Shady Shenanigans

I was looking for an older blog post a few days ago, when I stumbled across a handful of posts in draft form, this one being one of the thirteen. In honor of the Lunar New Year in our adopted motherland and surrounding countries, I felt a good laugh at the inner workings of our uni by the sea so many years ago (or, merely just five) was needed.   

Corruption runs rampant in this country. While the powers that be extol the efforts being taken to stamp out such evil, those of us who walk among the mere peasants just laugh. It is so systematic, it will truly never be eradicated. It is the way of life and it is obvious. The true question is when will people or companies be caught and who will be the scapegoat.

A popular Chinese idiom is:  天高皇帝远, Tiān gāo, huángdì yuǎn which translates to heaven is high and the emperor is far away. Its original meaning was for justice, but has come to encompass any shady dealings of modern times. Zhanjiang is nearly the farthermost point from Beijing (the mere doorstep to the land of exile found on Hainan), and its dubious past is a public secret. Locals still grumble about how Zhanjiang was given the same amount of funds as Zhuhai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou to become Special Economic Zones, yet one of the four is definitely not economically developed and not very special.

We have seen a handful of "oops, you got caught" moments in our time here, starting with our first year as the foreign affairs office was quietly disbanded, demoted, and shamed. No one was fired, just shuffled to another position that may or may not have so much access to funds. We had suspicions that things were not all peachy in paradise this past October when the mayor did not appear at his annual gala, nor did our university president. Gradually, we noticed that edicts that had been handed down from high (with a shaking finger and a fist on the hip), were slowly being ignored. If the leaders do not say it, then it does not happen.

At the beginning of the spring term, we truly knew something was brewing on campus as new buses appeared, one of our students was expelled for cheating on an exam, and there was a lot of cleaning happening within the administration buildings. While new buses do not just appear during corruption investigations, a student (along with three others) being expelled for cheating on an exam does send a red flag. Students cheat on exams all the time; if the teacher does not post the answers on the screen while they take the exam, answers are scrawled on the desks and walls before the exam. (Truly, Chinese educational integrity is an entire blog post of its own making.) However, it was the cleaning that was the biggest sign of the times. Chinese do not throw anything away (proof by the apartment that houses all nasty mattresses, broken microwaves and washers, molded furniture, and other mysterious objects that have been there so long they are no longer recognizable.)

The repetitive thud in front of our apartment drew our attention one afternoon. We were shocked, even humored, by the amount of paperwork that was being dumped from the offices.

The clandestine spring cleaning was even led by someone who I envision would lead such a charge, complete with a comb over, a call when the deed was done, and a quick departure.

Granted, the cleaning of one building may not be what we think it means, but when all the administration buildings had a simultaneous itch to spring clean, things seemed a bit more believable.

The other form of cleaning has been the school trying to evict the shops that speckle our campus, from beneath dorms to the commercial center, which houses the bakeries and print shops. The school's stance is that the contract ran out, yet, for those of us possessing a bit of critical thinking, we are trying to understand how the contract does not fit the school term. Apparently the shop keepers have the same question. They even protested one day, closing their doors to prove their need. It worked...in a way. Students grumbled for there was no where to buy breakfast, the canteens could not handle the influx of students, and the situation looked bad on social media. Instead of immediate eviction, the school shut off the electricity and water.

A perfect solution in a very mature manner.

We believe their intention was for the shopkeepers to give up in the face of such horrid conditions. The shopkeepers bought generators...and they go across the street to get water from the landscaping water spout. Two months later, they are still open for business.

The shadiest of shenanigans involved our apartment smelling like rotting fish for an entire day. Early one morning we heard a commotion behind our apartment, which really is not that unusual. The smell that followed that commotion was unusual, as was the opened doors on the bottom floor of the museum. Six years and those doors had never been opened...until a humongous sea creature needed to be skinned, gutted and sold in parts.

As blood poured out the door and pooled on the concrete and the Chinese inside cackled with glee at their butchery, Zach and I so hoped that China would not take over the world. If it does, wildlife is doomed, for if it can be slaughtered and eaten, it will be at the hands of the Chinese.

