I don’t have much to blog about these days, in a refreshingly God-given break from all the hubbub of life recently.  More and more newsworthy things keep happening to this country we’re in, and there really is only so much one teeny tiny person can do except pray.  So I do.  And have confidence that He is in the midst of it all.  Aslan is definitely on the move…

So today, Saturday, we are going down to a national park that’s just a bit south of our huge city.  I’m an urbanite, for sure, but being submerged in grass and trees and the beach sounds like just what the doctor ordered.  We’re looking forward to a family-fun, albeit napless, day.  Hopefully I’ll soon have photos to upload.

Yesterday Kabob gave me the treat of telling me to “get outta here” as soon as Chickpea was down for her nap.  I was overwhelmed with the possibilities in a city this size, so rather lamely, I did what I knew would be truly refreshing.  I brought a book and went to Starbucks.  Except I didn’t go to the Starbucks nearest us (which, by the way, they’re building another one – two bus stops away from the first one.  Looks like they’re employing their American philosophy of franchising here as well…).  I went to the one that’s a 45-minute bus ride, then a 20-minute metro ride, then a 5-minute taxi ride away.

See, I really didn’t intend to only go to Starbucks.  I’m a bit more creative than that – give me some credit here.  I went to this cool, very hip shopping district that I’ve wanted to explore since we arrived, and it just so happens to also have a Starbucks.  Except I was so engrossed in my book, and I was almost done, that I decided to plop down with a beverage and finish my book while I had the chance.  And because of that, it turns out I had time to peek into to only one store.  Oh well.  Another time.

My blood sugar dropped about halfway through my time at Starbucks, and I knew I needed some kind of pick-me-up before dinner.  The cheapest snack item was a blueberry muffin, so I ordered that, paid the total, and was given a blueberry muffin on a dessert plate with a knife and fork (not disposable) on a tray, ala Luby’s.  I obediently took my tray, and to not look like the Ugly American, I wielded the silverware.  Apparently long gone are my days of receiving my pastry in a brown paper bag and ripping off chunks at a time like the barbarian I was back in the States.

Well, I was going to share more about my uneventful day – like how I happened upon a beautifully enormous book fair with booth after booth of books I wish I could already read, how Kabob picked me up in a rental car that we were given a day early, how we ate dinner at this place that reminded us of the seedy, smoke-filled diners inside bowling alleys, and how Chickpea played on a playscape at 9:30 p.m. with about 20 other kids all running around like the sleep-deprived madmen I’m sure they are.

But that’ll have to wait for another post, I suppose.

Have a great weekend.

posted: 07 April 27
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