Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

No more poop stories, I promise. A few days ago, Carson and I continued on our Trans-Siberian journey throughout the cold Siberian plain. We arrived in the city of Irkutsk, 70 kilometers from Lake Baikal, the deepest fresh-water lake in the world (among many other claims), on the 10th of October. Similar to other Siberian towns, it was a rather drab city, with a few interesting museums.

However, en route to the area we began collecting an entourage of fellow travelers from all parts of the world. One night in a train car chatting, we had an Italian, three Australians, three Americans, a Canadian Pole, and a drunk Russian. In this part of the world, many of the travellers are traversing the same path, Trans-Siberian to Beijing, via Mongolia, down to Southeast Asia.

Well our entourage of world travellers stuck together a bit, hanging out in Irkutsk, visiting Lake Baikal, travelling to Mongolia, and soon enough onto Beijing. It is likely we will keep running into fellow travellers months down the road, in random parts of SE Asia.

Despite the blandness of Mongolia, one of the most recent highlights involved a Mongolian BBQ... interestingly enough, an American chain Mongolian BBQ entitled BDs Mongolian BBQ, one of which is situated near my home in Colorado. After debating for a minute whether visiting a American Mongolian BBQ in Mongolia was sacreligious or not, I was sold when a friend mentioned that it was all you could eat... for about $5.

Hours latered I nearly rolled out of the restaurant filled to the brim with steak, lamb, noodles, chicken, eggs, and a variety of other extremely healthy foods.

This evening we take an overnight train to the Mongolia border, where we catch a sleeper bus to Beijing to meet our friend Topher, who arrives this evening.

AND... after many long hours on trains speeding (slowly) throughout Siberia, I've formulated some of my goals for this trip. I don't want my adventures to focus solely on who I meet, what I see, and other fairly selfish motives like that. So here they are:

1. To grow in my independence and leadership will taking increased risks without being afraid of failure.

2. To seek God in the large and small through the diversity of the world, while growing in my passion and faith for God.

3. To move away from my stereotypes while growing intellectually by immersing myself in new languages, skills, experiences, and pursuits.

4. To truly live.