When we talked to students about it later, a couple of them said they had heard the creature (which we think was a shark or whale based on size) had been found. The fisherman did not want to waste such meat, so they decided to sneakily bring it to GDOU beneath a tarp, gut and skin in the basement of a building that is never used on campus, then take it out in large fillets bundled in tarps usually used for building materials. Yes, absolutely nothing fishy about that. 

2021 ABCs

Over the past few months, Zach and I have had multiple discussions pertaining to the idea of exact time versus period of time. The summation being that throughout history there are exact dates for some major events but a clumping of time for others. For example, rarely will a person begin a story with, "In 1943, I did....", but rather say "During the war (WWII), I did..." This theory has creeped into our chats because we are already noticing the clumping of these past two years; specific dates for 2019, but a "sometime during covid" for these past two. Which is why, once again, I find myself rather stumped in how to summarize a year which just seems like a continuation of the previous. Another year woven with chaos, intensity, terror, sadness, madness, delight, joy, newness, and wonder...yet had a few more twinges of fatigue and exposed some raggedy emotional edges.

We started the year as gig workers at Home Depot and Fred Meyer and finished the year as high school English teachers. We interviewed with more schools and agencies in four months than we did our entire time of living in China. We were offered jobs at four different schools before one finally and actually made it to the visa stage. 

We completed all the Marvel movies, in timeline order, and visited the theatre for the first time since 2019 to watch The Eternals.

We learned how to drive a motorbike.

We were ensconced on a tropical island for three months.

It was a year of furry friends - a few weeks of cat-sitting followed by two guardians of the garden (aka Cookie and Bamboo, our complex mutts.)

Our October travel involved eight bus stations, two bikes, one truck, one car, two minibuses, two buses, and four hotels. Our entire journey, point to point, was 1208 km/750.6 miles. 

We began the year crashing in the room behind the garage and ended the year living in the coziest, yellow bungalow (complete with a swimming pool).

We have spent ample hours around a fire pit in two countries. 

We have played in snow and jaunted along beaches.

We forged a life in a new country. 

Thai tea o'clock is a staple of everyday life. 

We walked in three countries and seven airports.

 Zach learned how to use photoshop. 

Award of the Year 

We have awarded ourselves the Triple Crown of Covid Award - we have dealt with this beast in three different countries; two official lockdowns and one 'it is not bad yet' mood. While I do not believe the virus was manmade, I do know that it has been wielded as a political weapon for countries, economies, and nationalism zeal. The clean vs unclean idea has very much fractured global cooperation, which will take years to recover.  

Books

This is a doozy of a category this year. We far surpassed our past reading tallies thanks to a 14-day quarantine and a Covid lockdown on a beach. Needless to say, we had some free time.  

Zach declares it the year of mediocrity for his reading, which is fascinating considering he finished 73 books for a total of 16,685 pages read. Even in a humdrum year, there were some standouts. Here are his top five books of 2021:

Half the World by Joe Abercrombie

A tale of a street rat turned badass warrior who is angry about everything but somehow becomes an amazing fighter, eventually emerges as the champion of the land. Joe Abercrombie has a wit and a humor that makes his stories difficult to put down. 

Brotherband Series: Outcasts by John Flanagan

Buddy stories are what John Flanagan does the best. A motley crew of misfits who must overcome obstacles to become the merry band of men makes for a delightful story. 

The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young

The story of a girl born in another land to another people who is sacrificed to the water goddess. She is miraculously saved, only to be raised in a culture not of her own and not to be accepted by the people her entire life. She is always trying to belong amidst a warring people who are bent on the destruction of their neighbors. 

Queen's Peril by EK Johnston

It is a beautiful look into the rise of Queen Amidala; how she chooses, acquires, and eventually becomes dearest of friends with her handmaidens. This book shows Padme's strength of character and wisdom in which she governs her people. 

The Skyward Novellas by Brandon Sanderson

Fun survival stories about people who have not been in the universe but are now learning how to be in the universe, all while surviving a tyrannical power that wants to kill them all because they are "too aggressive." 

