I am thankful that we had a beautiful black lab for almost 14 years.
I am thankful that she was the greatest friend any one could ask for.
I am thankful that she gave us many laughs, a fur coat to cry into, and memories to last a lifetime.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
The Closing of a Chapter
I am thankful that we had a beautiful black lab for almost 14 years.
I am thankful that she was the greatest friend any one could ask for.
I am thankful that she gave us many laughs, a fur coat to cry into, and memories to last a lifetime.
My Birthday & Lantern Festival
Picture taken from my window...I spy 3 pairs of lucky red undies...hope my neighbors don't mind ;)
I celebrated my birthday in China last weekend. It was quite a memorable day. The 1st half of my day makes for a good story, so when I'm back in the States, if you want to take me out for an adult beverage, Dr. Pepper, or hot chocolate, I'll be glad to share. The 2nd half of my day was fun. I went out to eat with Mai, Andrew, Emma, and Jeesun. I got a chicken sandwich and potato salad. Both were okay, not terrific. We went back to my house to eat chocolate pudding pie and banana pudding. The banana pudding was fabulous. The chocolate pie tasted like...soap. No joke. I thought it was the pudding, but it turns out it was the pie crust. I bought a few pie crusts at an expat store (they were on sale!), but I managed to take 2 of them back for a refund. I thought she wasn't going to give me a refund (they were cracked but I bought them like that), but the other woman at the store was very wise in giving this lǎowài (foreigner) her money back for soap tasting pie crusts. That evening, we went to the bar for dancing. Unfortunately, the bar was dead and I was FULL (drank a Dr. Pepper after dinner). So, we hung out and talked.
***************************************************************
I'm really irritated about some things, but a wise rabbit once said "If you can't say something nice...don't say nothing at all."
****************************************************************
02/27: The Lantern Festival was a lot of fun. The first park we went to was the same park my host family took me to visit. Unfortunately, we just missed the tiger show :( We were going to wait until 7 pm, but we needed to head on over to the other park. The highlight this time was splurging and getting DQ.
I know...how pathetic...but I still got really excited seeing real life tigers.
The other park had so many lights and displays! There were also some rides. We rode on bumper cars. In China, we weren't required to wear seatbelts and drinking while driving the bumpers cars was no problem. There was also a baby in the front seat, which also wasn't a problem. I didn't realize until after the bumper cars that there was also go carts!!! I LOVE go carts! However, after splurging the whole month of February (hey, it's my birth month!), I decided I probably shouldn't.
One of the many gates
Red Lanterns
Me, Tiffany, and Jee
So, I couldn't figure out why everyone was wearing...devil horns?! Tiffany has been in China for 3 years, and her explanation was, it's like in America when we wear glow sticks...it's the equivalent of glow sticks.
Right after our 3 minutes of bumper cars
One of the many vendors
That's right folks...we saw the moon!! Oh, the things I took for granted before coming!
Tower (I forgot the name of it)
********************************************************************
Classes begin tomorrow. I have so many more pictures, but I need to start getting ready for school.
I celebrated my birthday in China last weekend. It was quite a memorable day. The 1st half of my day makes for a good story, so when I'm back in the States, if you want to take me out for an adult beverage, Dr. Pepper, or hot chocolate, I'll be glad to share. The 2nd half of my day was fun. I went out to eat with Mai, Andrew, Emma, and Jeesun. I got a chicken sandwich and potato salad. Both were okay, not terrific. We went back to my house to eat chocolate pudding pie and banana pudding. The banana pudding was fabulous. The chocolate pie tasted like...soap. No joke. I thought it was the pudding, but it turns out it was the pie crust. I bought a few pie crusts at an expat store (they were on sale!), but I managed to take 2 of them back for a refund. I thought she wasn't going to give me a refund (they were cracked but I bought them like that), but the other woman at the store was very wise in giving this lǎowài (foreigner) her money back for soap tasting pie crusts. That evening, we went to the bar for dancing. Unfortunately, the bar was dead and I was FULL (drank a Dr. Pepper after dinner). So, we hung out and talked.
