Our

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Our life Stories
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Adrian The beginnings
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All things start small
on December 1st, 1974, little Adrian is born
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Little Adrian with mom and dad
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Life is simple playing and eating
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Eating spinach is a process first take a spoonful
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then put it in the mouth
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Uhhh! Adrian and spinach never became good
friends
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Early career ambitions Adrians
piano adventures
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Followed by climbing adventures
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A new stage the joys of school
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Meanwhile the Family grows
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And grows
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The three Zenz musketeers ready to conquer
their world
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Adrians 10th birthday
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Rachel The beginnings
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On November 15, 1976, an early Tuesday morning,
little Rachel is born
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What a joyful little girl, waiting to catch fish
from the aquarium ?
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One happy girl! ?
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Enjoying nature at the grandparents lake resort
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Oh, the lovely snow in Minnesnowta!
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Rachel soon has company sisters Michelle and
Bethany
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Watch out! The three Sias girl musketeers
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Early gardening experiences
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Rachel at age 5, with her aunt, grandmother and
great-grandmother
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Age 9, entertaining friends in the home
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Rachel and siblings at Lake Superior
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Adrians teenage years
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The climbing adventures continue
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Renovating our hut in the woods with my granddad
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Holiday in Britanny (France)
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Adrian brother Gideon
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1994 High school trip to Greece
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Congratulations! Adrians graduation from
high-school in summer 1994 (with his grandmother)
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Rachel aged 12-18
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Rachel at 14, her beauty beginning to unfold
rapidly
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This does not go unnoticed, and before long
Rachel becomes a photomodel for a book
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Although it would be another 11 years before the
bride will meet her groom
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Between 1991-92, Rachel and her sister Michelle
teach 5th 6th grade Sunday School girls
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At age 15 Rachel takes a step that profoundly
impacts her life
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she goes to Russia for 2 1/2 months teaching in
public schools.
Teaching Russian families to make their own bread
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A fews months after her Russia trip, Rachel is
headed to an even further place Downunder
(Australia)
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In 1993, Rachel helps out with an inner city
boys and girls club and teaches in Vacation
Schools in Minnesota
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Rachels 17th birthday, celebrating with Grandpa
and Grandma Sias
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Christmas 1993 with the Bedman side cousins
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The following year, Rachel attends the Excel
course, learning life skills based on book
principles (photo with Elisabeth Elliot)
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Graduation from high (home)-school in 1995
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Adrian in his twenties 8 years around the world
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Adrians life after graduating from high school
is off to an eventful start
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First, Adrian completes his (mandatory) one year
of military service
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Afterwards came his first trip across the
Atlantic to attend Harvard Summer School in
summer 1995
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Mingling with die-hard Startrek fans at
the Boston Star Trek convention
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Back in Germany, university begins. From 1995 to
1997, Adrian enjoys student life at the beautiful
town of Bamberg in northern Bavaria.
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His first dorm room is tiny, but the view is
spectacular!
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Besides learning about business and economics,
Adrian does not miss any opportunity to travel
around the world
for example a 3-week trip to Egypt in 1996
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As well as a skiing trip to Austria
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The time in Bamberg and the various trips prove
to be exciting opportunities to expand his
photography skills
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After all these trips, the ventures abroad become
more serious
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Adrian moves to Washington DC to study
international business at American University
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Initially, the plan was to stay there for 2
semesters
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but it turned out to be 1 1/2 years in
total. The course included an internship at the
MIT government relations office in DC.
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Visit to the Grand Canyon with brother Ivo in
January 1998
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Adrians first encounter with baseball fun, but
no success in hitting that ball!
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The time in DC also proved to be an opportunity
to Make friends from other cultures
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Instead of returning to Germany and finishing his
business degree, Adrian decides to change career
plans
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and moves to New Zealand, the land of sheep, to
get an MA in Development Studies
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And there, his love for theory books really
begins to take off
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Moving from place to place is not easyone loses
old friends
but also gains new ones
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Life in New Zealand offers plenty of
opportunities to travel around Asia
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Trip to Korea in 1999
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Trip to India in 1999
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Visiting Thailand in 2000
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As part of his research for the MA dissertation
Adrian flies from Bangkok to Cambodia to visit a
World Vision development project
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When the graduation ceremony is over, the
question is what now? Well, with an MA degree
in Development Studies, one typically has the
following career options
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Either, one moves to the Sahara to research the
spitting behavior of camels
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Or one settles on top of an iceberg in Antarctica
to monitor global warming
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Adrian does neither, but still ends up in a
rather exotic place
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The mysterious middle kingdom
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Adrians time in China begins with one year of
full-time Mandarin language study
at the Tianjin Technical College
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Life in China is exciting and different, and
there are various new challenges for the
inexperienced
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By November 15, the time when the central
government turned on the heating, temperatures
had already dropped to about 35 F time to
have a hot tea!
Brrrrrrrr!