As for me, I read 120 books. I did not finish three of them (which I must admit one being A Promised Land by Barack Obama - holy hell, what a tome and not a beach read!) I had 19 re-reads. I continued my quest of looking around the world for literary entertainment, so I read books from 12 countries. My first book of the year was Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and my last was Royal Ranger: Escape from Falaise by John Flanagan. I dabbled in the graphic novel realm in tackling Neil Gaiman's Sandman series (as well as enjoying a few other books I had not done in his literary portfolio.) My year also included a grim trend in reading a novel followed by the author dying soon after completion. I chronicled 57 quotes from my reads (which I will share in another post.) Mediocrity was not the theme of my year (though there were a couple that would fit the category), so choosing a top five was actually rather thought provoking. Here are my picks:

The Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne

I have a handful of dear friends that are in the book-know. If one of these souls tells me to read something, I do. I cannot recall a time when I have been led astray by this beloved circle. This series is such a recommendation. I did not read this series, I devoured it. Two of them were read between the USA and Thailand, 33,000 feet in the air. I will acknowledge the final two were a bit wonky and a bit frustrating as an ending. However, Kevin Hearne released a spin-off series, Ink and Sigil, which I feel actually redeems and gives a deeper context to the final book. Nonetheless, this series made me laugh, cry, cringe, have delusions of druid living, and be completely reminded that good and bad often walk hand-in-hand. 

Travels with Myself and Another by Martha Gellhorn

There is a definite camaraderie among those who travel. I needed this book this year. I needed to experience familiar places through another's eyes. I needed to be reminded that while travel is hard, it is so worth it. I so adored this book that I sent it to my mom for her birthday and I do plan to buy myself a copy (hopefully, a good ragged, very-loved, tea-stain-on-page-52 type edition) one day.

Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen

There are some fantastic short stories based in and around China as of late. Of course, I always approach these books with some apprehension of what could be, but I have yet to be disappointed. This one nailed a lot of Chinese nuance and modern-day issues. 

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

This was another recommendation from my in-the-book-know circle. I opened it on my e-reader one night to read "just a chapter." Ten chapters later and past an acceptable-for-school-the-next-day bedtime, I was enraptured. What a tale that involved all the things I love - canoes, community, adventure, water; and a lot of what I despise - abuse of power, corruption, disdain for what is different, hatred for people based on social standing or skin color. I had a number of moments of pure anger and deep sadness. 

Northwind by Gary Paulson 

If there was an author pivotal to my early reading years, Gary Paulsen is it. His tales of survival in the harshest of moments have captivated me for years. Hatchet is practically permanently imprinted in my mind and this one is most likely to be as well. Oh, how he wrote death in this one was brilliant. With the greatest of sorrow, this is now his last novel. This was one of those grim moments when I finished the book and the author died the next week. 

Honorable Mention: Addysen and I waited sooooooo long for this book to arrive at the library. It finally did...after I had left the country. So, she read it to me over video chat. It is so simple, yet so profound. I put it on my e-reader and, on days when I need a reminder of a mole loving cake or a nudge of encouragement, I open it for a moment of solace.     

Destination of the Year: Tak

We were able to check off a couple Thailand bucket list items this year, but a bonus stop was in Tak. We absolutely adore friend hometowns and Bon's did not disappoint. We found ourselves quite charmed with weaving alleyways and quirky shops, fascinated by such a mash-up wat, and got a VIP introduction to the Thailand national parks system - which has been an inspiration to seek out more of these lush, green spaces near our bungalow. 

Event that Made You Say Wow: Loy Krathung

This has been THE holiday I have wanted to experience in Thailand. It involves all the things I cherish - water, culture, lanterns, and candles. It was a night that met all expectations and even added layers of enjoyment. The wild abandon of firework usage made us feel at home - and I am happy to report that the battered bridge has not collapsed as of this writing.  

Famous Site: Wat Phumin

Unfortunately, I do have a backlog of travel tales and our days in Nan are in that category. It was an add-on to our October travels and it was fantastic, especially the opportunity to experience the iconic Wat Phumin. It is famous, rightly so. 

 

Dubbed the Sistine Chapel of Thailand, its murals are incredible in creation and storytelling. They were painted over a 20-year span; a time period which involved the Nan kingdom becoming part of the larger conglomerate of Thailand. Therefore, a fair amount of mockery and satire can be seen among the depictions of daily life. 