***************************************************************
I'm really irritated about some things, but a wise rabbit once said "If you can't say something nice...don't say nothing at all."
****************************************************************
02/27: The Lantern Festival was a lot of fun. The first park we went to was the same park my host family took me to visit. Unfortunately, we just missed the tiger show :( We were going to wait until 7 pm, but we needed to head on over to the other park. The highlight this time was splurging and getting DQ.
I know...how pathetic...but I still got really excited seeing real life tigers.
The other park had so many lights and displays! There were also some rides. We rode on bumper cars. In China, we weren't required to wear seatbelts and drinking while driving the bumpers cars was no problem. There was also a baby in the front seat, which also wasn't a problem. I didn't realize until after the bumper cars that there was also go carts!!! I LOVE go carts! However, after splurging the whole month of February (hey, it's my birth month!), I decided I probably shouldn't.
One of the many gates
Red Lanterns
Me, Tiffany, and Jee
So, I couldn't figure out why everyone was wearing...devil horns?! Tiffany has been in China for 3 years, and her explanation was, it's like in America when we wear glow sticks...it's the equivalent of glow sticks.
Right after our 3 minutes of bumper cars
One of the many vendors
That's right folks...we saw the moon!! Oh, the things I took for granted before coming!
Tower (I forgot the name of it)
********************************************************************
Classes begin tomorrow. I have so many more pictures, but I need to start getting ready for school.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Happy Spring Festival!
Backing up for just a minute:
One of my favorite parts about traveling is meeting different people. I am still in awe of people that speak multiple languages FLUENTLY. One guy in particular sticks out in my mind. He has been living in Beijing for the past 10 months...and I would classify his language level as advanced. It was absolutely incredible listening to him flip from language to language...effortlessly!! I still merge French and Chinese. He speaks 5 languages fluently...and once again, I felt like the stupid American.
Happy Spring Festival!
Playing mah jong
On the 13th, I went to my homestay family. I spent the day playing mah jong. I ended up w/7 rmb! Around 5:30, we went out for dinner.
Decorations at a swanky hotel (also where we ate dinner)
Wen's grandma and me
I love banquet style dinners! There was SO much food!
Later that evening, I played more mah jong. I'm pretty sure I lost money, but I couldn't understand what was going on. At midnight, I saw the more incredible firework display. I can honestly say that the firework show put the 4th of July to shame. On the 14th, we went to a small park to play games. I was able to put a mask on and I tried touching the center. I did all right. If you hit the center, you will have a very lucky 2010.
I also threw rings onto prizes, but I wasn't very good at that.
I waited in line a long time to roll a die, but they ran out of prizes. I did take some pretty incredible pictures.
This child is absolutely precious! I asked for permission to take pictures (I've become more sensitive taking pictures of random people.) As soon as I bent down, he grinned :)
One of my favorite things about The Year of the Tiger is all the tiger hats kids wear!! Adorable!
We ended up going again on the 15th so I could win some soap. You roll this huge die, and if it lands on 6, you will win powdered soap! If it lands on 4, you will win a bar of soap. With 5 rolls, I only landed on 4 once, but boy was I happy! I LOVE soap!!!
My prize
During the next few days, I ate so much, played ping pong, badminton, and read. On the 16th, we went to a park in Chengdu. What I imagined and where we went were very different. There were so many people, walking around and shopping. The coolest part (I'm still kicking myself because I didn't bring my camera) was the tigers. There were 4 tigers. Tigers are beautiful. It was somewhat of a circus act (which reminded me of The Life of Pi and Water for Elephants). The finale of the show was when the white tiger sat on a ball with 2 paws in the air. Coolest thing ever. My mom bought me noodles, even though I told her multiple times I wasn't hungry. I think I would make a pretty lousy only child. I ended up telling my dad if they tried to get me to eat one more time, I would go home. I'm a big girl. If I'm hungry, I'll tell you. I know it's part of Chinese tradition, but it got old. We also saw people walking across the tight rope. My favorite part was when the guy jumped rope! I've basically decided I'm a real good person to take to A. comedy shows and B. circuses because I always laugh and gasp in the right places.
