Snow????

It snowed in St George that is weird!

So Rachel and I Went to the horses the other night and made a giant snowman it was the coolest thing EVER! it was seriously 7 feet tall we had to use a step stool to get the head on the top! It took us two hours to get it all put together.

Another day Rachel Keria and I went riding in the snow the other day it was so much fun to lope through it. Also Keria fell off of sly into the snow it was funny I laughed but Ryan was worried.

The county school district canceled school on Thursday because of the weather which is funny to me. I never got a snow day in all my career of school though I did have a flood day which i never thought I would have.

Leukemia

So thursday we found out that a boy that had gone to our school has leukemia and that they where doing a benefit thing for him on friday and colin asked if we would sing at it. So friday at 3 we all loaded into the bus and headed for kunming. Normally it takes us an hour to get into kunming but we made a couple different stops and such and it took us about 41/2 hours to get where we needed to be i dont think that the bus driver knew where we where going.

So we finally got there and the program started. It was mostly just a bunch of people that where doing random things. There was this band that was dancing as the "played" but if you looked closely or pretty much at all you could tell that they weren't playing at all it was pretty funny. There was also this dude that played the violin and it was amazing i've never heard anyone better and the violin was like just the frame it was so cool! Colin also sang and he was amazing better then anybody else that sang! then it was our turn i must say we didnt do to good but oh well. we sang because I have been given much.

On the way home we stoped for some dinner and as we where walking up to the place colin asked if we wanted to try some dog meat. needless to say i did not eat besides the fact all i wanted was an Ice Cream from KFC.

We finally made it back home at 1am but I had alot of fun!

Thankfulness

4 everyday things I'm thankful for...

1. My children! Matt Steven the Twins they are all so cute! Matt is quiet the little dancer and the twins are really good too!

2. Friends not people that you just hang out with every once in a while. But those people who really care and who you can really trust.

3. Internet where would I be with out it?

4. The knowledge that I don't need to fear the future

Thats Just The Cowboy In Me

i don't know why i act the way i do
like i ain't got a single thing to lose
sometimes i'm my own worst enemy
i guess that's just the cowboy in me

i got a life that most would love to have
but sometimes i still wake up fightin' mad
at where this road i'm headin' down might lead
i guess that's just the cowboy in me

Chorus:
the urge to run
the restlessness
the heart of stone i sometimes get
the things i've done for foolish pride
the me that's never satisfied
the face that's in the mirror when i don't like what i see
i guess that's just the cowboy in me

repeat chorus

girl, i know there's times you must have thought
there ain't a line you've drawn i haven't crossed
but you set your mind to see this love on through
i guess that's just the cowboy in you

we ride and never worry about the fall
i guess that's just the cowboy in us all

I feel like this song describes me right now. Sometimes I just feel like picking fights. Expecially when there is a way that something should be done and somebody (generally someone i dont like) changes it for their own gain. But thats just how I am sometimes.


One a different note We had a bonfire tonight out on the basket ball court it was pretty fun. we made smores and all that junk and just bonded it was good one last bonding time while we are all together.

Magic Of The Night

The chill of the fall surrounds you as you walk in the clear dank night.

There's an itching but your not quiet sure what it is.

The mist floating above the lake reminds you of a hot tub warmth rarely found this time of the year.

You hear a dog barking off in the distance and it sends a chill up your spine, because you know its not just any dog its a German Shepperd a trained attack dog. You put it to the back of your mind.

There is just something about the night that pulls at your heart. The memories that are slowly dissipating from your memory. They seem so far away, you try and recall if they really even happened or if they where just a dream made up by a restless teenager.

Running you feel safe, nothing is going to touch you. There are no people watching you as you run making you feel less superficial.

You see a guard walking the grounds it makes you nervous unsure of what he will think. Wondering if he will pull a gun or something on you. Doing another lap you cant see him making yourself more nervous. Putting him to the back of your mind you press forward keeping a constant speed but always watching for him.

The bars what better place then the bars. Slowly you pull yourself skyward.