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Traffic tends to be more dense than in the West
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And it can be a challenge for a bunch of
Westerners to cram into the small taxis
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But using chopsticks turns out to be no problem
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And this is where Adrian lives a five star
Communist-style 1980s apartment complex ?
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The apartment features a lovely red curtain,
which inspires much creativity
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After doing language study, Adrian begins to work
with the various development projects of Jian
Hua Foundation
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Left Evaluating a literacy project amongst
Tibetans in Western China
Right Training in development skills to Chinese
students
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But where there is work, there must also be fun
the office staff making dumplings for Chinese New
Year
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In February 2003, Adrians parents visit him, and
together they go to see
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the famous mountains of Guilin
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Rachel in her twenties Pioneer and World
Explorer
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Right after graduation, Rachel continues her
travels to exotic overseas destinations
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In winter 1996, Rachel embarks on her first trip
to Asia
Her destinations Myanmar, Thailand and the
Philippines
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Out of their passionate love for Anne of Green
Gables, the girls request a family visit to
Prince Edward Island. Newborn Priscilla is part
of the trip.
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Rachel, age 20, with her little sister Priscilla,
age 9 months ?
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In 1997, Rachel joins a Pioneer team to the
Himalayas, a place she had been wanting to visit
ever since she was eight years old.
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In 1998, Rachel and Michelle join a medical team
to Mexico
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In the same year, Rachel visits Denmark to study
central Asian cultures
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In 1999, she goes to Taiwan for 4 months
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to teach English to school children
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Rachels favorite holiday the Pilgrims and
Indians are here!
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In 2000, Rachel joins a team to Northeastern
China to teach English for 3 weeks
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From 2000 to 2002, Rachel goes to Mongolia
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to teach English and help with various social
work projects
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The work also involves plenty of baking and
cooking. Rachel makes many good friends during
these two special years.
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Her family visits her, and together they also go
to see the Great Wall
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Life in Mongolia is kind of different, and at one
stage Rachel and friends camp in a Mongolian tent
(gher)
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No, Rachel does not have to milk cows every day
to be able to have breakfast ?. But its fun to
do it once in a while
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Winters are freezing cold, with temperatures down
to minus 50 degrees.
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Back home, Rachel enjoys another real good
Minnesnowtan winter
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Tubing at the lake, a luxury she has not had for
a while
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Watch out! The three Sias girl musketeers - the
last time that they are all single
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In 2002, Rachels sister Michelle gets married
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So where do Rachel and Adrians paths finally
cross?
???
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In Spring 2003, 18 months after Adrian, Rachel
also goes to live in China
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In fact, she goes to the same city and joins the
same organization!!!
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Soon after she arrives, Rachel joins a trip to
Inner Mongolia where she gets to practice her
Mongolian
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Having fun with local friends
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Rachels bakery continues in China!
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Rachel Adrian A real life fairy tale
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How did it all start?
Rachel and Adrian knew each other since spring
2003, but things didnt click until
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in August 2003, a group of friends decides to
visit Chinas wild west, Rachel and Adrian are
both part of the trip
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Initially, everything seems as usual
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By the time they return to western China in the
following year
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Things have changed!
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In between those two dates, Adrian musters all
his determination to win the heart of an
initially less-than-interested Rachel
with the help of
and his best buddy, Paul
the Rochas from Brazil
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Their first real adventure together is visiting a
Tibetan nomad family
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During this time, Rachel gets to ride on the back
of a motorbike (the local means of transportation)
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Adrian
While Adrian learns a few lessons in herding sheep
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Paul and Adrian often stop by Rachels place and
enjoy her hospitality ?
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Both have lots of very good friends!
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In December 2003 Adrian gets a chance to meet
Rachels family
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In September 2004, Rachel and her family visit
Adrians family, her first trip to Germany
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Both also stop by Adrians grandparents place
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Then Rachel, her family and Adrian travel to
Switzerland, Scotland and England. Rachels
brother takes this romantic shot at the shores
of Loch Ness, Scotland.
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In October 2004, Adrian begins his graduate
studies in anthropology at Cambridge, England.
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Adrians college, Trinity Hall, was founded in
1350
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Meanwhile, Rachels lifestyle is slightly
different...
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She goes back to a remote town in western China
to study Tibetan
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She enjoys playing with the daughter of her
Tibetan teacher
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For 8 months, the two live in entirely different
worlds, and communicate by phone and by email
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On January 1st, while visiting Rachels sister
and brother-in-law in Florida, they get engaged
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And have a fun Christmas holiday!
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After the wedding, both will return to Cambridge
(England, not MN), where Adrian will start his PhD
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Their small, new apartment and piles of theory
books are waiting for them?
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In summer 2006, they will undertake
anthropological fieldwork amongst Tibetan nomads
as part of the PhD
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Thank you for watching! Photos of the wedding
will be published online from early September at
www.zenz.org/wedding.html