The most iconic image is of a man whispering into a woman's ear, which is rumored to be a self portrait of the artist. As with most things labeled famous, I found it not as entertaining as other smaller scenes around this one. Though, I do understand the fascination and ease of promotion - it is large, a good selfie spot, and easy to replicate on everything from magnets to T-shirts. 

We spent a good hour and a half in this wat; a sit, stare at a wall for a while, stand, move to the left, sit repetitive loop. For this wat was not only dazzling in wall artistry but also in design. Instead of a long hall, Wat Phumin is in the shape of a plus symbol. Four doors stake the compass points of north, east, south, and west. Four Buddhas sit in the middle, each looking towards their respective door. This was the first wat I had seen this feature and it was stunning, especially with grand pillars between each. Wat Phumin was a marvel in many ways, and it is one that I would eagerly return to given the opportunity.

Guess What...

...teaching in Thailand actually sucks.

I owe an apology to every teacher I have met while traveling in Thailand; their bemoans of how bad the education system were always met with an "it can't be that bad" from me. We thought Chinese schools were a hot mess, so to even try to fathom something worse was mind boggling. Many encouraged us to go the private school route, but we wanted familiar and government systems were familiar to us. Our standards were quite low, yet apparently not low enough for Thai government schools. After seven months, we completely understand the bemoaning.

After seven months, many of our questions as to why Thailand seems to lag well behind Asian education standards have been answered. I read a document early in our teaching days here that basically said that skills don't rise to the hope of what could be, but rather fall to the level in which one is expected to perform. In a system of extreme corruption, groaning beneath political instability and groveling pomp and circumstance, the students run the asylum. Of course, covid has thrown some curveballs. But in the absence of strong and wise leadership, chaos reigns. In the chaotic whirlwind, we find ourselves quite bullied for petty, shallow things (how dare I take off my shoes improperly outside the door?!?), but told to just deal with archaic classrooms with no cords to connect electronics. As one co-worker so nicely summarized: we are trying to teach in a digital age using an analog system. 

For all of our disgust at the job, we do not regret our decision. Every job teaches something and we have gained a much deeper insight and have begun to think through next steps in a teaching path with a much better perspective.    

Hardest Moment: Saying Farewell to Matt

I will always say that the long term effects of covid - especially concerning mental health - will far surpass the actual covid damage. In the past year, we have had too many within our sphere of contact commit suicide; even a student at our current school did so in late October. So, for a dearest friend who tussled within his own mind, we were devastated that this year was the end for him. In August, perched on our couch halfway around the world, we joined a celebration for him via Zoom. It was cathartic to laugh at stories shared and cry realizing that those stories are what will sustain a very large absence in our world.

Immeasurable Gratitude

The running joke was that we had such a great time with the first that we had to stay around for the next one. In a sweep of poetic prose, Lisa's birthday celebrations were to be the bookends of our stateside sojourn. A lot happened between those fixed points - a lot of hard and a lot of good. No matter the emotion, our community around the world rallied in incredible ways - from notes of encouragement to financial support. When we decided to head to Thailand, there were equal doses of questioning our sanity as well as telling us to fly, to try, to do something no matter the outcome. We are continually grateful for our global village.     

Journey that Took the Longest

Thanks to Covid crazy, public transit is a disaster. Our October travel made this very apparent, especially when we had to piecemeal a path from Nan to Chiang Rai. It was a fraught journey, filled with a lot of what-ifs and could-be connections. It worked, barely. When we exited the van at the Bus Terminal 2 in Chiang Rai, we did a happy dance that culminated in a high five. 

Then we had to explain to the officers that we were not harbingers of covid doom and that we lived in this northern village. 

Keepsake from Travel

Aside from a mighty stash of fabric purchases in Nan, mementos of 2021 were nil. However, Zach has become a regular deity liberator; meaning, he susses out the piles (usually found at the base of trees) of tossed-aside deity figurines. A toss into a rubbish bin is seen as unlucky, but an unwanted or broken figurine placed in the wild is seen as an acceptable method of disposing of the unwanted. Therefore, Zach says he is giving them a second life when pilfered, which has resulted in us having a menagerie of characters.   