Out of the corner of your eye you see a shooting star you drop to the ground to watch the Stars. "Some one once told me the kings of the past are up there watching over us" You wonder if someone is looking down on you. The stars more than words can ever say. They remind you again of times long past. Sleeping on a tramp as a child, staring at their vastness trying in vain to count them all. Laying on a tramp with your friends watching a meteor shower, with countless streaks fling across the starry sky.

The silence causes the world to almost stand still. There is no pollution being pumped into the air you can almost breath clearly.

You feel like you are the only one in the World, like the night was created just for you. Just so you could clearly think without any pressure from anyone else. For a moment all the world was right.

This is were I belong

I once again made it home safely!

Ok I'll be honest I'm not feeling particuarly inspired to write on my blog. So we shall see how this goes :)

Our journey began last Saturday the 25th at 6:30 in the morning after I had gotten to bed at 3am. We took our hour long journey into Kunming while on the bus the bus driver was listening to the radio and a country song came on an english country song it was so weird! at the end of our bus ride we dropped off the three and chelsea at the airport it was kinda weird and sad to see them go. We had never traveled with out the whole group. We spent that whole day in Kunming because our train didn't leave until 6pm. pretty much we just wandered around all day. At one point in the day we cramed 4 of us in the back of a taxi because we didnt want to pay for a 2nd one. When we finally got on our train we found that we had open beds instead of the closed in ones that we had previously traveled in. I didnt really like it my feet hung off the end of the bed. The train ride was a short 18 hours pretty much we slept most of it. Though me and Makayla climbed into bed together and watched a movie off my Ipod. And we played phase 10. it was fun! and short.

We arrived in Guilin Sunday at about noon. Our final destination was about an hour outside of Guilin a little town called Yangzhou. So we had to find a bus that would take us there we climbed on a bus and the lady told us that we had to pay 15 yuan when we saw the other people paying 10 yuan it really made Sarah mad and I have to admit it was weird I had never been discriminated against before because of skin color. Arriving in Yangzhou we checked into our hostel and decided to go explore the little town. we soon found west street which pretty much is the center of the little town and it was where all the shopping could be done.

Bright and early on Monday morning we went Bamboo Rafting. To get out to the river we had to ride some bikes and the place that we rented the bikes from had Tandom bikes so we all got on those. It was me and Emily and the ride was so much fun! I was in the front because Emily trusted me more though I dont know why but what ever. Seven of us went to Yangzhou, and the Bamboo Rafts only held two so I got voted to go by myself it actually kinda made me sad. but I found some random chinese girl to go with so I wasn't all by myself. It was pretty cool. About 3/4 of the way down the girl stopped to get some food. They had food places in the middle of the river! The people took forever to make the food so I jumped in the river to cool off. The river was kinda cold but not to bad. It was funny to see the Chinese reaction to me jumping in the water but I had fun! So back in the boat the girl gave me some food. Shrimp and fish it was kinda hard to eat it in front of her because she just went at it and I didnt eat the head of the shrimp, and I just picked at the fish because I didn't want to eat the bones. I felt so spoiled and stuck up it was not good. I have never pictured myself as spoiled I'm extremely blessed but I never saw myself as stuck up until that point of time. It made me appreiate American food that much more!

Ok so there we where floating down the last strech of the river and guess what I see!!!! Yeah a horse I RODE A HORSE IN CHINA!!!! It was so cool the dude let me ride it all by myself and yeah it was awesome! though the animal was stupid so hard mouthed and sided it tried to go down in the river with me but I stopped it! it was so much fun and was deffinetly a good thing! another thing down on my list of stuff to do while here in China! Our bikes had been brought to this part of the river so we just had to ride home which wasn't to hard again I was the one in the front. We sang Sound of Music it was such a Blast!!

After taking a short break at the Hostel Sarah, Makayla and I set out to explore some more on the bikes. We rode along the river for a while and then went back into some sucluded little towns. It was so pretty this whole area was some of the prettiest I have ever seen! It was pretty much amazing the Mountains where pretty much straight up and really small and so green it was all so green and the weather was amazing to it was so warm!

