We got back from Rotorua yesterday! It was a pretty small city but we packed a lot in. We went to the Agrodom and got to see a sheep show. Sounds kind of boring, but it was actually really cool. They sheared the sheep and demonstrated sheep dog herding and all sorts of other things. Then some of the group went zorbing, which is basically getting inside a huge beach ball and rolling down a hill. It was really funny to watch!

First of all, thank you all for your wonderful comments and words of inspiration. It is the attention that you have all paid writing that keeps me coming back.

We have been on a bit of an internet hiatus as we spent the last three nights in an Anglican Monastary in Grahamstown (home of Rhodes U). We spent little time with the Monks(brothers) during our stay but fortunately had opportunity to sit out with them under the Southern Hemisphere stars and watch the comet (name escapes me).

We're in Auckland right now. It is very fun.

I am going bungy jumping tomorrow. I am very excited.

Yesterday we saw a Maori celebration and ate a lot of food and saw some Maori dancing including the infamous HAKA!

Today we traveled to the Queens home of Roy Gussow, the most famous artist I’ve ever met. He is nearly 89 years old and still working. Some of these pictures are from his studio. Gussow’s home, garden, and studio are filled with maquettes of sculptures, tools, bits of trees and shells, and artifacts. It was fascinating to see the process of how he “draws” a project out using cardboard and wood.

It was our first full day in Beijing and we wasted no time to cut to the heart of the capital. Our tour guide, Raymond, took us to the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City (pretty damn epic sounding). As we crept through the massive structure that was once the home of Ming and Qing dynasty emperors, I heard Raymond mention that the Forbidden City had exactly 9999 rooms. Apparently, the pronunciation of the number nine in Chinese is very close to "eternity" or something like that and it was the emperors number, no one else could use it.

The last time I blogged we were only four days into the trip and now it's about four days until we leave. Fortunately, I've done and seen almost everything I wanted to, but there's still plenty to do in the next few days.

Daily life for the average person here seems very rushed, kind of like it is for working people in the US (they call it USA or America) but there is a little more imperativeness to it. We have people begging in the US but here you wonder if some of these people will make it through the winter. We have homeless shelters and food banks. Here I don't know of anything like that, it's more of a fend for yourself attitude. This attitude is aggressive but without the confrontative nature we Americans add to it.

I got tickets to a better play, I hope. It was pretty easy and so I'm a little nervous. Except I took the wrong subway getting there... but I was amazing at transfering to the right one. There was this awesome tunnel over to my transfer. Vendors and commuters and tourists all mingling. There was a stretch of the tunnel with prophetic signs indicating Christ's comming and impending wrath. If I hadn't been nervous about getting to the box office I totally would have photographed for a while.

The group has been in Greece now since Saturday evening. The weather was, well, simply amazing. It has been between 65 and 70 degrees each day with the same promised during the remainder of our stay. It was like a shot of endorphins getting off the plane from Berlin. For all the heaviness of Berlin, you feel the energy of Greece, especially Athens, immediately when you set feet on the ground here. It’s no understatement to say that we have all been thrilled so far.

We have been in Beijing now for 4 days. We have seen quite a bit, from the Forbidden City to the Opera. Beijing certainly has more people than Chengdu. However, Beijing doesn't seem to be as in a hurry. You don't here the honking horns constantly, you don't see the taxis weaving in and out of traffic as fast as they can just to get to the next destination, and we certainly aren't starred at as much. But what we do see is the the great desire to sell things, especially to the foriegners. As soon as you walk into a place, it's look here, buy this, etc.