Jodi Lyn

2010-04-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

2010-04-23T17:16:00.000-07:00

ZIONS NATIONAL PARK AT ANGELS LANDING!!

So we went to Zions National Park and it was SO MUCH FUN! :) the hike was forever long it seemed like but I loved every minute of it! (and we got a fantastic work out!) :) haha We hiked to the top of Angels Landing and it was absolutely gorgeous! The 3 hours it took to get up there was so worth it! even though we only stayed up there for like 10 minutes haha...but it was getting dark so we couldn't stay long! Seriously that was the hardest but best hike I have ever been on! It was way intense! lots of rock climbing... which I LOVE! :)

We had some other people come with us as well! It ended up being Me Madi Porter, her boyfriend Jesse James, Meagan Young her "friend" Sean and Brittney Glenn! it was so much fun! We almost died a few times because its so steep but hey!... whats a rock climb without some near death experiences right!!?? ;)

Jazz Game!!

2010-03-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

For an early birthday present I took Jeremy to a Jazz Game! (pretty much is favorite thing ever!) The whole thing was a surprise... haha it was so fun! I invited his sister Emily and her date (Ryan Jacobsen) to come with us! we left early so we could go to Temple Square and the Joseph Smith movie! It was a lot of fun just to walk and joke around! After that we went to Crown Burger! After we ate dinner we told them that was it and we were going home.. they were all uh ok. (because it was only like 6:00) so we walked out to the car and Emily and I both said we needed to get our jackets out of the trunk! so we popped the trunk and when we did there was a sign that said "jazz game anyone?" They were pretty excited! well then we pulled out Jazz jerseys and everyone put them on..

Well me, without thinking shut the trunk!! Low and behold Emilys purse was in the trunk! it had the keys, our parking permit... everything! haha it was funny! (well now it is!....it wasn't at the time!) ;) so we called my padre and luckily Greg and Ellie were up visiting and were about to come home!! so they were able to just drop my spare key after the jazz game was over! so it worked out! well since we (emily and I) bought the tickets so late...lets just say our seats weren't the best... haha they were at the VERY top row! it was so funny...the walk up there seemed forever!!

We had so much fun though! we laughed our guts out and our seats turned out good because it was pretty much just us! there wasn't a lot of people around us! so we ended up having so much fun!! :) oh and the jazz won so that was good too! ;) haha

The Family BBQ!!

2009-04-27T04:40:00.000-07:00

So one day Jess and I got talkin about home and what we missed and talk about BBQ's came up! so we decided we were going to have a BBQ... but then the bad news came... they don't really sell grills here! we found one but it was REALLY really small! so we thought our BBQ night was out... sad story!

well then one day we found out that Joe (our Chinese brother...) had a grill custom made so we could have our BBQ! how nice is that!? and let me tell you... it was SO fun!

Jessica, Kylee and I wanted to help so we offered to cook something! we choose good old fashioned BBQ chicken!! it was quite the experience! we had to go to the fresh fruit market and buy some chickens... (don't worry.. they were still alive! nice and fresh!) it didn't take long to kill em though! so we had the experience of killing and chopping our own chicken! it was scary chopping it up though! the knife they gave me was the biggest knife ever! Kim (Chinese sister) she is the cook of and for the family she ended up cutting it instead... haha so then we got to cook it! (oh!! and thanks family for setting me up with the recipe!) they LOVED It! haha my chicken was ALL gone! the only left over chicken we had was the stuff that was still raw because we couldn't finish it! we had so much food there! we had lamb, chicken, squid, fish, corn, eggplant, hot dogs! (ya that's right! REAL hot dogs!!) but they don't eat them with ketchup and mustard with buns... they eat them plain with honey! not my favorite but oh well its china! what do ya do? we also had fruit and watermelon! it was the best ever! aww so good! There was some other food to but i don't remember what else we had....

after dinner we played a mean game of Monopoly! ah! felt like home... well expect that I got my trashed kicked! that hasn't happened in a very very long time! Andy beat us! but Chinese monopoly was a little different then our monopoly! (especially my awesome credit card version!!) :) all in all it was a GREAT night and it felt a little more like home! my Chinese family is awesome!

Row Row Row your boat!...well kinda....

2009-04-10T01:37:00.000-07:00

Today We made sailboats in class! the kids loved it! Especially the part where they got to sail them! some of the kids couldn't get their boat to move haha it was so funny to watch them blow the sail! so much fun! :) I just love them!

if this is what I REALLY look like to chinese people...I will shoot myself! ;) haha