Tuesday the group wanted to go a tour of the Mountains surrounding the city. When I found out that we where going to have a guide and that everyone else was going to ride scooters I said forget that and I decided to just take a bike a explore by myself. Makayla being the awesome person that she is came with me and we just went out and explored all by ourselfs. When we reached the Butterfly place we noticed some people rock climbing so we decided to go watch them. Makayla wasnt to sure she was worried what they would think of us and my reply was "we'll probably never see these people again" so we went and watched them it was cool to see! though it was bad because before that I wasn't going to go rock climbing but after watching them I couldn't not do it. We saw a BUFF Asian dude he was so ripped probably the most ripped person I have ever seen. Up to this point the Asians where all skinny things with no meat on their bones. It was to say the least interesting.

Continuing on our way we stopped to look at some thing on the side of the road and I said it wouldn't be funny if we ran into the others. And then after stopping to get a drink of water Kayla said hey there's Bonnie. At First I thought she was joking because I didn't see her but sure enough there they where. We followed them for a little bit until we hit the moon hill but then we stopped to take picutres and they continued onward. A while later we came upon this mountain with cool little caves in the bottom. So we pulled off the road to go explore it. Here we found more climbers, they where from Canada. After talking to them for a little bit we ventured to another part of the hill and tried to climb to the top but about half way up I felt like we shouldn't go any further so we climbed back down and continued on our way. In total we rode eaisly 30KM and about 5 hours it was so much fun and cool to see the country at our own pace.

Wednesday Bonnie Makayla and I went rock climbing. Our guide was a dude named Shwa (Means Water) and me and Makayla had seen him the day before this made us laugh because we said that we would probably never see those people again but we did. The first climb we did was a 5.8 it wasn't to hard and a lot of fun though our guide made us wear helmets which was dumb but I could see the risk he took if we didn't wear them. The second one I climbed was a 5.7 but I almost found it harder then the other one. the third one I climbed was a 5.9 and I let go once because I had gotten stuck and couldn't see how to go on. Though I did make it to the top. My last climb was a 5.9 plus what ever that means but I fell quiet a few times on this one and only made it about 2/3 of the way up but it was still fun. This was Makayla's first time climbing and she out climbed me but oh well life goes on. Makayla, Bonnie and decided that we are all going to become climbing bums when it gets warm enough in Provo. I'm So Excited!!!

Thursday morning Bonnie Makayla and I just chilled back at the hostel. We watched Made of Honor which I had never seen before but I really liked it I would suggest it if any one is looking for something to watch. After the movie we went out to run errands and ran into the rest of our group who had decided that they where going to go swimming which I had been dying to do all week. So I ditched Bonnie and Makayla to go do that though Makayla ended up coming with us which left bonnie by her self I kinda felt bad. But we walked up to the river and started swimming all the chinese where staring at us it was kinda funny. The water was kinda gross you could see the oil on top of the water. Later that night we met up with the group from Guilin for dinner at Drifters. I was finally able to add my name to the wall next to my sister which was another thing to do while here in China.

Friday finally came and we went to the mud caves! I was so excited to do this! We had a guide through the caves which I thought was dumb and the mud part was just a basin with mud in it. I think it was man made which I thought was dumb. But it was fun to play in the mud even if it wasn't what I was expecting. the pictures didn't really turn out to well because there was steam which turned white with the flash. it was pretty cool! though the showers after the mud where freezing and I was freezing the rest of the day.

Friday night we went clubbing it was so much fun! We just walked down west street and if we saw a club we would walk in and dance for a little. The Chinese thought that we where the best. The last place we where in was all decked out for Halloween and we got up on a stage and dance for like a half hour it was such a blast!

The rest of the trip was pretty much uneventful.

When we got back to the hotel the people that had gone to Sonya arrived and it was so good to see them again I didn't realize how much I had missed them till I saw them again.

I Love it here at the school it is where I belong at this point in my Life!

Halloween

Today was our halloween because we will be out of town on the 31st and we had to celebrate it with the kids!

A couple days ago I figured out what I wanted to be, an army person. so I dressed up in my camo pants and borrowed a camo shirt from Lexxy and also her high heel boots. I dont think it was quite what I wanted it to look like but still it was cool.

