The trip to the states

sorry guys, I posted this a few days ago and must have sent it to the draft bin, I can only blame jet lag

Well its been a bit full on for the last few days. I left Melbourne on Thursday morning, arrived before I left in Los Angeles, then jumped on a plane to New York and spent the weekend there with some friends. It was really good to see my friends in New York, and just to be in that city. I love New York, it is truly and overwhelming place.

I taught a jiu jitsu seminar there, and that went really well. They seemed to really enjoy the techniques I shared with them and we had a great time.

On Sunday I went into the city by myself to go to the Gugenheim museum. They were having a pollock exhibition and I thought I would go check it out. Man was that harder than I thought, it was the day of the Puerto Rican pride parade, and it took me an hour to push through the crowd for four blocks to get to the museum. But it was great to see the exhibit, it was all works on paper, and there were some really neat paintings.

Monday I flew back to California to join my wife and kids. Raquel and I stayed with our friends Dan and Staci in Long Beach and that was really nice. We have known them since they were in our youth group and they are now married and expecting a baby. It was a great time hanging out with them. We went to the beach on Tuesday, and just tried to bake all the jet lag off.

Yesterday we came back to the inland empire where we are staying with Raquel's bio father and family, and went out to eat with some close friends. It has been a great trip, just a bit tiring. It also feels a bit weird, part of me feels very normal and comfortable here with people I know for many years. But part of me feels very strongly that this is not my home anymore. I also really miss my friends back home, and the churches we are a part of.

I will try and post a bit more details over the next few days.

the rev