2009-04-10T01:26:00.000-07:00

So that night we went and saw the Pagoda Jessica had a BRILLIANT idea! We saw this artist and she said... "we should get our picture drawn!" haha so we thought hmm... ok! that could be fun! oh my gosh! we sat there for TWO HOURS posing! I felt like a little kid because I couldn't sit still and after 30 minutes of me just sitting there smiling he still wasn't done with my mouth! So I was like this is retarded! So I stopped smiling and i was getting grumpy because he wouldn't let us move! haha he kept getting mad at me was like "Smile" well he would actually say it because he didn't know ANY English... he would just grunt and point and me and smile, then drop his smile then smile again so i would get the hint... lol So i would smile and then we would look down and draw and I would make a funny face at him! haha it was awful! I seriously couldn't sit there! then there was this other guy who secretly drew a picture of me and gave it to me afterwards... haha when i saw it I was like OH MY GOSH! He had to draw one of my when I was mad while i had to sit there! So i look like a hobbit in the group picture and then i looked so mad in the other one! lol I showed my head teacher and she said I looked like a Disney princess but a mad version of it!... I didn't really know how to take that.... haha

the BIG GOOSE PAGODA

2009-04-10T01:04:00.000-07:00

This is a temple! It was HUGE! we decided to go at night because there is this light/water show and its suppose to be amazing! So we decided to go! we were suppose to get on bus number 23 so we looked for a bus station and finally found one! we got on the bus and headed for the Pagoda! (so we thought) we were on the bus forever! and when we came to the end of the line the bus driver said we had to get off! the only problem was there was no pagoda... so we showed him a map and he starts laughing and was like "ok ok..." He drove us to this ally type thing and we were like what the heck? So we all got off the bus (me Jess Azure and Micky) and he took us to the bus station where they switched drivers! we got on bus number 23 all right but on the wrong side of the road! haha what idiots we are! oops! so they helped us get on track and to make a long story short we got there just as the show was ending! but we decided to stay and look around! we played in the water and looked at the temple and some statues! it was actually way fun!

A perfect day for kites!...NOT!

2009-04-10T00:50:00.000-07:00

So we went to this really pretty park! It was in the middle of town so there were quite a few people there. It was HUGE though! There was a section for having picnics and just relaxing, a section for shopping and a there was a carnival spot! So we went into the shopping center and we were looking around when we saw these kites! we thought "Hey! that could be fun!" so we bought em'! well we tried to find a spot to fly them but it was tricky! We seriously tried for 2 hours to get those stupid things up... and we couldn't do it! Well i was about to give up when this Chinese girl named Jia said to me... "have you seen a kite before?" I looked at her and was like... "ya...?" she said "oh...do you have kites in your homeland?" I again looked at her like are you freaking serious?! so I said... "ya..." and she said... "oh! have you ever flown a kite before?" By this point I was thinking ok whats your point here!? so again i just said... "yes" then she got to the point.... "Oh... your not very good at flying kites!" I just kinda sat there and looked and her like "was that all you wanted to say to me or what!?" haha but me being the nice person I am said... "Ya i'm not very good!... why don't you try!" haha well so she did and she couldn't do it either... I thought about asking her the same questions she asked me but i didn't.. so we started to work together and about 30 minutes later of running and running and jumping and getting frustrated we got it up! it only lasted about a minute though! So I gave up after that! So Jia and I got talking afterwards and it was a matter of minutes before I had a crowd of people around me wanting to talk to me! that lasted about an hour and after that i was like I gotta go... haha

Chinese people! they never give me peace! I can't even walk down the street without someone coming up to me and talking to me or wanting their picture with me! its so annoying!! So thanks mom! I just LOVE my Blonde hair and blue eyes here! it gets em' every time! ;)

The City Wall! (Xi'an)

2009-04-10T00:38:00.000-07:00

There was a City Wall they wrapped around the whole city! So we went and rented bikes and rode around it! It was about 6.2 miles so it wasn't bad! But don't even worry!.... Jess and I got a double seater! It was way fun! Our friend Micky went with us (so that's the guy you see in the pictures) I had a bell on my bike so I felt really Chinese because if someone was in my way I rang the bell like crazy! haha just giving them a taste of their own medicine! ;) I was the person who got to steer! (thank goodness!) well at the last stretch Jessica stopped peddling so I pulled over and made her get in front so she had to peddle! lol well it didn't work!... she is the worst at steering! we almost died like 5 times! And then i would freak out because she would almost ram us into the wall so I would try to steer and it would make it worse! haha it was awful!! We were laughing so hard! it was pretty funny! We raced a lot of the Chinese people and that was pretty fun! and then along the west wall i think it was... Micky kept grabbing on to my basket so he wouldn't have to peddle...dang him! So i slammed on my brakes and our bikes crashed into each other! oops! haha my bike made a clanking sounds the rest of the way! haha but along a different note... It was a really pretty view! and there was some fun stuff on the way! like the horse i am on! it was huge!

Terra-cotta warriors (Xi'an China)

2009-04-10T00:27:00.001-07:00

So this last vacation we went to Xi'an (pronounced Shee-on) It was really fun! :) There is a lot of historical stuff there!...for example... the Terra-cotta warriors! It was really really neat! There were 4 different "pits" where the Terra-cotta warriors were, and a place where they had all the horses and chariots and then there was a movie we could watch. So we went and saw the horses and chariots first and then watched the movie! well it was really cool when we got there because the guy who found the Terra-cotta warriors was there signing books! So I bought a book and he signed it for me! It was cool!

Red, Yellow and Blue!!!

