Shanghai'd in Chengdu

So after a crazy 18 or so hours beginning yesterday morning, a good friend and I are staying in a hostel in the southern city of Chengdu. It's fairly close to the Himalayas, and to the epicenter of the earthquake that killed tens of thousands of Chinese people in May. I can't go into all that we've done in the past 36 hours, but suffice it to say that we didn't sleep where we thought we would last night because of pressure from local authorities. Yesterday was definitely one of the craziest days of my life.

But now we're here, this friend and I, with a little time to kill in Chengdu. We're totally safe now, because there's no reason we wouldn't be allowed to sightsee in this tourist-oriented city. It's pretty nice, the weather isn't too oppressive, and we've actually had a really relaxing time. We checked into a really nice little Danish-run place called "The Loft," which has comfortable, clean rooms and showers, among other luxuries.

While we've been here, there has been plenty of stimulating conversation. I can't upload any photos because I don't have my own computer, but Adam and I have been talking about a lot of different stuff. After dinner at Pizza Hut tonight, we walked to the nearest Kentucky Fried Chicken (that's right, we've only seen a handful of other foreigners, but they have Pizza Hut and KFC) for one of their coffee sundaes. While we were there, Adam continued a line of questioning about marriage that began earlier in the trip. We got to talking about how men and women think and operate differently, and I said, "Take multi-tasking, for example. Dori says women are good at it and men can't do it. To which I say, 'Huh?'"

That's just a little snippet of what it's been like. Even though some potentially heavy stuff was going down around us, God has kept the mood light and our friendship has grown really close. What a blessing to spend such an intense time with a good, strong friend and Brother.

I'll write more later, but I just wanted to get a brief update up about my continued adventures in the Far East. Next week: Beijing and the Olympics. Then home on Saturday. The countdown begins.