Lucky Moment: Entrance into the Kingdom

Even ten months later, we are stunned that this decision actually worked. Our arrival in the Kingdom set us into a well-orchestrated queue of which we said was better fit to handle arrivals than the days pre-covid. Chaos had been replaced with efficiency donned in hazmat suits. Our sigh of relief was audible once we were settled in our personal taxi bound for quarantine, surrounded by the scent of alcohol and sanitizer.

Moment When You Refell in Love with Travel

Interestingly, this happened for both of us on the same journey, but at different moments. For Zach, it was sitting on a ruin in the main complex of Sukhothai, looking over a pond which reflected a Buddha and stupa on the other side. For me, it was our first night in Nan, sitting on a woven mat in the town square, listening to life music, and eating night market finds.  

  

Nicest Hotel(s)

This category may be better suited to be the worst hotel rather than nicest considering our access to some amazing stays was a perk of the times. Nonetheless, looking at our nomadic wanderings, we think this category is a tie between Baan Wassana (our Samui beach bungalow) and The 8 Factory, our hostel in Phitsanulok. Our beach bungalow was perfect for days spent figuring out next steps and beach saturation. The hostel was warehouse/steampunk style - complete with a great ambiance and a laundry mat next door.

However, the nicest pool at a hotel award goes to the Imperial Riverhouse. By chance, we lived at the one hotel with the best swimming pool in Chiang Rai. 

Overseas Flights

I felt there were a handful of once-in-a-lifetime moments this year. One being our international flights. Used to days of rowdy, crowded economy classes, the experience of empty rows and a skeleton crew was bizarre. I could throw a lot of adjectives into the mix, but I do not think any word or phrase could aptly convey the visceral shock of such a moment. Such emotions did not keep us from savoring full rows to ourselves and creating an almost first-class experience.

Pictures of the Year

Always, always, always - this category is a tough one to be narrowed. 

Before we departed the motherland, we experienced a deluge of snowfall which made for epic sledding and snowball throwing. We loved spending ample time among the wintry mix with some of our favorite people. 

This was an accidental photo. I was tinkering one night on the beach, trying to learn a few new features of my camera. I had no idea what I had captured until I returned to the bungalow. Out of 500ish shots, this was one of six that really captured the incoming storm.   

As mentioned earlier, a once-in-a-lifetime moment is the tag of this photo. We walked through six airports this year, four of them showcased a scene like this one. This shot was taken after landing and taxiing to the gate at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. Row upon row upon row upon row of behemoth planes, lined nose to tail, filled gate alleyways and spare runways. It was even more disheartening to the see the ones stripped of engines and wrapped in silver mylar.

  

The Blue Temple (Wat Rong Suea Ten) continues to remain my favorite temple in Thailand. During our initial weeks living in Chiang Rai, we stayed in a hotel next to this temple. It became a nightly ritual to walk and bask in its serenity. One drizzly evening, I walked alone. When I turned the corner to peek in the front doors, I caught a rare sight of a monk cleaning the marble Buddha. His saffron orange robes were a stark contrast to the bright white god.

With a journalistic inquisitiveness, I spent a lot of time throughout the second half of the year photographing the surrounding rice fields. This was another accidental shot. 

Nan was definitely a highlight, and I loved this image of Buddha overlooking the town at sunset. I actually imagine this could be a stunning shot at sunrise - I just will never wake up in time to capture it. 

Quarantine

We are probably the only two people who will loudly proclaim that we loved quarantine. Granted, we had choices where to stay which is rare in the quarantine venture, yet it was still a chance and luck was on our side. Our 15 days spent at the Centre Point Pratunam were bliss. Our days were full and so were our stomachs, as the food was quite delish. It was a great way to overcome jetlag, read with wild abandon, continue to participate in Chinese lessons, have a steady yoga and workout regime, set up job interviews, have movie dates with friends, binge watch TV shows, sunbathe on the balcony, and celebrate another revolution around the sun with some birthday frivolity. It felt like the perfect reset between two lives.   

Renewing Visas

In 2021, we spent more time in a visa office than ever before, in three different immigration offices. While obtaining visas in Thailand may seem easy, it is actually rather time consuming, tedious, and pricey.  

