The books of 2010

After keeping track of what I read in 2008, I didn’t meet my goal in 2009 to read, on average, a book a week.  The reason behind the goal wasn’t for the sake of reading 52 books, but because I wanted to establish a regular habit of reading instead of going through spurts of books.  I love to read and it’s one of the best ways that I can unwind and relax, so I think it’s healthy to set aside some time every night to get lost in a book.  I got through a lot of pages in 2010, but I still didn’t quite make it to 52.

So just like the past couple years, here is what I read in 2010.  And just like last year…

bold = read it!  it’s good.
normal = neutral.  neither highly recommended nor disliked.
strikethrough = bad.  don’t bother.

1. The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
2. The Glass Castle (Jeannette Wells)

The Christmas dragon

I love the holidays.  The smells, the decorations, the pretty sweaters and scarves, the music, the foods, the parties.  I’m all for it and I’m excited to celebrate it all on American soil this year.

The past few years of holidays have been interesting for me.  In many respects, the cultural trappings that accompany Thanksgiving and Christmas (and Easter, too) were completely divorced from the meaning of the holiday.  Living in a country that doesn’t celebrate these holidays is downright eerie when there’s no caroling or evergreen to be found during “the most wonderful time of the year.”  Well, aside from the plentiful and tacky Santas everywhere, which only served to increase my awareness that I was not home for the holidays.  A small part of it was very special because I got to recreate and celebrate my own traditions apart from my family, since I was living on my own.  But there’s also a wonderful feeling of comfort that comes from participating

Growing roots

When I first moved back to north Jersey, I wanted to run right back out.  It’s been a while since this was my permanent home and I had never lived here as an adult.  Culturally, it’s an interesting and difficult place.  The shadow of New York City is busy and lost and it has great income disparity.  I’ve watched many families move here just to move out because it’s a hard place to learn to love if you didn’t grown up here; it’s so distinct from any other area of the US I’ve seen.  I entertained thoughts of going back to Ohio, which in comparison to this place is warm and comfortable and nice and I could afford to live on my own.  I thought about going back to China, and I started researching ways to do that because I felt guilty

I was a dirty backpacker for five weeks

Three girlfriends and I went on the adventure of a lifetime during the Chinese New Year holiday of 2009 – backpacking through six countries.  Starting in southern China, we ended up in Singapore.  I will never forget this often-forgotten area of the world that I was privileged to see first-hand: land riddled with UXO from the Vietnam war, abject poverty, the breathtaking Mekong River delta, widespread hopelessness of Cambodia, the Indian ocean and Indian food, fear-driven spirit worship, idols of gold, black abayas, muezzin call to prayer five times a day, the 4th tallest building in the world, tea plantations at an altitude of 6000 feet, the world’s oldest rain forest, the smell of durian, and all the other dirty backpackers we met along the way with their own stories.

I finally got the rest of my pictures online this week, so here they are if you want to check them out.

• Kunming, China -> Luang Prabang, Laos
  We flew from Beijing to Kunming, in southern China. We spent a night there, then got on an overnight bus to Mengla, which is close to the Laos border,

Donald Miller on what girls are looking for in a guy

And they also like mystery.  But it’s not really mystery that they like, it’s strength.  Girls don’t want you calling them all the time.  They don’t want to be your rescuer.  If you call them all the time or let them know you are thinking about them all the time, you are going to turn them off.  The truth is, you should already have a full life you are invested in, and you should invite them into that life.  My friend John Eldredge says that you should be on an adventure, and you should invite them into that adventure.  A girl doesn’t really want you to stare into her eyes like a lovesick puppy (at least not for long); she wants you to put your arms around her and stare into the horizon, to the place you are going to take her.

– Father Fiction, page 125

I was in a relationship

things unseen

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slightly momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

I’ve returned from three years in East Asia, and now I’m settling back home, figuring out this “new life,” and enjoying the benefits of a developed nation – running hot water, a soft bed, my car, the library,

new beginnings

From time to time I find myself with the desire to write about something, but my other site is specific to the work I was doing overseas.  With the desire to write from time to time apart from those experiences (“off the record,” if you will), welcome to the birth of my new blog.

Were you wondering what “zhulik” is or how in the world to pronounce it?  朱丽, Zhu Li, is my Chinese name.  It sounds very similar to my English name – the “zh”is pronounced like a j.  So we have ZhuLiK… the “k” is simply the middle initial of my given name.