I'm starting to realize how much more of a winter project this blog is for me. IN the winter, I'm generally bored from continually staying inside and bummed about not seeing the sun. Also, just about every winter I go through a funk where I forget that I'm just upset because it's thirty below outside and I only get to see the sun through windows, and decide that there's some normal part of my life that needs to change and I'll be as happy as I am when I'm swimming outside in the summer. This winter, my funk produced this blog. While it's certainly still a good project, I'm noticing that my dedication to having adventures is dulled significantly when I can substitute an evening of grilling and swimming in the pool, or trying to see if my foot has healed enough to take the dog for a walk, or really anything else outside. And for the most part, that is what I've been doing for the last 2 weeks--really, the last two months. I've stopped buying groceries for the week, because if it's a nice week most of them just sit there as I make emergency trips to the store for brats or steaks and corn or some other new grilling food. (Speaking of which--I found this blog this week, which I'm highly enjoying and also has a link to 101 ideas for grilling. Good, easy ideas. Yum.)
This week I've been doing ok for little experiments--I made a new vegetarian recipe that turned out great and finally finished a book I've had out from the library for a few months now. (I'll post that tomorrow--hopefully breaking things up will keep me going!)
I got Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron probably 6 weeks to 2 months ago from the library, and it has really taken me that long to finish it. The book is extremely well written and I think it has a fantastic premise--the author begins in China and follows the old silk road back to Antioch. He is entirely by himself, does not speak the language of every country he passes through (although he does speak both Mandarin and Russian, which get him by in quite a lot of countries) doesn't have a plan beyond which cities he intends to stop in, and even spends a decent amount of the way hitchhiking. It's the sort of adventure that is great to read about because I know I could never do it, especially through the territory he covers--through China and Mongolia, perhaps, but he also moves through Afghanistan and Iran.
This book has a well-written travel story, showing you not only the sights that the author sees but the people he speaks to and the way they look at the world. Although we are entangled in so may of the countries he travels to, this book shows me how little I really knew about the history and the way people think in many of these countries. For so much of it, we only see the propaganda put out by one government or another (or by immigrants who have chosen to leave that country, and so probably have very different viewpoints than those who chose to stay), and never really get the opportunity to speak to an Iranian or an Afghani who chooses to stay in their country. My biggest issue with this book was probably my interest level. Depending on the chapter and my level of interest in where the author was, I either couldn't put the book down or I'd put it down for a week or two at a time. I'm glad I read the book, even the parts that interested me less, but it's a book that you might need some time to go through unless you're interested in everywhere between China and Turkey.
Unfortunately, after taking so long to finish this book I now have a backlog of requests that have come in that the library to sift through. So, expect quite a few more book posts coming up!
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