I think Dan Dan was tired from all of the festivities
On Friday night (02/19), the dean kindly took myself, Andrew, and another volunteer Emily, out to eat. We went to a bamboo restuarant. I had no idea there were so many different types of bamboo. It was delicious, and I think it's safe to say we all had a lovely time.
One of my favorite parts about traveling is meeting different people. I am still in awe of people that speak multiple languages FLUENTLY. One guy in particular sticks out in my mind. He has been living in Beijing for the past 10 months...and I would classify his language level as advanced. It was absolutely incredible listening to him flip from language to language...effortlessly!! I still merge French and Chinese. He speaks 5 languages fluently...and once again, I felt like the stupid American.
Happy Spring Festival!
Playing mah jong
On the 13th, I went to my homestay family. I spent the day playing mah jong. I ended up w/7 rmb! Around 5:30, we went out for dinner.
Decorations at a swanky hotel (also where we ate dinner)
Wen's grandma and me
I love banquet style dinners! There was SO much food!
Later that evening, I played more mah jong. I'm pretty sure I lost money, but I couldn't understand what was going on. At midnight, I saw the more incredible firework display. I can honestly say that the firework show put the 4th of July to shame. On the 14th, we went to a small park to play games. I was able to put a mask on and I tried touching the center. I did all right. If you hit the center, you will have a very lucky 2010.
I also threw rings onto prizes, but I wasn't very good at that.
I waited in line a long time to roll a die, but they ran out of prizes. I did take some pretty incredible pictures.
This child is absolutely precious! I asked for permission to take pictures (I've become more sensitive taking pictures of random people.) As soon as I bent down, he grinned :)
One of my favorite things about The Year of the Tiger is all the tiger hats kids wear!! Adorable!
We ended up going again on the 15th so I could win some soap. You roll this huge die, and if it lands on 6, you will win powdered soap! If it lands on 4, you will win a bar of soap. With 5 rolls, I only landed on 4 once, but boy was I happy! I LOVE soap!!!
My prize
During the next few days, I ate so much, played ping pong, badminton, and read. On the 16th, we went to a park in Chengdu. What I imagined and where we went were very different. There were so many people, walking around and shopping. The coolest part (I'm still kicking myself because I didn't bring my camera) was the tigers. There were 4 tigers. Tigers are beautiful. It was somewhat of a circus act (which reminded me of The Life of Pi and Water for Elephants). The finale of the show was when the white tiger sat on a ball with 2 paws in the air. Coolest thing ever. My mom bought me noodles, even though I told her multiple times I wasn't hungry. I think I would make a pretty lousy only child. I ended up telling my dad if they tried to get me to eat one more time, I would go home. I'm a big girl. If I'm hungry, I'll tell you. I know it's part of Chinese tradition, but it got old. We also saw people walking across the tight rope. My favorite part was when the guy jumped rope! I've basically decided I'm a real good person to take to A. comedy shows and B. circuses because I always laugh and gasp in the right places.
I think Dan Dan was tired from all of the festivities
On Friday night (02/19), the dean kindly took myself, Andrew, and another volunteer Emily, out to eat. We went to a bamboo restuarant. I had no idea there were so many different types of bamboo. It was delicious, and I think it's safe to say we all had a lovely time.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Back to the 'Du
Happy New Year! The Year of the Tiger
As I write this, I'm sipping a hot cup of hot chocolate. Was I really sweating yesterday morning?!
Vacation was fabulous. Hainan was nice. It wasn't Malaysia beautiful or Philippines beautiful, but it was definitely the right price. It was also nice not dealing with currency exchange.
January 31st:
Andrew and I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. All the flights at our gate were delayed except for ours! The luck didn't last long. Our flight was then delayed for 2 hours. We got to Hainan with no problems. When we got out of the airport, the cabbies were charging a ridiculous sum. So, we walked out onto the main street and got it for 30 rmb cheaper. We stayed at the Sanya Lost Backpackers Club Beach Hostel. On the reviews, it said that it was hard to find. I got the address in Chinese characters, but we still couldn't find it. So, a lady charged us 5 rmb to take us there. It's unfortunate that the lady couldn't just be helpful and charged us. They messed up at the hostel, so Andrew had to stay in the girls' room.