Superstar Moment

One knows it is not normal times when the security guards at the airport screening points have time to help repack your bag after being scanned. One lad nearly had mine all together before I even got through the X-ray machine at DMK. We had a good laugh and joked that such VIP service is a perk of these days.   

Touristy thing: Petrified tree

We saw quite a few high touristy items this year, but I think the most unique was the petrified trees in Tak. I personally think it was an ancient slide that some lumberjack created for his children so they would leave him alone in order for him to drink his morning coffee in peace.  

Unforgettable Moment

I still bear the scars of this encounter on my right arm. A late afternoon swim in the ocean ended rather abruptly due to a tango with a jellyfish. Actually, it did not end the swim immediately because I was a fair distance from the shore. Which, in the hours after, was discovered to be a very good thing in that saltwater is one of the top healing things for stings. So my minutes having to continue to swim aided in calming the sting, but definitely did not help all of it. It was nasty...and nasty for weeks. 

Visitor/Visiting

We will always say that we travel for people. This year was filled with new meetings and new friendships. From our fellow beach bums of Samui to our Honeyforest Guesthouse comrades and a host of delightful encounters in between (including fellow virus refugees and the best Thai tea stand owners) - it has been a very fascinating and lively year of people. We are better people because of each of them. 

Weirdest Place

I do love a good dose of macabre and the petrified monk on Koh Samui was it for the year! 

Xcellent View

We were spoiled this year with stunning views mere steps from our abode. This category is a tie between our Samui sunsets...

...and our beloved Chiang Rai rice field. 

Yearning for China

I never thought I would feel the loss of China so keenly and so deeply. While the abruptness of our end definitely plays a significant role, it is the severing of a daily connection with a society I smooshed into over the years that has been the harshest. We miss our adopted motherland so much. We miss the obvious - friends, food, ease of movement - but we greatly miss the small moments - the charms to keep the evil ones at bay, the greetings of local shopkeepers, the stroll through alleyways or across campus, the stinky drain smell at 5pm to mark the hour. While we finish the year just as far from a return as we were in early 2020, I cannot deny there continues to be a glimmer of hope that refuses to fade.

Zealous Sporting Event: Chiang Rai United

There are a couple of reasons why we chose our current home; a major one being that it was perched 1km from the local football team's stadium. There really is a delight in a saunter down the road for 90-minutes of really bad football, but extremely lively yelling and taunting in multiple languages. We frequently join the army of orange for "We are Chiang Rai, we cheer Chiang Rai!"

Quotes of 2021

Last year I posted my scribbled, chronicled, stashed quotes of the year in a separate post from the annual ABCs. I very much enjoyed the separation, in that it gave me the freedom to not have to choose one or two, but also to highlight books that did not make my top five list but had a deep thought or comical comment to share. I feel that these quotes well represent a lot of the issues faced or thought upon this year, which is probably why they resonated with me so much.  

Quotes

The difference between someone who is vain and someone who is wise is that the vain man only appreciates what he already knows, and the wise man searches for what he doesn't yet know. - The Wild Book, Juan Villoro

You build and do not destroy; you sow goodwill and reap it; smiles bloom in the wake of your passing; and I will keep your kindness in trust and share it as occasion arises, so that your life will be a quenching draught of calm in a land of drought and stress. - Hammered, Kevin Hearne

Dragonfruit: This is the fruit for a time of year when the sun and all its gallop don't merely feel as though they have nudged us from a static winter, but into a fully alive, roaring season - when everything it touch feels like it could give you a blister and a bit of wild burn. - World of Wonders, Aimee Nezhukumatathil

It is this way with wonder: it takes a bit of patience, and it takes putting yourself in the right place at the right time. It requires that we be curious enough to forego our small distractions in order to find the world. - World of Wonders, Aimee Nezhukumatathil

If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work. - West with the Night, Beryl Markham

Life had a different shape; it had new branches and some of the old branches were dead. - West with the Night, Beryl Markham

Benghazi - it is a small city with a soul - a grubby soul, but cities with souls seldom die. - West with the Night, Beryl Markham

You can always rediscover an old path and wander over it, but the best you can do then is to say, ' ah yes, I know this turning.' - or remind yourself that, while you remember that unforgettable valley, the valley no longer remembers you. - West with the Night, Beryl Markham