2009-03-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Today was such an awesome day of teaching! :) I loved it so much!!! I am teaching arts and crafts this week and its my favorite thing to teach! well... that and kitchen! So today we were doing stuff with paint! (everyone called me crazy and thought I was daring) Can't be a good teacher without taking a risk i guess! haha just kidding... i totally made that up! oops! so anyways we did straw paintings today! I had three colors, red, yellow and blue! We talked about which colors make what colors when mixed and just had fun painting! they loved blowing through the straws and seeing the paint slide across the table! every class loved it! :) This one kid Michael... he is pretty naughty started talking in Chinese and that boy loves the Chinese chair! so we had to think of something else he would have to do if he spoke Chinese... we came up with him standing in the corner with his nose in the wall. So I had him do that and don't even worry! It didn't work! He blew into the wall so it made LOTS of noise! I was like oh geez! It was really funny and I had to hold in my laugh because I couldn't let him see that it was funny!...but it was! darn that kid! haha So the rest of the day went well...then I had my 5th and last class. They are all four year olds and there are 12 of them! they are supercute but there are a couple of them that love to make mischief! One of them would be Eva! Towards the end of class Eva said to me.. "Teacher! I like to paint!" I replied... "I like to paint too!" Then she took her hand and wiped the paint off of someone Else's paper and I was like "Eva! Go wash your hands!"Well she did...but just not in the way I wanted her too... before I could do anything she takes her hand with blue, green and yellow paint ALL over it and turns to the kid next to her (Eason) and wipes it ALL over his hair! Oh my gosh! I was freaking out! I didn't even know what to say (and plus I was trying to hold back my laugh!) It was almost time for rotation so I took Eason and Eva and had them by the hand so they couldn't touch anything while Jessica came in to rotate the kids into the next class! So now I had a problem... My class was here and I had two kids with paint all over them! what was I to do!? hmm.. A Chinese teacher ended up coming in and taking over my class while I took the two little kids into the bathroom. I washed Eva first and sent her back to class and then I had Eason to deal with... haha I put Easons head under the faucet and got his hair wet... (oh p.s. their bathrooms have showers in them because some of the kids sleep at the school) So i got some Johnson and Johnson soap and I scrubbed him down! (Poor boy!) I felt so bad! but it was really funny! I was laughing so hard! It was a good/hectic day of teaching but on days like these...that's when I love it the most! :)

gettin down and dirty!

2009-03-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

This was for sure one of my favorite things I did in Yangshou! We did this on our fist day and we rode our peddle bikes to the cave! It was a way cold ride!! We rode for at least 3 miles I would even maybe say 4! it was really fun though because we were taking pictures and making videos on our bikes...we almost crashed a few times but hey...its all fun and games right!? :)

The mud cave was so cool! we had a guide take us into the cave and everyone was like are you serious!? because he kept saying... "look! this rock looks like a beautiful girl!" or my favorite... "this looks like a hand but with two thumbs!" we were like what the! he basically BS his way through the cave. We climbed this rock called snow mountain and its really steep and wet.. (that would be completely prohibited in America!) they would probably make you sign a release form saying if you died it wasn't their fault! haha but it was way fun! we were so high up the pictures are way dark so we will have to lighten them up. After the tour we got to go play in the mud caves and that was rockin! I was caked with mud! I was even finding mud days later! After we got done playing they made us wash off..but no worries..the water was FREEZING! it was so cold that after 5 seconds under it you got a brain freeze! I don't think I have been that cold ever! it was not fun! they made me go back 3 different times to wash off even more because I never passed the inspection! I was so mad! haha they took us to an all natural hot springs after and it probably really wasn't that hot (prob luke warm) but since we were so cold it was a little piece of heaven! :) so so fun!

Will you look at those mountains! :)

2009-03-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

This is when I was in Guilin/Yangshou! It was absolutely gorgeous!!! We got to see a lot of scenery because one day we rented mopeds one day we rented peddle bikes and then we rode buses and walked everywhere! It was a lot of fun! We took so many pictures! It was insane! :) I have never seen mountains like this before! We did go see moon hill. Its the mountain that's shaped like the moon and where you stand depends on what shape the moon is. It's really cool! We stayed in Yangshou and traveled to Guilin. It wasn't very far but Yangshou was so fun! Yangshou was more what I had in mind for China. Its defiantly the more poor and ghetto places you think about when you even think the word China!

Circus Day!

2009-03-24T02:12:00.000-07:00

This is Brittney! she's really shy but she does really well when she talks!Leo walking the "tight rope" and Hula Hooping. This little boy has so much energy and can be naughty! but I love this kid! He is for sure one of my favorites! :)

This is Lee being the Penguin! He is so stinkin cute! He's a good student and laughs at everything! but put him and Leo together...and your just askin for trouble!

Circus Day Story!

I am teaching drama this week! So for today we had a Circus Day! I brought in costumes for the kids to dress up with and I also had a book about the circus. We all read the book and we talked about whats at the circus and what they do and just stuff like that! After we read the book I let them dress up and they got to walk the "tight rope" they hula hooped and had crab walk races! In my older class the 5-7 year olds, we did the same thing but added in cartwheels and walking on your hands.

Funny Story!