View from Sanya Lost Backpackers Club Beach Hostel
February 1st:
I woke up and looked outside. The hostel faces the "ocean" but looks more like a swamp. So, we had to take a bus to go to the beach.
On the road again
It took us quite some time to get there. We ended up at the Shell Museum. We could have cared less about it because we had one thing on our mind: BEACH. We ended up at Yalong Bay. It's beautiful. It's so funny because we were the only people laying in the sun. Most people stayed under those straw type areas.
Dinner was FABULOUS. We had eggplant, egg and tomatoes, and shrimp. The shrimp was cooked with lots of veggies.
We started playing cards. I'm not going to lie. I totally dominated.
A few pictures of the beach before we left the first hostel
February 2nd:
Beach
February 3rd: Beach. That evening, we were informed that the hostel didn't have the proper certificates to host foreigners, so we had to switch hostels. Oh China.
February 4th: The hostel arranged for a bus to take all the foreigners to take us to the new hostel, Sanya Lost Seascape Youth Hostel. I liked this hostel better. It was cleaner and was a better value. That afternoon, we went to the beach.
February 5th: Andrew and I decided to go to Sanya Nanshan Dongtian Park. The water was gorgeous. Chinese people love posing in pictures, so right after the beautiful water, my favorite part was seeing the poses. And the outfits! It's quite common for people in the same group (i.e. friends, family) wear the same Hawaiian print outfit. Chinese people completely embrace it.
Andrew and me
I think this meant no swimming?
As you can see, my pose isn't nearly as clever as this girls.
When Andrew and I were walking on the beach, a cute Chinese couple approached us and wanted to get their picture taken with Andrew. Andrew couldn't stop grinning for the rest of the day.
February 6th: Beach
February 7th: Beach
February 8th: Hot Springs
A German, Japanese, Russian, Belarusian, and I went to the Hot Springs. It was so much fun!! The first thing we did was stick our feet into a pool. That's cool you might say. But what's even cooler is that there were fish in the pool that would eat the dead skin off your feet. It was such a unique sensation. I'm pretty ticklish, so I laughed for a while before I got used to it. Then the others laughed with me.
We then went to a pool where you could get completely in and let the fish eat the dead skin.
Afterwards, we had "lunch". It consisted of cake and fruit. Later in the afternoon, Nadine (the girl from Germany) and I bought noodles.
After lunch, we went into the clay pool. You lather yourself up with mud and then you dry on the rocks.
After we rinsed off from the mud, we went to the salt hut. It was full of salt to exfoliate your skin. Some people took their afternoon naps in there.
I had a blast at the hot springs and will be taking my fam there when they come to visit!
February 9th:
One of my roommates, Julia, and I went to Yanoda. Yanoda is a rain forest. It was fun, but I was expecting more wildlife. We walked around for several hours and then took a golf cart back to the gate.
Eating noodles on a bus; Oh China!
Bananas
Yellow Bamboo
Bridge
People tend to use their shoulders to carry things
Edward (acquaintance of Julia), Julia, and me
View from the golf cart
That evening, I ate at the hostel. I haven't been sick in so long...unfortunately, the club sandwich took me down. UGH.
February 10th: I stayed in the bed most of the day recovering from the previous evening. I had white rice on the beach. It pained me to just eat white rice on the LAST night, but I didn't want to take any chances.
February 11th: Back to Chengdu. I had to take my sunglasses out of my purse. :(
View from airplane...gray, cloudy Chengdu
I had a birthday box waiting on me! YEAHA.
As I write this, I'm sipping a hot cup of hot chocolate. Was I really sweating yesterday morning?!
Vacation was fabulous. Hainan was nice. It wasn't Malaysia beautiful or Philippines beautiful, but it was definitely the right price. It was also nice not dealing with currency exchange.
