I love National Geographic

We received our National Geographic in the mail today (thanks mom and dad!). Every month our family, especially Matthew, waits for the newest publication. If it doesn't arrive by the 24th of the month, the promised arrival date, then each day when he comes home from school, Matt asks "has the magazine come yet?" This month's is especially interesting to me in that it includes articles on the West Coast Redwoods in California and Oregon (not quite north as home but cedars nonetheless), Indonesia, and Mexico's Baja (that's where Tris and I met and later got engaged). Why not grab your copy of NG and let's examine it together:)

Title Page: Do you know what a thrill it is to see a picture of a giant cedar tree on NG? With the arrival of the rainy season, the air has become extremely humid here, and I usually end up changing my clothes at least twice a day (at least my shirt). It was physically cooling to me (SERIOUSLY!!) when I picked up the magazine. Immediately I imagined walking through a place like Cathedral Grove, where even on a hot day there always seems to be a little bit of earthy cool. It also reminded me of my dad, the tree-hugging faller, who I miss very much.

Editor's Note: If you have not yet experienced lying on the forest floor, looking up through the treetops into the blue sky beyond, you need to wait for a sunny day--preferably not immediately after a rainy day--and to find a cool spot in an empty forest. It's solitude like you've never experienced before.

p 38 pull-out. I think that one needs to be taken out of the book and hung in our home here somewhere. What a beautiful forest!

p. 52 The bear has the same eyes as our Corgie, Willie. He likes to chew wood (like Sunny's wooden blinds that blocked his view of the horse next door) just like this bear, and wreaks havoc doing it, too!

p. 78 The scooter that the woman is gassing up ('bensin' it's called here) is similar to the one that our driver bought last night.

p 80 "The National Mosque in Jakarta can hold 120,000 souls for Friday prayers." And THAT is why we dread going into Jakarta on Fridays. Friday night traffic is the worst ever.

p 82 "Last year some 200,000 Indonesians made the hajj..." which is why, when I was curious about possibly finding a ticket to go to my brother's wedding in September, there were absolutely NO affordable seats going in or out of Indonesia.

p 86 Take a look at the map of Indonesia. We live on Java, which seems like it should be a big island because of the political power that comes out of it, but it's a smaller island. We live in the province of Banten, 45 minutes from Jakarta. I've travelled to Yogyakarta (Jogja) with Dale and our family travelled there with the Weedas. See how Bali is pink (indicating Hindu)? One of the pleasures of going there is that there are no calls to prayer every day. The island to the left of Java, Sumatra, is where the tsunami occurred (Aceh) about 5 years ago. In the area of West Sumatra (marked 98%) is where the devastating eartquake occurred last week. Papua, to the far right, is where I'd really like to visit.

That's as far as I've read, and as soon as Matt comes home, eats, and does his homework, I'll lose the magazine for a while.

Thanks for reading with me.
*ps. My family has since told me that Redwoods are NOT cedar trees, so I stand corrected. However, it's my blog and I think that the bark looks like cedar, so that's how it's gonna be for this post:)