It was pretty cute...in one of my classes we were talking about how clowns walk on their hands! This kid named Nite got really excited and was like "Teacher! Teacher! I can walk on my hands! Let me try!" So I was like "Ok Nite! stand up and show me!" well so I was watching and he gets up and guess what he did?! He stood on his hands! like... I mean LITERALLY stood on his hands! his feet were on top of his hands! I was laughing so hard! It was pretty cute! :) It made my day! It made it even better because he was innocent about it and was so excited because he could stand on his hands! I love my kids! He didn't quite understand "standing on your hands" so I showed them and they were laughing so hard! They thought that was the funniest thing ever!

This is Kyle! He was the monkey but he wanted to wear the hat too! He is so dang cute! He loves to give hugs and is so nice! He is also not afraid to try anything and to get up and do things in front of the class. He is always the first to volunteer! I love him! (also one of my favorites!)

This isn't my home room class but its one of the classes I teach during the day! This is the 3-5 year old group and they are so freaking cute! This class is hard because they don't understand a lot of English but they still do very well! They loved the Circus!

This is me helping Peter! He couldn't quite figure out how to hula hoop! it was fun! He would spin his hips really really fast from side to side and the hula hoop would fall right off! he's such a funny kid! (again... another one of my favorites!) :)

Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination! -Lin Yutang

2009-03-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

When Jess and I get bored....don't even worry! We will come up with something to do! So Friday night rolls around....and here we sat at home with nothing to do! My head teacher Jeanette was going to go to walking street (this big shopping place) So we decided to go with her! We treated ourselves to McDonald's (some treat!..) haha and we were just walking around trying to find something to do! Then my eye caught the coolest thing ever!!! It was this retro makeup! every color you could want...but wait! It gets better! its all glittery! haha So we both looked at each other and thought of the same idea! So we bargained the girl down to a awesome price and we were on our way! haha

When we got home I did Jessica's makeup and then she did mine! it was pretty funny! We even put on fake eyelashes! :) (oh and our whole outfits are from china....) we were going for the more Chinese look! (you should see some of these models over here! haha I think we hit it right on!) So then we were just crazy the rest of the night and it was so much fun! everyone was like "Oh no! what are the twins up to now!??" (everyone calls us the blondie's or the twins...) Then we showed are head teacher and her face was PRICELESS! we had a camera ready and we took the picture right as she opened her door! haha all she said was "ahh! Barf!" haha it was so funny and really fun! So that's what I mean when that quote says "Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination!" Lin Yutang

Haha we may be bored but we do got some sort of imagination! :)

Me cooking my first chinses meal! (and pictures from the fish market...)

2009-03-19T03:45:00.000-07:00

Picking out the fish I want at the fish market!

Yes...this is indeed an alligator! mhmm!

Octopus!! This taste kinda different but its not bad!

Me cutting the nails off the chicken feet! haha

Me cutting up a huge piece of shrimp for our dinner!!

Someday my Prince will come!!

2009-03-19T03:30:00.000-07:00

This is at the fish market we went shopping to for dinner! yummy! They let you hold everything so you can"check it out!" haha Jessica couldn't do it! it was hilarious! She was freaking out! But I wanted to try frog so that's what I chose for dinner but she said that that kind of frog isn't good.... so next time she is going to order this really good frog and she will cook it for me! I'm pretty excited! :)So I picked up this frog and I was thinking!..."How wonderful would life be if all I had to do was kiss a frog for my prince!...hmmm wonderful! lets see...? should I try it!!??" haha Christine was freaking out! she was saying "Don't Jodi! Don't really kiss it!" she thought I was serious! It was really funny! And for all of you who are wondering... I didn't really kiss the frog! But I will find my Prince one day!!! just not in china! I haven't gotten yellow fever yet! ;)

A night out with my Chinese Fam!

2009-03-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

This is the amazing cook!!! All the food is put in the middle of the table and everyone digs in! (using chopsticks!) yummy!!

This is the Fam! Jessica and I are going to give them English names next time we hang out!

So as you can see we do a lot with our new Chinese family! We love them! They are pretty much amazing!!! So one night Christine and Lawrence invited us to go hang out with the "fam" we went and choose our dinner at this fish market (oh man was that fun!) and then we went home and the cook went to work! (p.s. they don't have English names yet so at the moment you won't know their names because I can't spell their Chinese names) this girl was incredibly fast at cooking! holy cow! she cooks for this many people every night! (well minus Jessica, Lawrence, Christine and I) but she cooks for her mother in law, her son, her cousin, her brother and then her sister in law! It's insane! and did I mention her cooking is AMAZING! it was the best meal I have had since I have been here and I have eaten at a lot of places! It was really funny because Christine was telling her that we had chicken feet so she assumed that we liked it and went to the store and bought us some chicken feet to surprise us! She was excited because she said... "I know I am actually cooking something they will like!" haha Jess and I were like uh...crap! and you can't not eat it! I mean really.... So dinner was served and there was a whole bowl of chicken feet just for us! (the rest of the family doesn't like them!) so Jess and I dung right on it! biting of the toes one at a time...the crunch of the bone breaking was the worse part...but now get this! They were so freaking good! i couldn't believe it! I had no problem eating them! It was so good! After dinner I got the recipe and i am so excited to make them for you guys when I get back! they are so awesome! :) That night was really fun! They were all shocked at how good we were at chopsticks! haha ya....Jess and I are pretty much pros! ;)

My Chinese Dress!