So my day began at 6 this morning I really think that I woke up up early because I was so excited to dress-up and share the holiday with the children! with my preschoolers I did face paintings it was pretty fun! I drew something different on each of the 19 children I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with that many different things! After lunch I began to set up for my older kids. We did a carnival type thing for them. My assignment was a Treasure Hunt, I wanted to do it outside but wouldn't you know it it rained all day so I had to do it inside. I was kinda unsure of how to go about this. But I just did various activitys in various parts of the room. such as the Hokey Pokey, and Doggie Pile. We each taught all 10 of the classes and it was funny to see each of the classes. The older kids are not as cute as ours and i really would go as far to say not as smart either, but it was cool to teach them once. the younger kids easiler caught on to the Doggie Pile. At the end of doing the various activitys we "found" the treasure which included various shiny yellow things and some stickers. I think the kids had fun I know that I did!

Tonight we Threw a Halloween Party, it was a BLAST! Pretty much we just took pictures and then played Mafia. Simple but it was a lot of fun! an perfect way to end a good day but the fun didnt really end there......

After the party I decided to make cookies to take on my trip with me tommorrow. I asked a certain friend of mine we wont name her to protect her from to much humiliation. She agreed and decided she wanted to make her chocolate chip cookies. So we decided to make hers first. they required butter (the butter is in this rectangle 2 gallon tub) so she litteraly tried digging out the butter with a chopstick. So while she was trying to dig it out it flung all over her face it was so funny! So we got the butter into the mix, and she stired it with some chopsticks. And a chunk of the batter fell on the floor and she just picked it up and threw it back in the mix. She had just been insisting that I dont touch the batter with my hands and she takes it off the floor and puts it back in. So pretty much we made 3 batches of cookies about 5 dozen we are going to be so sick from eating them but they'll be good and its less food I'll have to buy on the trip.

look for new pictures when I get back from Guilin i would put some on now but its 2 in the morning and have to get up in 4 hours.

6 Degrees of Seperation

In our group we have Bonnie Abbie Sarah Dan Emily Lexxy Natty Brit Makayla and Chelsea and we are all almost connected its funny.

Before the trip some people knew eachother like Bonnie and Abbie are cusions. Dan and Emily are brother and sister. Lexxy Natty Brit where all friends. and Makayla and Chelsea where friends. Since arriving here we have found little connections to one another.

Sarah and Makayla Both went to HI this summer and over lapped a week but never saw each other but they both hungout with the same people there. Abbie also went to HI.

I dated Makayla's Cusion and attended her old ward so we know alot of the same people.

While Leslee and Carrie where here there was a girl with the last name Allred, who is Chelsea's cusion.

My EFY councilor this year was Liz Day who was roommates with Abbie.

A Kid in my EFY group named Coulter is a little sibling to one of Bonnie's roommates.

Charity (my cusion) dated a kid named Mike also known as Chris who was on the Ballroom Team with Abbie.

Makayla has this friend named Sydney. and while in HI this summer she co-councilored with Sydneys' older brother whom Makayla had never met. And has become friends with. Mean while Sydney has gotten ingagged to a kid named Thomas Wright who's brothers name is Daniel Wright who is Friends with Lexxy.

Those are all the connections I can think of right now but it is way funny how it all works out.

Lunch, Party, Sleep Over, and Mid Semester Visits

Today I decided to not go into town with the rest of the group. Because everyone else went into town the cook didn't make lunch so i decided to go eat lunch with the children. I was unsure of how to go about this so I headed up to their classroom and just walked with them down to lunch. Upon arriving down there I found that each kid had a tray set out for them. I thought to myself great how am I going to pull this off? There where big bowls with rice in them and looking around I found some smaller bowls. So I snatched up a bowl and a spoon (yeah they eat with spoons while we eat with chopsticks so unfair) and helped myself. A teacher was watching me and handed me a tray with lunch on it. This was greatly Apperiated! On the plate was some meat looking stuff then sorta flat yellow noodle sorta looking things and some vegetables. Since I have sworn off vegetables that was an easy chose not to choose. I did eat a bite of the noodle looking stuff but it was gross. The meat was not half bad I probably wouldn't eat it if I had any other option but since it was my only option i ate it and a whole lot of rice.

