, so you can get as little or as much (in our case) as you want. And since it's yogurt, it's good for you. :)
This is view of a street around the corner from our apartment. A good place for a stroll.
This is a strange tree that we have lining the sidewalk to our apartment. It's pine-ish in the leaves, but the leaves are soft. Very strange, but neat looking and neat feeling.
We have a metro train station a few blocks away from our apartment. It would be perfect if it was running, but it's not quite done yet.
Here's just a view of the diversity in this little community.
And here's Union Station. You can kinda see the words printed on that white tower in the center.
Here's a better view of the entire building. We meant to go inside to get pictures, but we got distracted.
This was one giant tree. It's across the street from Union Station, and homeless people are usually sleeping around it, for an afternoon nap.
Also across from the station, there is a concert of sorts on almost every weekend. They have booths for food, live music, and shops to buy authentic Mexican trinkets.
Just a building we saw while walking. Not exactly sure what the building is.
A gate to a Buddist courtyard, we believe. Interesting, huh?
This is a neat sign they have randomly on the corner of a block. It shows the sister cities of Los Angeles, the direction to them, and the distance as well. So if I wanted to go to Taipei, I only need to head 6789 miles in --> that direction.
Here's another giant tree. Jacob's showing it's relative size.
These are the numbers for the Caltrans building. The numbers are huge and nearly unreadable when you are on the same block.
And here's the whole Caltrans building. Jacob sometimes has to walk here for meetings.
The LA Time building. We've never been in, but we've walked by it. Does that count?
This is the Friendship Knot. It's a sculpture that stands in a marketplace full of Asian food places. We can't quite figure how it's labeled friendship knot instead of square knot.
Here's a view of the skyline. The second tall building from the right is where Jacob works.
These are some strange little flowers that grow across the street from our apartment. They're furry, and yes, they are growing among barbed wire.
And we made it back to our apartment. There it is. You can't actually see our apartment from this angle, since we're on the opposite side, but that's our building just the same.
Hope you enjoyed this little walk around our neighborhood. We did.
This is a view of the shopping center that is just around the corner from our apartment. It houses one of our favorite places to stop: Yogurtland. It's a self-serve yogurt place with 16 flavors and twice as many toppings to mix and match to your pleasure. You pay by the ounce, so you can get as little or as much (in our case) as you want. And since it's yogurt, it's good for you. :)
This is view of a street around the corner from our apartment. A good place for a stroll.
This is a strange tree that we have lining the sidewalk to our apartment. It's pine-ish in the leaves, but the leaves are soft. Very strange, but neat looking and neat feeling.
We have a metro train station a few blocks away from our apartment. It would be perfect if it was running, but it's not quite done yet.
Here's just a view of the diversity in this little community.
And here's Union Station. You can kinda see the words printed on that white tower in the center.
Here's a better view of the entire building. We meant to go inside to get pictures, but we got distracted.
This was one giant tree. It's across the street from Union Station, and homeless people are usually sleeping around it, for an afternoon nap.
Also across from the station, there is a concert of sorts on almost every weekend. They have booths for food, live music, and shops to buy authentic Mexican trinkets.
Just a building we saw while walking. Not exactly sure what the building is.
A gate to a Buddist courtyard, we believe. Interesting, huh?
This is a neat sign they have randomly on the corner of a block. It shows the sister cities of Los Angeles, the direction to them, and the distance as well. So if I wanted to go to Taipei, I only need to head 6789 miles in --> that direction.
Here's another giant tree. Jacob's showing it's relative size.
These are the numbers for the Caltrans building. The numbers are huge and nearly unreadable when you are on the same block.
And here's the whole Caltrans building. Jacob sometimes has to walk here for meetings.
The LA Time building. We've never been in, but we've walked by it. Does that count?
This is the Friendship Knot. It's a sculpture that stands in a marketplace full of Asian food places. We can't quite figure how it's labeled friendship knot instead of square knot.
Here's a view of the skyline. The second tall building from the right is where Jacob works.
These are some strange little flowers that grow across the street from our apartment. They're furry, and yes, they are growing among barbed wire.
And we made it back to our apartment. There it is. You can't actually see our apartment from this angle, since we're on the opposite side, but that's our building just the same.Hope you enjoyed this little walk around our neighborhood. We did.
Our Fourth of July
This is terribly late, but late is better than never.
This year for the Fourth of July, we went to a free celebration downtown at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. We found the location online, and thought, "Hey it's free, and it says the show is 60 minutes long." We figured that had to be an over-statement, but we were soo wrong.
Before the fireworks began, there was an ongoing concert and booths with food and such. And then the fireworks started. We got to use our new camera (we had just bought it that day) to capture some of the fireworks.
This one looks kinda like those seagulls you would draw far away in the sky when you were a kid.
We found out quite quickly that taking your own pictures of fireworks doesn't really turn out like those you see elsewhere.
It was surprisingly difficult to get pictures of the fireworks because you had to time it just right. We had plenty of pictures of blackness or afterglow because we had pushed the button too slow.