2009-03-19T03:01:00.000-07:00

So when we got here Jess and I really wanted a Traditional Chinese dress and we looked and looked and we couldn't find any tailors! We were totally bumbed! But then when we met our Chinese "parents"/family they took us where we could get some dresses made! We were so excited!!! :) When we got there, there were tons of fabric to choose from and it took us about an hour to decide what we wanted haha after we chose the fabric we got sized....(we will keep those numbers confidential!) ;) It took about two weeks for our dresses to get made and these pictures are us getting our fitting done! :) it was so fun! haha it was funny though...they said now when you loose weight you can bring your dresses back and we will refit them for free! (if that's not motivation enough to loose weight I don't know what is....) before the end of the trip I will be going back! :) yay!

Lets Shop!

2009-03-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

Christine and Lawrence took us (Jessica, our other friend Kylee, andI) shopping and out to dinner one day! they took us to this HUGE shopping place and everything there you bargin for! Man I was awesome at it!!! haha There were these one pants I wanted and they wanted me to pay 200 yuon for them and I talked him down to 50 yuon! It was really fun! I quite enjoyed myself! Then they took us out to dinner (it was a pretty nice place) and they wouldn't let us pay! They are so good to us! We love them! :)

Tea Time!

2009-03-09T05:37:00.003-07:00

Tea is very popular over here in China! Whenever we go out to eat they ALWAYS give us some sort of tea or if you ask for it (in chinese...of course) then they will give you water! But wait!... Not just ANY water...they give you HOT BOILING WATER! its just wonderful! I love the feeling I get when I burn my tounge with the freaking water everytime! It's just awesome! haha I usually let it cool for a while but by the time its cool enough to drink your meal is gone and your so thirsty that you don't even feel your thirst anymore...gotta love it!

Christine and Lawrence (Her husband) took us to meet some of their family and we had tea time! they did this tea ritual I guess you could call it and its very special its kinda like a prayer and something sacred so it was really cool to see! and the china sets they have here are absolutly beautiful!!

Meet my China mom!

2009-03-09T05:30:00.000-07:00

Meet my China mom!.... Her name is Christina Wong and she is absolutly awesome! :) we love her so much! She is in her 50's but sure doesn't act like it! haha I am so glad we met them because they have been such a huge help! They do all our communicating for us and show us around town! They have taken us to some pretty sweet places! We love hanging out with them! Its so funny though because she is TINY! my hips go to her waist! haha she hates it when I stand next to her...she says it doesn't help that i'm white! (shes not use to all the attention!) ;) I look so fat when I stand next to her though so thats the only down fall but we love spending time with them! They are pretty protecitve...they told us..."As far as we are concerned...you are our kids!" haha (they don't have any kids) We were telling them about our vacation plans and they said.."well we don't like the sound of that..its to dangerous for you guys..." its pretty funny! I am so happy we met them! :)

Wow we are idiots!!

2009-02-24T03:31:00.000-08:00

So Jessica and I wanted to cook something and we don't have a pan and our head teacher was gone... (we usually borrow hers) our cookie supplies are VERY limited! it pretty much sucks...but anyways... there are two pans for all of us to share so we went to Aaron and Nicks room (they are our buddies) and there door was wide open... so we walk in and no one is there so we go into their kitchen to see if they had a pan...well they did and we were so happy!! WE WERE GOING TO HAVE AMERICAN FOOD!!! YAY! so we grabbed the pan and booked it out of their room... lol well jess and I were in socks so when we started running and went turn the corner we both slipped and rammed...well ramming is putting it to nicely... it was more like a head on collison with the door! Our heads hurt so bad...and other body parts...but to make matters worse the door was this chinese persons door so i don't even have to get into that story! lets just say AWKWARD! It was awful!! Oh my gosh it hurt so bad! I was rolling on my bed in pain! my hand hurt so freaking bad and for the next couple of days my hand was serioulsy so swollen! (have you ever tried to use chopsticks with a swollen, brusied, jammed hand!!!???) it's not very easy and it killed! I would have used a fork...but they don't believe in them!! but talk about an Instant Karma!!?? right!

My litte Kids! :)

2009-02-22T03:32:00.000-08:00

This is Ben! the cutest little boy ever! I love him! he is my little helper. He Speaks really good English and when he comes to class he always comes and gives me a huge hug!!! :) Whenever he sees me he always yells "Teacher Teacher!!" it makes my day! I love all the kids!

This is my little Annie! She is so cute. She is very quiet. I named her on the first day of class because some of the students are new and they don't have English names. So I named a lot my my kids after the nieces and nephews! :) Anways Annie cries for her mom a lot... its way sad but the funny thing is she doesn't talk to anyone unless she knows you really good and even then she won't talk sometimes... She rarely comes to class because lets just put it this way... She is just like cute little miss Annie Bennett!!! having the kids named after the fam helps me a lot! :) I miss you all!