January 31st:
Andrew and I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. All the flights at our gate were delayed except for ours! The luck didn't last long. Our flight was then delayed for 2 hours. We got to Hainan with no problems. When we got out of the airport, the cabbies were charging a ridiculous sum. So, we walked out onto the main street and got it for 30 rmb cheaper. We stayed at the Sanya Lost Backpackers Club Beach Hostel. On the reviews, it said that it was hard to find. I got the address in Chinese characters, but we still couldn't find it. So, a lady charged us 5 rmb to take us there. It's unfortunate that the lady couldn't just be helpful and charged us. They messed up at the hostel, so Andrew had to stay in the girls' room.
View from Sanya Lost Backpackers Club Beach Hostel
February 1st:
I woke up and looked outside. The hostel faces the "ocean" but looks more like a swamp. So, we had to take a bus to go to the beach.
On the road again
It took us quite some time to get there. We ended up at the Shell Museum. We could have cared less about it because we had one thing on our mind: BEACH. We ended up at Yalong Bay. It's beautiful. It's so funny because we were the only people laying in the sun. Most people stayed under those straw type areas.
Dinner was FABULOUS. We had eggplant, egg and tomatoes, and shrimp. The shrimp was cooked with lots of veggies.
We started playing cards. I'm not going to lie. I totally dominated.
A few pictures of the beach before we left the first hostel
February 2nd:
Beach
February 3rd: Beach. That evening, we were informed that the hostel didn't have the proper certificates to host foreigners, so we had to switch hostels. Oh China.
February 4th: The hostel arranged for a bus to take all the foreigners to take us to the new hostel, Sanya Lost Seascape Youth Hostel. I liked this hostel better. It was cleaner and was a better value. That afternoon, we went to the beach.
February 5th: Andrew and I decided to go to Sanya Nanshan Dongtian Park. The water was gorgeous. Chinese people love posing in pictures, so right after the beautiful water, my favorite part was seeing the poses. And the outfits! It's quite common for people in the same group (i.e. friends, family) wear the same Hawaiian print outfit. Chinese people completely embrace it.
Andrew and me
I think this meant no swimming?
As you can see, my pose isn't nearly as clever as this girls.
When Andrew and I were walking on the beach, a cute Chinese couple approached us and wanted to get their picture taken with Andrew. Andrew couldn't stop grinning for the rest of the day.
February 6th: Beach
February 7th: Beach
February 8th: Hot Springs
A German, Japanese, Russian, Belarusian, and I went to the Hot Springs. It was so much fun!! The first thing we did was stick our feet into a pool. That's cool you might say. But what's even cooler is that there were fish in the pool that would eat the dead skin off your feet. It was such a unique sensation. I'm pretty ticklish, so I laughed for a while before I got used to it. Then the others laughed with me.
We then went to a pool where you could get completely in and let the fish eat the dead skin.
Afterwards, we had "lunch". It consisted of cake and fruit. Later in the afternoon, Nadine (the girl from Germany) and I bought noodles.
After lunch, we went into the clay pool. You lather yourself up with mud and then you dry on the rocks.
After we rinsed off from the mud, we went to the salt hut. It was full of salt to exfoliate your skin. Some people took their afternoon naps in there.
I had a blast at the hot springs and will be taking my fam there when they come to visit!February 9th:
One of my roommates, Julia, and I went to Yanoda. Yanoda is a rain forest. It was fun, but I was expecting more wildlife. We walked around for several hours and then took a golf cart back to the gate.
Eating noodles on a bus; Oh China!
Bananas
Yellow Bamboo
Bridge
People tend to use their shoulders to carry things
Edward (acquaintance of Julia), Julia, and me
View from the golf cart
That evening, I ate at the hostel. I haven't been sick in so long...unfortunately, the club sandwich took me down. UGH.February 10th: I stayed in the bed most of the day recovering from the previous evening. I had white rice on the beach. It pained me to just eat white rice on the LAST night, but I didn't want to take any chances.
February 11th: Back to Chengdu. I had to take my sunglasses out of my purse. :(
View from airplane...gray, cloudy Chengdu
I had a birthday box waiting on me! YEAHA.
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