This one kinda looks like a dragonfly.
They had a variety of fireworks, including the double colored ones.
This one looks neat, albeit a little creepy, like hands or something.
If you could read that, it says Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The fireworks were shot right in front of this building, and we sat on the lawn in front of that.
Even though we thought the fireworks were going to be 20-30 minutes, the show actually lasted around 70 minutes. We were amazed. We both had never been to one that was so long. And for the price, you just can't beat that. We've decided that when we're back in LA for the Fourth, we'll go back there.
This year for the Fourth of July, we went to a free celebration downtown at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. We found the location online, and thought, "Hey it's free, and it says the show is 60 minutes long." We figured that had to be an over-statement, but we were soo wrong.
Before the fireworks began, there was an ongoing concert and booths with food and such. And then the fireworks started. We got to use our new camera (we had just bought it that day) to capture some of the fireworks.
This one looks kinda like those seagulls you would draw far away in the sky when you were a kid.
We found out quite quickly that taking your own pictures of fireworks doesn't really turn out like those you see elsewhere.
It was surprisingly difficult to get pictures of the fireworks because you had to time it just right. We had plenty of pictures of blackness or afterglow because we had pushed the button too slow.
This one kinda looks like a dragonfly.
They had a variety of fireworks, including the double colored ones.
This one looks neat, albeit a little creepy, like hands or something.
If you could read that, it says Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The fireworks were shot right in front of this building, and we sat on the lawn in front of that.
Even though we thought the fireworks were going to be 20-30 minutes, the show actually lasted around 70 minutes. We were amazed. We both had never been to one that was so long. And for the price, you just can't beat that. We've decided that when we're back in LA for the Fourth, we'll go back there.
Tidbits from our Travels
We've hit the major stops along the way of our trip to California, but we didn't really talk about the trip there. And here's the remedy.
We actually started our three day journey one day late due to the movers. They arrived very late, midnight in fact, and weren't done loading the truck until 5:45 am, much to the chagrin of our neighbors. But what could we do? We needed to be out of there the afternoon before. So after staying up all night, although Christina did take a 2 hour nap in the car while they were loading, we set off.
Jacob started driving, but it came very clear very fast (40 minutes or so) that he was not going to make it. So Christina took over, and basically drove the rest of the way to our first destination, Carlsbad Caverns.
Jacob did take over for a little bit. Much to our surprise, the speed limit was like none we had ever seen.
We were crossing the Texas/New Mexico border, and Christina tried (and failed) to take a picture of the welcome sign. Mind you, this was in a speeding car and using our camera of total greatness.
After our tour, we needed a place to stay, so we decided to stay in Roswell. It was really a neat little town, and it was a shame that we were so tired we couldn't enjoy it. But here are some pictures of the quirkiness that makes Roswell fun. (Now just a disclaimer, it was night time, and my camera does not do well at night.)
And then we were off again. We didn't stay in any other real neat places like Roswell, but we did manage to get some nice pictures of nowhere in particular. Take a look.
Here's an attempt at the New Mexico/Arizona border.
Here's an attempt at the Arizona/California border.
It's sad to say that in all of the states we passed through, we weren't able to get one decent picture of the road signs. It became a joke whenever one came up. "Whup...missed that one...oh...car's in the way...whoa...sun's too bright..." Oh well, it was entertaining trying.
The road was long, tiring, but ultimately, a lot of fun. We had many new experiences with each other that we wouldn't trade for anything. You can't say that about a plane ride.
We actually started our three day journey one day late due to the movers. They arrived very late, midnight in fact, and weren't done loading the truck until 5:45 am, much to the chagrin of our neighbors. But what could we do? We needed to be out of there the afternoon before. So after staying up all night, although Christina did take a 2 hour nap in the car while they were loading, we set off.
Jacob started driving, but it came very clear very fast (40 minutes or so) that he was not going to make it. So Christina took over, and basically drove the rest of the way to our first destination, Carlsbad Caverns.
Jacob did take over for a little bit. Much to our surprise, the speed limit was like none we had ever seen.
We were crossing the Texas/New Mexico border, and Christina tried (and failed) to take a picture of the welcome sign. Mind you, this was in a speeding car and using our camera of total greatness.
After our tour, we needed a place to stay, so we decided to stay in Roswell. It was really a neat little town, and it was a shame that we were so tired we couldn't enjoy it. But here are some pictures of the quirkiness that makes Roswell fun. (Now just a disclaimer, it was night time, and my camera does not do well at night.)
And then we were off again. We didn't stay in any other real neat places like Roswell, but we did manage to get some nice pictures of nowhere in particular. Take a look.
Here's an attempt at the New Mexico/Arizona border.
Here's an attempt at the Arizona/California border.
It's sad to say that in all of the states we passed through, we weren't able to get one decent picture of the road signs. It became a joke whenever one came up. "Whup...missed that one...oh...car's in the way...whoa...sun's too bright..." Oh well, it was entertaining trying.
