Well, it's been a few months

Greetings from Tejas

Lauren and I have been back in the states for nine months now. While I guess it's past the time when we can say "we're just back from the Peace Corps", It sure feels that way. "Where is home?" is a loaded question. The short answer is, where ever we are together.

After a long search in all corners of the world, Lauren found the job she has been looking for in the strangest of places, her home town of Seguin, Texas. It's a beautiful small town full of well preserved victorian homes and pecan groves along a shaded river. She is working for a local river authority in their water quality division. It was well worth the wait to find a job she truly loves.

I have been working as a photographer and working retail at a store in San Antonio. It is only a short 30 minute drive between the two cities and we commuted back and forth. We are currently living in Seguin but are renovating a home in San Antonio in near Mission Conception and the San Antonio River.

Stock photo, sorry it's too hot to go outside

Stock photo, again it's 100ºF

We purchased a 1935 bungalow with great access to everything we enjoy doing. We are halfway through a full rehab on this home, adding central air and heat, all new electric, and a new roof. Next we will add in insulation, move some plumbing around, seal up the walls, and refinish the floors. 

Here are a few more pics from the past few months

Chareada 2016 Fiesta San Antonio

Lauren gets her gardening on

Cat video I assume

Visiting Tyler and Anders in NC at LEAF 

Out in the open land at the Joseph's

 Paintball in Helotes

San Antonio historic mural walk

Pearl Brewery

Bike share kiosk next to our new house

 Mission San Jose, part of the network of UNESCO missions connected by the river

San Antonio at night

Turkey Part 2 - Istanbul

Rainy day cruise around the Bosphorus Strait

Lunch spot on an Asian side inlet river 

Wish you were here

Istanbul market 

Istanbul's Basilica Cistern 

Hagia Sophia

The Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque after prayer-time 

Cappadocia, Turkey 2015

First light on a bluff above our cave hotel.

Our last stop on the way home was the Cappadocia region of central Turkey, famous for it's early Christian settlement and ballon tours over the dramatic carved earth. We spent five nights in Goreme where slept in a cave carved from limestone and hike every day.

Sunset tour of the fairy chimneys, a water carved series of limestone pillars where early Christian monks road out a few plagues and persecution.

Above the open air museum of churches which showcase frescos depicting early Christianity.

Our future villa.

Fresh pomegranate juice on every corner.

Climbing up to the top of a carved stone castle.

View of a neighboring village from the castle.

Cave church with original paintings.

Every morning hundreds of balloons take flight giving tourist a birds-eye view of this beautiful place.

Turkish Nights dinner show. Four hour program filled with traditional dancing, a delicious meal, and free flowing wine.

Dubai & Qatar

Lauren and I spent three night in Dubai visiting with friends and seeing this glitzy and surreal city. The company was so worth the visit and the heat really didn't bother us at all. Plus there we tons of Filipinos, so we enjoyed hearing people speak Tagalog again.

We stopped in Qatar to change planes and got a great view of the beautiful marina.

Qatar airport art

All the play areas for kids were unique giant brass sculptures like this one. They were everywhere, just like the free Apple workstations. Hands down, the nicest airport I have ever seen.

The Zagros mountains as we flew along the Iraq/Iran border