born to run?

last weekend jonathan and i (along with a bunch of our friends) completed the Ragner Relay (http://www.ragnarrelaydc.com/). it was a 183 mile relay race from cumberland, md through the heart of washington, dc and ending in the booming metropolis of crystal city (a section of arlington, va). i am happy to report that our team placed 47th out of 109 teams...and we beat the all girl team the dirty dozen (not that i care, but some of our teammates did....).

now, for those of you who know me, you know i'm not much of a runner. ok, you know i'm NOT a runner. HOWEVER, i am also happy to report that i reached my 2 goals: RUNNING (not walking) the whole time during my 3 legs and FINISHING all 3 runs!

even though i was more of a tortise than a hare, it was a great challenge physically and mentally and hygenically -- think no shower, no sleep, riding in a van or running for a 24 hour period!

i must give mad props to my dear husband, jonathan, for cheering me on to the finish. my last run came right at one of the most humid parts of the day. i was tired, it was hot, my legs were heavy, and my asthma was kicking in. but just at the right moment our race van leap-frogged me and there was jonathan jumping out of the van like a knight in shining armor brandishing my inhaler and a water bottle! i don't usually like it when people cheer me on because it makes me feel like i'm not doing well, but seeing jonathan and receiving his encouragement (and the albuterol) made such a difference. i am sure that i was able to finish because he (and others) were encouraging me. now how is that for a nice picture of community and friendship?

speaking of pictures....here are some more highlights from race day....

201 great questions

this past weekend, jonathan and i took a trip to NYC. we saw the yankees play (poorly), we went to bryant park to glimpse a bit o' fashion, and we dined at the new family restaurant owned and operated by jonathan's cousin called Red Egg (which i HIGHLY reccommend if you are in NYC/Chinatown not far from Little Italy). if you don't trust me, read this review. when we weren't traipsing around the city, we stayed in jonathan's childhood home. jonathan's parents have quite a collection of books and i had the opportunity to browse their shelves. i concentrated on the one's that weren't in chinese (my chinese is REALLY bad), and of these, one in particular jumped out at me.

the book is called 201 great questions and the author is jerry d. jones. you can check it out here.

the cover let's you know it was published in the '80's. the book is not really a surprise - it has 201 questions in it (i have yet to determine if they are all "great" as we only made it to question 4. the questions are to spur conversation, get to know people better, and discuss your ideas about interesting topics. jonathan said we could take it for the car ride home, and when jonathan and i got stuck on question 4, i immediately thought it would be interesting to pose this question to my friends/family/whoever else is reading via this blog....soooo....here we go!!!

Question: If God put you completely in charge of creating heaven, what would it be like?

i'd like to hear/read some of your responses and then i'll post my own. not fair? well, ok. here's what i think.

DISCLAIMER: when i thought about this question i had to figure out if my heaven would be different than REAL heaven. i believe there is a REAL heaven with a REAL God. i don't know much about real heaven, but i know some about REAL God who created real heaven, hence my answer below.

ANSWER:
my heaven would essentially be a perfect earth. to be clear, it would not be earth as we know it now. my heaven would be earth without sin, suffering, selfishness, and separation from God. my heaven would be a place that is perfect, without suffering, each person serving and loving each other, and united together to glorify God.

on the surface that might sound kind of impossible but it's my heaven so it's possible. this idea might also sound kind of boring, but here's where it could be exciting! upon entry into my heaven, each person would learn why they were created and what made them unique - they would learn their purpose. each person would be FULLY KNOWN. i don't know about you but i wish i could be fully known right now and not have to wait until heaven. not having to explain and wonder and think so much. that sounds really nice.

after that, in my heaven you would get a nice one-on-one with God. you know, a time to reflect on your life, relive the highlights where maybe there would be some embarrassing video footage of you in coke-bottle glasses and a bad perm (hypothetical). and you could ask all of those questions for God you have compiled over a lifetime.... i'm starting a list so i don't forget. here's my top 10 so far:

1. cockroaches....WHY?
2. where exactly IS the garden of eden? the ark of the covenant?
3. how old are you? <-- hahaha trick question! 4. what was the most fun non-human thing you created? 5. what's the funniest joke you ever heard? 6. how big is space exactly? 7. what is stonehenge anyway? 8. of all the actors that have played you over eternity, which one was your favorite? 9. bugs in general....WHY? 10.

ok so after the question/answer session (assuming God is patient enough with me), is when the seemingly scary part would come where we would go over all of my mistakes, but WAIT! we don't do that!!! because jesus died on the cross for my sins and i accepted him into my life as my lord and savior i have a clean slate. it's as if i had to pay a fine for my mistakes/imperfections to enter into heaven, but jesus already picked up my tab so i look perfect and i'm free to go in! so now i get to experience heaven in all it's glory and not be separated from God at all. this is the part that would be overwhelming because you would realize that you are FULLY KNOWN and FULLY LOVED! plagerism fully intended here because i think this is really where my heaven and real heaven are pretty spot on the same. let's ponder that, shall we?.......

finally, my heaven would be FULL OF BEAUTY. i love the natural earth and being outdoors. i remember my first experience with God was in a summer camp where i looked around at nature and thought "this is pretty, therefore God loves me." so in my heaven everywhere you look would be beautiful and amazing. think of the best sunset, the calmest beach, the most magnificant mountain with breathtaking views - and then multiply it by an imaginary number like eleventy kagillion and that's how beautiful my heaven would be. there would be perfect weather, the purest water, the clearest skies, the most healthy and plentiful animals (except bugs), and no suffering - the potential of the natural earth would be fully realized - everything in perfect equilibrium.

so what do we DO in my heaven? well, for a looooong time we are so overwhelmed by being fully known, fully loved, and being in a place full of beauty we just praise God. we use whatever God has purposed us to be to praise him. the artist paints, the singer belts 'em out, the speaker inspires, the thinker meditates, the cook makes amazing dinners. every person fully known, completely loved realizing their fullest potential in the most beautiful of spaces.

what do you think? is your heaven like mine? different? do you think there is a REAL heaven? let me know your thoughts....

occupational hazards

so it's after 1am est, and i am unable to sleep. as i was lying in bed, i began to think that my insomnia is a bit of an occupational hazard. it's the consequence of constantly flip-flopping from days to nights and from weekdays to weekends...it can really undo one's personal clock. i once heard it said that leonardo da vinci would only sleep for 3-4 hours at a time (no wonder he was so productive!), so maybe that worked to his advantage....but for me, the shift change doesn't work as well. but it did get me thinking...as a nurse, i have a lot of occupational hazards...it would seem that i have a quite dangerous job...besides insomnia, here consider the following bad things that could happen to me on the job:

1. insomnia
2. a needlestick - esp. from a patient that has HepC or HIV
3. getting goo'd by bodily fluids (pee, puke, poop, snot, blood, plasma, brain matter, etc.)
4. accidentally killing someone via a medication error
5. being attacked by a patient
6. varicose veins from walking 12 hours straight
7. dehydration from being so busy that i can't take a break
8. injury to arms, shoulders, back from lifting, pushing, pulling, etc.
9. dehydration --> fainting --> hitting head on hard surface --> subdural hematoma (a type of brain bleed...ok that one is a long shot but it could happen)
10. getting sick

the list would probably be longer if i was more awake and alert, but it did remind me that there are worse jobs out there than mine. on a recent trip to west Africa - a country i'll call MCO - we went to a job site where they tan leather. early on in the process they place the animal skins in a vat of pigeon poo (yes, pigeon poo) to separate the hair fibers from the animal skins. as we were touring this rather odoriferous job site, i noticed that there was a man standing in the pigeon poo. after questioning our barely-English-speaking guide in a combination of french and English, i discovered that this mans job entails standing in the pigeon poo all day swishing and agitating the poo under and over the animal skins. this man apparently stands in the poo for 8-10 hours a day subjecting himself to numerous health hazards in shorts and thin rubber boots so that we can all have nice leather handbags and footstools and wallets.

