more and more books

I stumbled into B&N over the weekend and decided to load up on a few more books and as such I walked out the store with:

• Between Georgia byt Joshilyn Jackson (Southern family drama)
• Empress by Shan Sa (story about the first and only female emperor during the Tang Dynasty)
• The Expected One by Kathleen Mc Gowan (DaVinci code like)
• Maximum City by Suketu Mehta (writer returns to Bombay and takes it pulse)
• Little Chapel on the River by G. Bounds (post 9/11 story told through the eyes of folks in an Irish pub)
• A short history of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (popular science, another re-read)

That should do it for first few months :)

With only two more nights left, I'm getting a littly antsy and anxious to get started but first I need to get packing, clearly my least favorite action in the whole journey.

Stay tuned,

Paul

Packing 101

What does one pack for such a long period? Sure, one has the usual stuff such as clothing, toiletries, shoes, etc,... but two piles are getting somewhat bigger than usual:
1) medical supplies
After visiting the company's medical center, I walked home with everything from IV bags , syringes, dust masks to Pepto-Bismol. No surprises here, lots of the medicines are for either respiratory illnesses (cough, sore throat, cold/flu) due to the prevalent air pollution or for stomach problems due to the ethnic food concerns. I really don't sweat too much about it and hope that common sense and practices will carry me a long way. The biggest lesson I've learned from all my travels is to go with the flow: delays happen, stomach upsets happen, rain and storms happen. You can get nervous and upset about it but that is just a waste of precious energy. I prefer now to let it happen and adjust accordingly. When you just let the frustration go, it seems something great is coming your way sooner rather than later.
2) books
I've been stockpiling books as I'm unsure what the supply of (uncensored) English books is in China. Although I've traveled to China quite a few times in the past, I don't recall seeing a lot of English bookstores. So I'm taking no chances and here is my initial list:

• Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales (the art and science of survival)
• The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil (artificial intelligence and beyond)
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (inspiring novel that I keep re-reading)
• Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (best novel I've read in years)
• The power of a Positive No by William Ury (how to book)
• Understanding Global Cultures by Martin Gannon (metaphorical journeys)
• Now Discover your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham (how to book)
• Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennett (describes the historical evolution of religion)
• Daily Devotional
• Several travel guides

That should keep me busy until mid September when I'm planned to be back in Cincy for a quick visit home.

Now back to packing the rest !

Paul

Count down

Only one week left before I'm heading East for a 6 months assignment in Beijing. To keep family and friends abreast of my adventures, I decided to start a blog. My goal is to have a few posting each weeks and plenty of pictures. I hope you will enjoy reading this blog and I invite you to post your comments.

Let the journey begin,
Paul