For all its manifold beauties, the world is never so fine once someone you love leaves it; instead there is only the bleak prospect of loneliness and might have beens. - Hunted, Kevin Hearne

The sun cannot shine as bright without a proper darkness to counter it. - Hunted, Kevin Hearne

Fear ignores the pace if modernity. - Shattered, Kevin Hearne

Snow is the form in which all water aspires, for it is only as snow is it unique and at rest. Vapor is distant and water cuts away at the earth, but snow is the blanket that protects us. - Shattered, Kevin Hearne

To be rooted is not the same thing at all as being tied down. To be rooted is to say, here I am nourished and here I will grow, for I have found a place where every sunrise shows me how to be more than what I was yesterday, and I need not wander to feel the wonder of my blessing. - Shattered, Kevin Hearne

Epidemics create a kind of history from below; they can be world changing, but the participants are almost inevitably ordinary folk, following their established routines, not thinking for a second about how their actions will be recorded for posterity. - The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson

While pestilence slays its thousands, fear slays its tens of thousands. - The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson

Good steering is impossible when you are looking two ways at once. - Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome

Half the pleasure of visiting distant countries is sailing home afterwards. - Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome

When you get home, tell them how large the world is, and how green. And tell them that the beauty of the world makes demands on you. They will need reminding. If you believe the world is small and tawdry, it is easier to be that yourself. But the world is so tall and so beautiful a place. - The Explorers, Katherine Rundell

So do not forget to take risks. Standing ovations await your bravery. - The Explorers, Katherine Rundell

The only people who can truly speak of history are ghosts. Words are like a soul and a story all in one. - Aru Shah and the City of Gold, Roshani Chokshi

Adventures, she was learning, weren't really about what you knew. They were about what you were willing to do. - Paola Santiago and the River of Tears, Tehlor Kay Mejia

Kink blink: the insanely short length of time between the introduction of new technology and its adaptation for sexual purposes. - Curious History of Sex, Kate Lister

Technological advancements do not create new ideas so much as offer new ways to fulfil pretty basic human needs. - Curious History of Sex, Kate Lister

He drank some more wine, feeling he was about to commit a forbidden act. A transgression. For a man should never go through a woman's handbag - even the most remote tribe would adhere to that ancestral rule. Husbands in loincloths definitely did not have the right to go and look for a poisoned arrow or a root to eat in their wives rawhide bags. - Little Red Notebook, Antoine Laurain

I admire objectivity very much indeed, but I fail to see how it can be achieved if the reader does not understand the writer's particular bias. - Let Me Tell You What I Mean, Joan Didion

Make a place available to the eyes, and in certain ways it is no longer available to the imagination. - Let Me Tell You What I Mean, Joan Didion

Jones smiled a private smile, a librarian's smile, full of dusty secrets and happy solitudes. - The Vanishing Man, Charles Finch

I cannot think why a person sitting with evident contentment in an armchair causes the desire in others for their immediate activity. - Why Didn't You Just Do What You Were Told?, Jenny Diski

Someone needs to explain to me how it is that the richer Britain gets, the poorer it thinks itself. - The Road to Little Dribbling, Bill Bryson

What a joy walking is. And to walk with old friends multiplies the pleasure a hundredfold. - The Road to Little Dribbling, Bill Bryson

I can very often tell how much a person loves another person by the way they say their name. I think it is one of the best feelings in the world, when you know your name is safe in another person's mouth. When you know they will never shout it out loud like a cuss word, but say it or whisper it like a once upon a time. - A Snicker of Magic, Natalie Lloyd

I'd rather ride all the way to the end and see there is a sunrise still waiting for me. Morning in my eyes, stars at my back. - A Snicker of Magic, Natalie Lloyd

It is so weird how life is full of moving around - people coming and going, people passing by each other all day long. You never know which person is going to steal your heart. You never know which place is going to settle your soul. All you can do is look. And hope. And believe. - A Snicker of Magic, Natalie Lloyd

Perhaps the most important truth I have learned across the whole of my life is that it is only when I yield to the river and embrace the journey that I find peace. - This Tender Land, William Kent Krueger