i've heard that there is a book called "50 jobs worse than yours" or something like that. i wonder what is in it. maybe nurse is on the list, maybe not. maybe #1 is a moroccan poo swisher. that being said, i am don't mind anymore that i have the opportunities to expose myself to the potential hazards of my workplace - insomnia, brain matter, psychotic patients, and the whole lot. i don't mind because maybe it will sharpen my skills enough to help the moroccan poo swisher when he gets sick.

so what do you think? is my job more dangerous than yours? if not, what "occupational hazards" plague you in your workplace? let me know....i need something to read when i'm not sleeping

why write?

"you need to start a blog," said our friend brad one night during a marathon game of mexican train dominos. (yes, i play dominos and no, i'm not a dork. focus, people!). my immediate response to brad's statement was something to the effect of "no, i don't need to start a blog" or "blogs are stupid." but brad's question left me wondering....

so here i am putting my blogging insecurities aside and picking up our blog from where we left it after our travels abroad. when we were travelling, i felt as if we HAD something to say. it was writing with a purpose. we were going to exotic places and living out new experiences. we had legitimate things to write about, and it kept our family and friends up to date on what we were up to and informed them that we weren't dead (that's for you, mom). but writing just to...write? that sounds like something they made us do in high school english class (note: i really DID like high school english class). so why should i entertain brad's idea. he is my friend, but he is often wrong. so all of these musings begs the question "why write?" and TADA! my first blog topic is born.

why write? here's a quick list of thoughts:
1. to communicate
2. to share knowledge
3. to share an idea or opinion
4. to be creative (writing as art form)
5. to remember things (or in my case i write so i won't forget things)
6. to store information (writing as function)

"Daniel Boorstin, the former librarian of Congress, used to rise at 5 each morning and write for two hours before going into the office. "I write to discover what I think," he explained. "After all, the bars aren't open that early." Mr. Boorstin's morning sessions were even more valuable than he realized. Writing not only clarifies what you already know; it is also an astonishingly effective way to learn something new."*

huh. writing to discover. to organize. to clarify. to learn. to think. i like all of those things. so here i am, writing. my english teachers/professors would be so proud! so this blog is for you, dear friend and reader, but more importantly, this blog is a little bit for me -- to discover, organize, clarify, communicate, share, create, remember, learn and think.

(and just for the record, mr. boorstin, the bars ARE open at 5 in the morning...but only if you're in the right city.)

*Daniel Boorstin quote from:
Students Discover Economics in Its Natural State by ROBERT H. FRANK
NYT, September 29, 2005

epilogue

it's crazy to think that we've been back a couple of weeks already. our transition home was pretty hectic with unpacking, a friend's wedding, jet lag, and the start of my new job. we continue to reflect on a lot of the things we saw and experienced. i think that we will try to adapt some of the things that we learned on our trip into our life in the states as much as we can, however, there are some things that, unfortunately, just don't translate. how can we slow down and enjoy "la dolce vita" when things in dc are so busy? how can we walk everywhere when there are no sidewalks? and where the HECK can i get a decent cup of coffee and a non-greasy croissant?

so times are bittersweet in the shiu household. our trip has made us view life here through a different lens. we were suprised when we realized that we miss so many of the european traditions that we had grown accusomed to. in the same way, it has been sweet to return to the familiar - home, henry, friends, church, and neighbors.

i have a 2 year contract at my new job, so we know that we will be in this area for at least that much time....but after that, who knows? i expect that this won't be the final resting place for the shius. there is still so much more to see! now if i could just find a good cup of coffee......