This is Elizabeth and Alan! They are both so cute! Alan can be a little trouble maker and he loves to speak Chinese and he makes fun of you to all his friends. Its quite annoying but when you can get his attention and get him involved in the lesson he is a pretty good student! He knows a lot of English because he has been in the program for a long time now! Elizabeth is darling! :) Her English isn't that good but she works hard and ahh I just love em all! :) You will be seeing a lot of pictures of my kids as time goes on!

The pavilion!

2009-02-22T03:16:00.000-08:00

this is the pavilion we went too! Its on walking street (a huge shopping place!) its pretty fun! Jessica me and our friend Aaron all went. It was really fun! There is was this huge plaque of its history but we couldn't read a freaking word because it's all in chinese and of course...no one here speaks it! its frusterating sometimes! (sorry I couldn't get the pictures to stand the right way! no matter how many times i changed it...it always goes back! It's way annoying! so sorry!

The word "hike" means..."stairs"... part 3

2009-02-22T02:54:00.001-08:00

This was pretty intense!... we had to hike down this way steep part of the hill and so I thought hey! I will make things easier and just swing from tree to tree all the way down! (it didn't get me very far!) :)

This is the tenple I talked about in the story part I wrote

(My friends Seantay, Tiann, and Kristy)

So mom! remember how you said pole dancing was GREAT excercise!!??? Well I decided to take your advice and whip my body into shape! :) lol I love you mom!

(ps sorry this whole hiking thing is in incriamtes! it wouldn't let me put it all on the same thing...)

The word "hike" means..."stairs"... part 2

2009-02-22T01:53:00.000-08:00

This is us "pondering the moment!..." (and catching our breathe..) but this view was about the 1/4 of the way up... pretty crazy! We still had a long way left to go!

This is at the top and we are looking down at our "little Zhongshan town!" it was way pretty and we were really really high up! This is the whole group that went with us!

The word "hike" means..."stairs"...

2009-02-22T00:54:00.000-08:00

Me and Tiann gettin ready to go on the Hike! So apparently the word hike in china means just a bunch of stairs!! I'm thinking... why didn't anyone tell me this!

So we started hiking on this little path and we thought...hey this will be pretty easy! :) well so we climbed up this big rock and started taking pictures but when we got down and walked around the corner...oh boy! did we see what we really got ourselves into! I was thinking to myself.."You have GOT to be kidding me!!?"

So when we walked around thet corner we saw the FIRST set of stairs we were going to hike up and it was going to be like this all the way up! it was awful! The chinese girl we went with (Gloria) said it was an estimate of over two thousand stairs! shoot me now! i didn't sign up for this! ;) it was a three hour hike (2 hours up and an hour down) the reason why it was only an hour down because on the way down there was hardly any stairs and mostly a rough path. but still!

So Tiann and i took a million pictures that day because we needed so many breaks! lol everytime we stopped to catch our breathe we took more pictures so we didn't look weak! After the first 3 things of stairs thats when we started taking tons of pics! Tiann and I were completely dead after the first thing of stairs.... only 1,899 stairs left to go! :) p.s. this was the WORST idea we ever had! It was really smoggy that day but when we got to the top it was beautiful! thats when it was worth it! When we got to the top there was a little chinese temple so that was kinda cool. I guess people hike up there all the time to worship and to their Ti Chi (aka yoga) and Gloria said that mountain is where they make the soilders run up the stairs... I could barley walk let a lone run them! but it was actually way fun! :) they asked if we wanted to do it again sometime... i said i would think about it!!! that may be a once in a life time thing! lol

I'm pretty much a China celebrity!

2009-02-13T05:46:00.001-08:00

When Jess and I went to the light ceremony we had an hour to kill so we went with our chinese coordinater for our school we teach at her name is Gloria... she is way cool! anyways.. She took us to this historical site and we were walking up tons and tons of stairs and when we got to about the fourth floor these girls asked us to be in a picture with them...so we thought hey why not!!! After that someone else came up to us and asked us the same thing...so again we took a picture with them. This went on for about 15 minutes! there was a line of people waiting to get their pictures with us! it was so funny! So I ask myself....Is it my personal charm and magnatism or is it my blonde hair and white skin??? I will let you decide! ;) My bet is my blonde hair and white skin!

I'm NO chicken!

2009-02-13T04:24:00.000-08:00

This is our cafeteria food! Yes...this is in fact a chickens foot! (Michelle....I know you will just LOVE this!) ;) So hello! i'm in China! of course there is all sorts of weird stuff here and I got to try it! It took me awhile to take a bite out of it because I just kept staring at the bumpy skin and the bones...ugh it was so gross looking! Finally I just closed my mouth and took a bite...and to my suprise...It tasted like chicken!! :) Really it wasn't bad but the whole ligament and spitting out the bones started getting to me so that will probably be the last time I eat a chickens foot!!! They also had pigs blood there but I couldn't do pigs blood AND the chickens foot! plus...thats just gross! But my next food I will try will be dog!!... ;)

Home Sweet Home!! :)

2009-02-11T02:35:00.000-08:00

My closet to share with two other girls!! yay! The closet is right against the wall (left side) when you walk in and the bathroom is right across from that and then its our room...