"I don't know why a government would behave any differently from the people who comprise it," Mother Beal said around the stem of her pipe. "When it comes to money, people often behave in ungracious and ungrateful ways." - This Tender Land, William Kent Krueger

Upon our return, no one willingly listens to our travellers' tales. "How was the trip?" they say. "Marvellous," we say. " In Tbilisi, I saw..." Eyes glaze. As soon as politeness permits or before, conversation is switched back to local news such as gossip, the current political outrage, who's read what, last night's telly; people will talk about the weather rather than hear our glowing reports on Copenhagen, the Grand Canyon, Katmandu. - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

This is stationary travel in contrast to travelling travel and I love it. No matter how unsatisfactory the work or how drab the furn. bdstr.,  I have chosen with care, sea or mountains, and the joys thereof. - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

Endurance was the Chinese secret weapon. The Japanese should have understood that, and everybody else had better remember it. - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

Perhaps the need for rice paddies forced them to live in a tight huddle, always too many people in to little space; or perhaps they liked it that way because the enormity of their land chilled them. - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

I was in that state of grace which can rightly be called happiness, when body and mind rejoice totally together. This occurs, as a divine surprise, in travel; this is why I will never finish travelling. - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

Americans were funnier before America became the most powerful nation on earth. (The British, on the other hand, relieved of Empire, have grown much funnier than they used to be.) - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

...there were bottles and plastic debris on the seabed and picnic litter on the sand for the rich are as disgusting as the poor in their carelessness of the natural world. -Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

They used to be short of cash but never hungry, never crowded, or hurried. They worked when they had to and not a minute more. Free of nuisance government, they lived in a close community, as content as mortals can be. If they wanted adventure or consumer goods, they went off as sailors or emigrated for dollars but all of them returned to visit or drowse through old age, and knew they could return to what they had left: home didn't change, home was safe. Now they work for the foreigners on their islands and though they have more money than ever before they feel poor by contrast and they are no longer the sure, idle, chatty, easy people I remember. - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

Solitude is all right with books, awful without. - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

I have a sudden notion of why history is such a mess: humans do not live long enough. We only learn from experience and have to time to use it in a continuous and sensible way. - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

Politics -  the bungling management of the affairs of men - is a game played among themselves by a breed of professionals. What has politics to do with real daily life, as real people live it? - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

It is high time that I learn to be more careful about hope, a reckless emotion for travellers. The sensible approach would be to expect the worst, the very worst; that way you avoid grievous disappointment, and who knows, with a tiny bit of luck, you might even have a moderately pleasant surprise, like the difference between hell and purgatory. - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

We are really a terrible species; the greediest predators. - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

They were all pleasure-bent but seek and ye shall find does not necessarily apply to travel. Once safe again at home they could forget how awful some, actually most of it had been, bring out their souvenirs, their photos, their edited memories, and plan another holiday.  - Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn

From pulp - utterly lifeless pulp - new life can be born. Add water and pressure and you no longer have mere pulp but a medium for the miraculous. It can carry the words of one lover to another. Express gratitude for gifts and thoughts. Invoice a client. Threaten death. Bear the light touch of poetry or the weighty prose of novels. It can be folded into an airplane, to annoy your teacher, or folded into origami, an artistic appreciation of nature made from wholesome natural ingredents. And on and on. So much can be built from the ruin of a plant life. - Paper and Blood, Kevin Hearne

Because education is a system too. To beat it you have to first recognize it's a system and then read outside it - just not on internet message boards, because that is how you get a diseased brain. - Paper and Blood, Kevin Hearne

No longer a boy, he lived and filled the years and saw thousands of hills and oceans and forests and mountains and cities and some ugliness and much more beauty and people, God, all the people until finally, at least he came of an age, an old age, a still older age. - Gone to the Woods, Gary Paulsen

When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatize those who let people die, ot those who struggle to live. - Sarah Kendzior, St Louis journalist

Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do. - Wendell Berry

A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized touorist can in a hundred miles. -Desert Solitaire, Edward Abby

I decided then that home was probably all of these things: something sought after, found, held close, used, well-worn, and best of all, familiar. - The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole, Michelle Cuevas