la vie en rose

bonjour from paris...our last stop on this adventure of a lifetime! paris is a beautiful city, and it has been bittersweet to wrap up our time here. interestingly enough, it has been raining about every day since we arrived....i think that europe is sad that we are leaving it! enough melancholy. let me catch you up on what we have been up to since our arrival.....

we are staying in the rue cler neighborhood on the rive gauche. it's a sweet little neighborhood with views of the eiffel tower peeking out from each street. since we are staying near the eiffel tower we have walked to the eiffel tower a lot. we have also spent some time just sitting in parks. these have been some of my favorite times. we've also done a bit of sightseeing of course: Notre Dame during mass, walking over the Pont Neuf into the Ile St. Louis, wandering through the Louvre, taking a night cruise on the Seine River, drinking lots of coffee and attempting to become "regulars" at a cafe....the list goes on. i won't bore you with all the details, but i will tell 2 funny stories before i go.....

story 1: this story takes place during one of my favorite times in a park. jonathan and i were in between things to do so we thought we would kill some time in a park. we went in, sat on a bench, and decided to watch the world go by. we watched some people walking through. we watched a black cat. we remarked at how cats always seem to go straight to jonathan who is highly allergic to cats. we remarked that the black cat that we were watching was walking right to jonathan. we started laughing. we started laughing harder when the cat walked up to jonathan's shoe. jonathan sat there with his arms crossed and tried to give the cat the evil eye. it backfired. the cat jumped up on the bench beside jonathan. i began searching my bag for tissues because i was laughing and crying. and then i turned around and the cat was on jonathan's lap. have you ever had one of those belly laughs that make you feel like you just took an hour abs class? well, yeah, that's how hard i laughed. the cat was on his lap for about 20 minutes until he got up. don't worry - we have pictures.

side note: i think that i know why they don't have coffee to go in europe. coffee is a part of life and life is something that you don't just rush through. for this reason i think that this is why the french excel at many things: fashion, cheese, wine, coffee, and cooking to name a few. these things are not to be done just to get it done, they are things to work on, enjoy, and perfect. just my little observation. and if you haven't noticed i really like paris. now onto story 2.....

story 2 doesn't involve a cat, but it does involve someting less intelligent than a cat. story 2: on a recommendation from my best friend and IU pal, Liza, we visited the Orsay Museum. the Orsay showcases art from pre-Impressionism to contemporary art. it's a great museum and much more managable than the Louvre so go if you get a chance. now i'm not a fan of impressionism, in fact, i think that it is a bit overdone. nevertheless, after spending so much time in this museum it was growing on me so jonathan and i stayed a while and decided to explore some of the other exhibits. my story starts while we were walking through an interesting exhibit on furniture and decorative arts from the art nouveau period. i was admiring a lovely wooden wardrobe with beautiful inlaid metalwork in the shape of leaves. the "leaves" were in the wood as well as springing out of the wood making it look almost organic. it was lovely. apparently the man beside us also thought it was lovely because he walked straight up to the wardrobe, past the roped off section and started boinging the metal leaves! i'm not joking! it was amazing that they didn't disengage from the wood and fall off. why did this retard do this? i don't know. to make sure that they were metal i guess??? it was unbelievable. i had to tell him that you aren't supposed to TOUCH the art, only to LOOK at it. he looked me up and down like i was the crazy one and then moved on to the next room. i couldn't follow him. it was unreal. who are these people!?!?!

despite crazy-art-molester-guy we have had a nice time in paris. paris is a great city. but paris is a city and yet it is not. maybe it's all the tree lined streets. maybe it feels smaller because everything shuts down from noon until threeish for lunch. maybe it feels more like home because there are tons of parks, dogs walk off leash following their master, people sit in long lines along the sidewalk sipping their coffee and watching the world go by. the metro here is exceptionally clean, and, if you're lucky, your car will have someone playing "la vie en rose" on the accordian or the violin. i know that it's probably something cheesy that they do for the tourists, but i don't think i would ever get sick of it.