The road was long, tiring, but ultimately, a lot of fun. We had many new experiences with each other that we wouldn't trade for anything. You can't say that about a plane ride.
The Grand Canyon
Our final stop was to the Grand Canyon. When we arrived, we had a little trouble finding a place to park. We ended up parking on the side of the road, where several other people had parked their cars. We had to walk through a little bit of woods to get to the rim of the Grand Canyon, but when we did, we snapped a picture.
It amazed us how much the Grand Canyon looked like the pictures, but the pictures don't really give you any idea how vastly large it is.
We knew the canyon was made by the Colorado River, but we had some trouble seeing it. Here's the picture of the very tiny piece we did see.
More scenic views from the rim.
More from the rim.
Jacob really wanted to go on a trail down into the Canyon, but we were not really prepared for such a trek. The map and newspaper they gave us at the entrance said that you need to make sure you have plenty of water and snacks for even a one hour trail, neither of which we had. They also warned that it could get up to 100+ degrees once you were down into the Canyon. Still, Jacob wanted to go. So we bought some liters of water and some snacks, and since we didn't have a backpack or bag to carry this stuff in, we bought a reuseable grocery bag, which Jacob carried on his shoulder...very woodmansy, huh? We didn't have too much time, since we still had to make it to Los Angeles that night, so we gave ourselves 1 hour to go down the trail and the approximately 2 hours to go back up.
Here's a picture from partially down in the canyon.
Jacob's dad requested that we get our picture taken by someone else, and when someone offered to do it, we couldn't pass it up. Christina's wearing jeans because it was much cooler at the top of the canyon, and she didn't realized that she was going to be hiking when she got there.
Another view from partially down the canyon.
This sign was kinda funny, so Christina wanted a picture of herself trying to mimic it.
There's a lodge on this cliff, but you can't see it very well in the picture. You can stay at that lodge if you plan on being at the Grand Canyon for several days. The ticket you buy at the gate is good for a week, so there must be a reason.
Jacob, king of the mountain, er, canyon.
This was a weird squirrel we found while hiking down. It was soooooo noisy. It was standing on its hind legs and making this cheeping sound over and over again. But it was still kinda cute.
This was about how far we got down the mountain before we had to turn around; we just didn't have enough time. Christina told Jacob we could come back and try again, this time with proper supplies. The trip back up wasn't too bad, and it didn't take us as long as we thought it would. It actually took less time to go up then to go down, but that was mostly because Christina was leading and she was ready to eat lunch. If you know her, you know you don't get in the way of her and her meals.
It was a good trip, but it would have been nice to not be so rushed. There was much more to see, but we just didn't have time. It's only a day's trip away from us now, so maybe we'll make it back there soon. We'll see.
It amazed us how much the Grand Canyon looked like the pictures, but the pictures don't really give you any idea how vastly large it is.
We knew the canyon was made by the Colorado River, but we had some trouble seeing it. Here's the picture of the very tiny piece we did see.
More scenic views from the rim.
More from the rim.Jacob really wanted to go on a trail down into the Canyon, but we were not really prepared for such a trek. The map and newspaper they gave us at the entrance said that you need to make sure you have plenty of water and snacks for even a one hour trail, neither of which we had. They also warned that it could get up to 100+ degrees once you were down into the Canyon. Still, Jacob wanted to go. So we bought some liters of water and some snacks, and since we didn't have a backpack or bag to carry this stuff in, we bought a reuseable grocery bag, which Jacob carried on his shoulder...very woodmansy, huh? We didn't have too much time, since we still had to make it to Los Angeles that night, so we gave ourselves 1 hour to go down the trail and the approximately 2 hours to go back up.
Here's a picture from partially down in the canyon.
Jacob's dad requested that we get our picture taken by someone else, and when someone offered to do it, we couldn't pass it up. Christina's wearing jeans because it was much cooler at the top of the canyon, and she didn't realized that she was going to be hiking when she got there.
Another view from partially down the canyon.
This sign was kinda funny, so Christina wanted a picture of herself trying to mimic it.
There's a lodge on this cliff, but you can't see it very well in the picture. You can stay at that lodge if you plan on being at the Grand Canyon for several days. The ticket you buy at the gate is good for a week, so there must be a reason.
Jacob, king of the mountain, er, canyon.
This was a weird squirrel we found while hiking down. It was soooooo noisy. It was standing on its hind legs and making this cheeping sound over and over again. But it was still kinda cute.
This was about how far we got down the mountain before we had to turn around; we just didn't have enough time. Christina told Jacob we could come back and try again, this time with proper supplies. The trip back up wasn't too bad, and it didn't take us as long as we thought it would. It actually took less time to go up then to go down, but that was mostly because Christina was leading and she was ready to eat lunch. If you know her, you know you don't get in the way of her and her meals.It was a good trip, but it would have been nice to not be so rushed. There was much more to see, but we just didn't have time. It's only a day's trip away from us now, so maybe we'll make it back there soon. We'll see.
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