This is my bathroom! notice the drain is just on the floor! no seperate shower or nothin! There is however a shower curtain so we were lucky! :) (sorry the pic is tilted i could get it so stand the right way! its way annoying!!!) anyways you get the idea! :) EVERYTHING gets soaking went whenever we shower! its awful!

This is my bedroom, family room and dining room!! All combined into one for our convience! ;) (really...my whole apartment is as big as my room!!) The bed with the pictures on the wall is mine!

This is my little washer! you have to restart it for EVERY cycle!! like the rinse cycle, wash cycle, sping cycle etc...

This is my super fast delux dryer!!!...not! It actually takes at least 2 days for my stuff to dry and it will only take longer when the weather starts to get hotter. its way humid over here!

This is my kitchen! Its about the size of stephanies bathroom! (the one with the tub in it!) So thats it! my home sweet home!! :) (well away from home anways...)

My first day of teaching!

2009-02-11T02:13:00.000-08:00

Today was my first day of teaching! yay! One down...150 to go! (something like that) The kids were SO cute!! :) I already have fallen in love with them! I teach kindgerten and they are ages 3-5 and 5-7 so its pretty fun! Some of the kids are new to the program so they don't have English names. My teaching partner Aaron and i got to name them today! :) I was naming after the neices and nephews! It will help when i get home sick! :) But anyways...for my first lesson plan we made monkey puppets and then I had a a crocodile puppet already made (it was so cute!!) I colored the sock green and then broke off the prongs of a plastic fork for the teeth. then after all of our monkies were made I taught them the song "five little monkeys swinging in a tree"they loved me chasing them with the crocodile puppet! So if I had to rate myself i would give myself a....7.5 or 8 out of 10 lol just kidding! I got a lot of work to do! its harder then I thought it was going to be. But I think i will just LOVE it and its turning into the best thing i have ever done! :)

I'm the "man" of the house?!...

2009-02-06T04:36:00.000-08:00

So today when Jessica went to get something out of the cuboard there was this nasty HUGE cockroach! I heard this bloody murder scream so I ran in the kitchen to see what the heck was going on... well It was the cockroach. She wouldn't get it and I couldn't just let it crawl all over our food! ugh.... so I put on gloves and went to kill it and I dropped it on accident and it was sqirming all over the place...so then I started to scream and it was awful! Eventually I got it! It ended up to be a sweet victory! My two baby roomates called me the man of the house because I killed the cockroach... I'm not sure I want that title because I don't know if I can kill the future cockroaches of my apartment!!! but I will admit...it was a SWEET victory! :) (sorry the picture is blury) There was no way in heck I was going to get close enough to take a picture! I zoomed in as far as I could!

"The Geniuses of funny!"

2009-02-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

We met this Chinese girl named Olive (she sat by us at the dinner thing) she was hilarious!! Anyways Jess and I were bored so we were taking pictures and making funny faces and she was laughing so hard!!! She was almost rolling on the ground laughing! And all she kept saying was "You are the Geniuses of funny! You do a good job on teaching me how to make a funny face!" So we asked if she wanted to be in some pictures and she got all excited! she wanted us the teach her how to make a funny face (however you do that) and so we showed her how to do a "grr" face in the picture. lol so lets just say if we teach the kids like we thaught her how to make a funny face we will be AWESOME teachers....hmmmm.....well maybe!? But the funniest thing about this situtaion was her laugh...it was the funniest laugh i have ever heard! :) (It could get annoying if we were around it for to long though...)

Fondu?...hmm I think not!

2009-02-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

So this other ILP school invited us to dinner and we had this fondu type thing i guess you could call it...!!! I didn't catch the name of this interesting dish!! It may have been called a hot pot but i'm not sure...i wasn't much for it...all it was was a boiling pot of water and then you put all sorts of raw meat and vegetables in it and let it cook...ugh! i didn't like all those flavors mixed and it just wasn't that good in my opinion!! There was lamb, fish, cow stomach, this meatball crap (it was not a meatball in my opinion! it was way sick!!) and other meats. The vegetables and potatoes were good though! but good news! Iam getting really good at chopsticks and i can pick up and eat just about anything!! (and spencer will appreciate this....i am actually holding them the right way!) he kinda gave me crap for that before i left! but anways this was my first interesting china dish i've had! the others have been really good!! :)

Hong Kong Temple!

2009-02-02T03:53:00.000-08:00

I wanted to go to baptisms for the dead in the Hong Kong Temple but i have to wait till we come back through Hong Kong because i forgot to make an appointment...oh well it will give me something to look forward to!! Anyways! We asked about 10 people where the Hong Kong LDS temple was and no one and any idea what we were talking about, if Buddha wasn't in it...it didn't exist! So we thought we would take a taxi because taxi drivers have to know everything!!! well he kicked us out 10 minutes into the ride because he couldn't even understand us! finally someone knew where it was and they tried to give us directions...so we hopped on the subway and about 20 minutes later we got off. She said to turn left and it would be about a 5 min walk...well we walked for about 20 and still nothin!! It was even a huge hill we hiked up...we were all sweating!! so we started back down and right when we went to get back on the subway Hannah (our other friend) saw the angel moroni!!! so we got to see it!!! and the lady was right... it was about a 5 min walk...but only if we took a right! ugh! but it was still awesome!! ")

The subway! (Hong Kong)

2009-02-01T07:52:00.000-08:00

My first massage!