actually, we have had a nice time everywhere. each place has been fun to explore and get to know. each place has helped us to better know ourselves. and we have learned so much about each other on this trip as well. we've talked about what we love (the language, the history, the food); we've talked about what we will miss (the walking, the coffee. the adventure); we've talked about what we're looking forward to when we get home (henry, my closet, peanut butter.....and seeing friends and family of course!). still, i'm in denial that we leave tomorrow. i haven't told jonathan yet, but i might have to fake a GI illness so that we "accidentally" miss our flight (shhhhhhhh). let the fake stomach gurgling begin!......until then.....a bientot......and thanks for following along with us.
sara(&jonathan)

Expecto Patronum!

It has been a while since you all last heard from me. Sara's been doing the heavy lifting on the posts lately, but for those of you who were concerned about my absence, Sara has not left me behind in some small town in Italy.... I am in fact still a part of this trip.

So... after our few days in Taize, we left for a day and a half in Beaune. Beaune is in the Burgandy region of France, famous for its wines, Dijon mustard, and some regional dishes. Once again God provided us with the perfect little place for our time in town. One day ahead we called a number of different places that did not have rooms available, but I think both Sara and I were glad that we ended up where we did. For starters, as we pulled up to the little bed and breakfast, we were greeted by Oscar, the owners' giant black lab. Like I said, Oscar is one big dog, with a HUGE noggin. He was, however, friendly and even hung out with us as we sat outside and read our various installments of the Harry Potter series that we were working on.

ASIDE: Our friend Megan gave us a copy of the first Harry Potter book for trip, as Sara had not read any of the books and wasn't sure what the big deal was. Well... she's a believer now. We have had to find bookstores that sell English books all across Europe so that we could buy each of the books in the series as Sara finished the previous book.

So... back to Beaune. It was another quaint town with a lot of old stone buildings, narrow streets, and a lot of little shops and cafe's. A perfect place to kick back and relax a little bit before hitting up our last stop in Paris. The first night we sampled some of the regional specialties for dinner... I had beef bourguinon (beef simmered for hours in red wine with mushrooms and onions) and Sara had the coq au vin (chicken stewed in red wine). Both of our tummies were very happy after dinner. I have to admit, that my tummy has been happy very often throughout our trip. I think my bike trip across America a few years ago made me realize how much I appreciate food, and this trip has only confirmed those findings.

Our one full day in Beune was spent perusing the various shops. Sara found a nice tea set which we purchased. In the late afternoon, we decided to sample some of the wine the region is so famous for, so we went to a wine bar for a pre-dinner drink. I had no idea about anything they offered, but just chose a white wine because of the name. Well... the owner could not have supported my decision any more enthusiastically. He gushed about what a great little wine it was. I freely admit that I know nothing about wine, but apparently I have a spidey sense about these things.

After the wine bar, we headed back to our room to rest a little while before dinner. Well... Sara got to 'the point of no return' in the final Harry Potter book and had to finish it off that evening. Sara gets emotional sometimes, and after finishing the book, she was a puffy mess. The same thing had happened after she finished the previous book. After she had a good cry, she informed me that she was too emotionally drained to go out, so she sent me out into the rain in search of dinner for us. Being a good hunter gatherer, I wisely chose a Chinese restaurant just down the street from our hotel. Beyond hello, good-bye, and thank you... i'm pretty lost when it comes to French. But with my newly rediscovered Chinese language skills, I was able to get dinner ordered without incident. We enjoyed the delicious food and called it a night.

Arriving in Paris... sadness... we had to say a tearful goodbye to our faithful guide 'Penny' (our GPS) and 'Flash' (our car and home for the last six weeks). Sara is working on our Paris update as I write this, so I'll let her catch you up on the rest of our Paris stay.