"He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man."
- Chairman Mao Zedong

20 Jan 08

China was worth the wait. Our 20 day winter vacation to Shanghai, Suzhou, Yangtze River, Guilin, Yangshuo, Xian, Lhasa, and Beijing was fantastic…so much so that the trip solidified our desire to make Beijing our base of operations for a year or two. In fact, we’ve already scoped out our future school, neighborhood and city layout. You better believe we are already counting down the days till we call Beijing our new home!

Not much else going on in this neck of the woods. Drop us a line to say hey…we always love hearing from fellow travelers.

Ciao,

B&R

Future Goals:

(Relatively) Near Term Trips

Jul 08 - Pakistan KKH

Dec 08 – Ecuador Xmas & New Years bash!

Extended Travel

St. Petersburg to Beijing -This trip will celebrate our escape from Iraq! And serve as the catalyst for starting our new adventure of living in China for a few years

Beijing to Cairo Extravaganza. Countries to visit will include:
-China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, & Egypt

Morocco to Egypt. Countries to visit will include:
-Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, DRC, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, & Egypt

Language Study

Spend at least a year living and studying in:

Beijing, China: Asia fascinates us. We have longed to dream in Chinese and figure that intensive studies in Beijing should help us reach that goal.

Cairo, Egypt: We love the Middle East. Yemen’s CALES & SIAL Arabic language centers lured us, but after careful consideration, we decided that Cairo would allow us better flexibility and opportunities to travel (Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, etc) as well as quick getaways to the Red Sea for some scuba diving.

Saigon, Vietnam: We adore Vietnam and its people. Becky is definitely biased when she claims it’s her favorite Asian country (she is half-Vietnamese!). But we cannot wait to live and study here for a year. Once we gain a basic conversational level, we plan to work with disadvantaged teenagers and Agent Orange victims at the An Binh Shelter. Read more about the project here: http://www.travel-to-teach.org/vietnam/saigon.html

Cuenca, Ecuador: What a gorgeous city to base ourselves! We plan to become fluent in Spanish and backpack for at least 2 years around Central and South America. Who knows…maybe your paths will cross with these gringos along some remote trail one of these days.

About Us:

Find out more about us here.

Misc:

Here is a list of countries that we have visited. Many of these countries were visited prior to us going digital. So, until we revisit them or scan old photos you will have to explore them yourselves! :) We hope to expand this list as the years go by (and revisit our fav's).