2009-02-01T06:44:00.000-08:00

We got our first massage!!! :) the original price was $238 HGK and I talked her down to $150 (that included a foot detoxer, 45 min body massage, and a 30 min foot zone!) it was AWESOME!!! they put on a show for us. this dragon came and danced for us and a chinese band played! it was way fun!! The Chinese people were way funny and way nice! When we get to China it will be way cheaper but we were sore from traveling..so we got one now! The lady in the pic was the one i made a deal with. She was so so nice. afterwards she showed us around and helped us find our way back to the subway and showed us where to go and such! it was way fun!

"yeah! I went to Disneyland in Hong Kong!!"

2009-02-01T06:23:00.000-08:00

This was so so fun! Jess and I made really good friends with these two other girls in our group (Hannah and Lindsey) and we all went to Disneyland! it was $300 HGK dollars ($45 in ours) totally worth it! its a lot smaller then our disneyland though!! we only spent like 3 hours there and after that we got bored. The only adult rides were really the space mountain, its a small world and the tea cups. we were all so excited though we acted like we were five!! (sorry mom I will try and figure out how to act my age while im here!!) There were chinese people following me and jess and taking our pictures...we were the only white/blonde people there! it was pretty funny!!

Pop a squat!???!! "are you serious!"

2009-02-01T05:45:00.000-08:00

This is how you know you are in China!! This was way funny! we wanted to take pictures because ya know..dumb americans trying to use their toilets is quite hilarious!! this one girl in our group asked a chinese person how to use the toliet and she said we had to face the wall and hold onto the handles...but the handles were on the opposite side! it was seriouly confusing and thats just not normal if you can't figure out how to use a freaking toliet! ;) Anyways right as we were taking pictures a whole group of chinese people walked in and were looking at us way weird..can't imagine why!!!

I'm in HONG KONG CHINA!!!

2009-02-01T05:27:00.000-08:00

I got here safe! Hong Kong is just like New York in my opinion. BUSY BUSY BUSY with lots and lots of people and bulidings! The water here was pretty clear and our hotel was way nice!! Anways this is the view from Vitorias peak (the highest mountain in Hong Kong) Oh and the reason it took me so long to post new blongs is because our internet was ALL in chinese charcters! Seriously!! So we had to wait till we could get a translater lol that was way annoying! oh well it's kinda funny!

I wanna be a race car driver!

2009-01-25T11:57:00.000-08:00

Britt and I got set up with these boys from Tremonton. It was a way fun date! Probably one of the funnest dates I've been on and it was a blind date! (go figure!) They took us to Salt Lake and we went to dinner (olive garden) and after that we went to this race car place (go carts) These two boys are way into racing anything with wheels so of course they kicked our trash! But Britt and I had fun attempting to win....lol me and Britt bumped into each other pretty hard leaving her really sore and me having a bruise!!! We almost got thrown out because we were bumping into each other to much...or in other words "having to much fun!" I think I came in last place (time wise) for both races... but you have to keep in mind i'm the drivers ed teachers daughter so of course I was obeying ALL the rules!! ;) but if we were counting on the actual track...I didn't come in last both times...just one of them!!

Snowboarding

2009-01-25T11:33:00.001-08:00

My brother Spencer and Ted and their friend Tyson invited me and Brittney to go snowboarding! We had nothing to do so we thought "hey why not!! it could be fun!" :) we went and got all geared up and Spencer took us up to the bunny hill.... we didn't do so hot! I think I fell down at least most of the way! Spencer took us down a few more times and tried to show us "how it was done.." we didn't get it so he left us to practice by ourselves! For what seemed hours later they came back to see how we were doing! We were doing fairly well! We had finally got to the point where we could make it down the mountain with only one fall or if we were really lucky...we could get done the mountain with no falls!! Spencer and those guys decided to take us down a "real slope" and thought we were ready...hahaha little did they know! well so we were trying to go down this hill and I took a wrong turn and went down the steep part! Boy was I freaking out!! I couldn't stop so I had to make myself biff it and that hurt way bad!!! Britt was smart and took it slower so she didn't get off track...she did really good!! Tyson and Ted went down with her and Spencer went down the stupid steep mountain with me. Well I started to get the hang of it again so Spencer went a head and said he would meet me down at the bottom! Well I got 'so good' that I decided I could possibly do trick! Ya know! nothing big just a small simple trick! well obviously I couldn't and I caught my front edge and ate it so hard I got knocked out...! how embarrassing! I woke up to a circle of boys (cute boys non the less) poking me saying "dude! are you ok!" So i quickly got up and slowly went down the mountain finding all four of them waiting for me. I was bawling at this point! it was pretty funny!!! So I learned a valuable lesson....STICK TO SKIING! :)