During my last days of the semester in Btown, I had a marvelous time finishing up tons of huge papers and exams, which is nothing new or interesting. Thankfully I finished well, and didn't get sick or fall apart at the very end.
One of the best events was the Christmas party Cindy and I hosted for some of our closest international students friends. We baked gingerbread cookies from scratch and even played "Christmas Bingo," which Cindy and I designed quite cleverly. It was refreshing to be laughing and baking and talking with our friends who don't really know much about the holiday.
In that last week our Chinese study of the Word also completed discussing "Who is Jesus?" It was a really challenging Bible study, and I just pray that everyone continues to have open hearts and minds!
I returned back home to Topeka a few days ago, and then pretty much immediately went to central Kansas to visit a friend. It's like an entirely different culture there! Topeka does not seem to be representative of the state. We did some fun, crazy activities, like visiting one of the "8 Wonders of Kansas"--the Underground Salt Museum and seeing the world's longest grain elevator (.5 miles) in Hutchinson. There seemed to be a barn or grain elevator every direction you turned.
The Salt Museum was probably the most exciting. It is part of a salt mine that has been in operation since the 1920s, and is still functioning! Apparently they have enough salt down there to mine for another 25,000 years... We had to wear hard hats, and they gave us air canisters to wear on our hips, in case there is a fire or carbon monoxide is released down there. And "down there" was 650 feet below the ground, or about 65 stories. We got into a freight elevator and slowly descended down the shaft, which took about 2 minutes in total pitch black darkness. The darkness was so profound that I had to close my eyes.
Once we got out of the lift, it was quite well-lit in the mine, which was miles long and wide. It was sort of like a miniature city down there. Much of what enters the mine never leaves. For example, we could see rusty vehicles and trash from the 1950s on the ground, which is very well preserved in the environment. Other things are also well preserved there. A storage company has an underground vault there to protect documents and artifacts from disasters. We could see tons of cases of films, which Hollywood companies had sent there to protect forever. You could also see lots of movie costumes, which were also preserved underground.
After about 3 hours wandering around, my mouth could start tasting the salt in the air. It was a really neat experience, but I was so thankful when we got above ground and stood out literally on the prairie. The Kansas sky, sunshine, and miles of flat, gold-colored land stretched out before us was one of the most beautiful sights in the world I think!
Now I've returned north to Topeka, the state capital. After spending the weekend a good 200 miles away, you could start of understand why a lot of Kansans feel disconnected with the capital. The people in much of the rest of the state are extremely independent. Most of the economy is tied to agriculture. And I think the people have to also be resilient to live out there in the middle of nowhere, on the wild, wind-swept prairie, which seems bigger than the ocean!
It's rather nice to be back in civilization, but I know I also need to keep busy the next couple of weeks. It's been raining a lot today, which I don't remember happening that much here. For example, when I got home, I shook off my umbrella and realized I didn't know where to put it. Where have I put my wet umbrella in the past? I recall rarely using an umbrella, especially since if it did rain here, it was normally during crazy thunderstorms that swept through at night. After all those thoughts went through my mind, I decided on the garage as a good resting place for my umbrella. It's nice to be home!
1 comment:
awesomeeee!! :) i especially loveeeee the last picture, sooo beautiful! you're beautiful! have a great time at home baby laura!!
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