The Start of Summer!

At the moment, this is what our apartment looks like:
Not only is today our last day of school, it's also one of our last days in our apartment. We are feverishly packing all of our things so that we can store them until we return at the end of July. Emily and I have both been very busy at work, but SHE has been especially busy organizing and packing away our household. I don't know what I would do without her.

In addition to the stress of moving, we also have the logistical chore of finalizing all of our travel arrangements for this summer's trip. Most of you already know where we're going, but for those of you who don't (and for those of you whose geography skills are a bit rusty), I've made a map of our travel route for this summer. Each different segment (they alternate red and black so you can see how we'll be breaking the trip up) represents an independent leg of our journey. We will visit 7 countries in total, and will cover approximately 6,700 miles during the next 6 weeks.

Here's the quick version of our itinerary (for those of you who want it, we'll be emailing out specific dates(each bullet point represents a different stop where we will spend from 2-5 days):

• This sunday, we fly from HK to London, to spend 2 weeks with emily's family.
• Then, we take a ferry from England to Denmark (overnight), followed by a train to Copenhagen
• Fast train from Copenhagen to Stockholm
• Overnight ferry from Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia
• Overnight ferry from Tallinn to St. Petersburg, Russia
• Bullet train ("Sapsan" train) from St. Petersburg to Moscow
• 3 Day Train Ride on the Trans-Siberian (sleeper car) from Moscow to Irkutsk
• Overnight train (sleeper) to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
• Overnight train (sleeper) to Beijing, China
• Overnight train (sleeper) to Hong Kong (arriving at the end of july, just in time for work!)

It's the most complicated journey we've ever planned, and we're a little nervous about the details all working out. If you'd like to pray with us, we are praying for safety throughout the trip, and a smooth transition from one city to the next (catching trains, negotiating language barriers, getting visas, etc).

Right now we're off to a farewell lunch with our friends and colleagues from work. We wish you all a wonderful and restful summer!