Last night we had the funnest party it was Colins Birthday so we threw him a surprise party. I dont know why but 80's music seems to be our favortie so of course we had it bumping in the background, and I made this delicious cake. The asians' where telling me it was good and one even said I would have to teach her. How do you explain cake mix to them? but we also played lots of games like limbo and jump over the bar i got like 4th on this out of 13 of us and I'm probably the second to shortest:). We then played musical chairs I was the DJ but it was fun to watch them play. Pretty much that was the party but it was alot of FUN!!

After the party we all decided to go sleep on the basketball court. It has been really cold in our dorms lately so everyone was worried about it being cold outside. But everyone said that they slept better outside then they did in their rooms I thought it was funny. I also counted the stars last night and their was a grand total of 18.

Next week in mid semester visits i'm sorta nervous but excited at the same time because Jared will be coming in on Tuesday night (after we are done teaching) and will leave Thursday morning (before we teach) and we dont teach on Wednesdays so he wont watch us teach :) though he might come watch us teach the preschoolers :(

Favorites

I probably shouldn't have favorites but oh well

In my own class its hard to have favorites because I love them all though I could do without my girls. Though I do trust Steven the most he is the best behaved!

There is this new kid in Makayla's class and he is so cute!! His name is Matt and he has seriously stolen my Heart! though he is a little grabby :(. But his smile and just everything about him! I haven't been teaching the preschoolers in the morning this past week. But have been sitting outside just in case any of the kids are bad or need to go to the WC. His class has recess about half way through and he will just come chill by me and give me cookies and stuff. He is adorable.

Then in Dans class there is Brett he is really cute too! Him and my Gid are really dark and just cute. I used to be doing kitchen and I would sneak Brett extra food and he was really good about it he never told the other kids. I still generally have some sort of food in my class and I still sneak him food I really quite enjoy it.

In the morning there is this kid names Tyson and he has the prettiest eyes they look like they are just black and I guess thats how all Asian eyes are but his are just different somehow.

So those are my favorite kids.

Currently

I think the world is going to crap. Oh well what can you do?

I know there is a spider hanging from my ceiling and now he's on the floor

I want American food… best invention in the world ever

I have a framed backpack which is blue and I bought in Beijing China your jealous admit it

I wish I could be there for you when you need someone.

I hate people that are always out for themselfs and don't care about others that pisses me off

I miss my dog I cry knowing that I will never see her again

I fear nothing the only thing to fear is fear its self

I feel cold

I hear Makayla's ipod and Chinese people talking

I smell nothing

I'm sad that someday I'll have to leave my kids

I am excited for the day china opens up

I crave being held, the ranch, cleaning stalls and AMERICAN FOOD

I search for truth, knowledge, understanding, and love

I wonder what the future hold for me

I regret not saving more money this summer

I love my kids and Steven

I care about people around me expecially those that are about me

I always go to the restroom when I need to

I am not a cowgirl

I believe that tomorrow will come

I dance seldom

I sing loud and proud

I don't always do what I know is write

I fight when I'm bored

I write seldom

I lose… losing is a state of mind that I avoid

I win sometimes

I never have had blonde hair

I listen until you prove that you don't have anything worthwhile to say then I block you out

I can usually be found by myself the company of others is over rated

I am afraid of going back to the US

I need a friend that I can count on

I am happy about how blessed I am

Home Again Home Again

I safely made it back to Kunming :) I'll write all about Beijing later, so come back to read all about it!!

So where to begin? The begining I guess… *warning* very long and probably not very exciting to read.

Our journey began Friday, September 28, 2008, Kunming:

We took a school bus to the airport. It seriously took us two hours to get there. It was kinda lame. But it was very interesting to talk with everyone on the bus. We talked about how WAMU had fallen, and of course, Dan's favorite subject: politics, and then music. It was a very good begining to the trip. In the airport we all chilled in this little café thing while waiting for our plane. Most of us ate some ramen. While we were at the airport Chelsea used her first squatter. This girl had previously held it for 30 hours while we were on our train to Kunming. Also we met this guy from France. It was really cool. I kinda thought he was cute but I also know that I just thought he was cute because he was from France; like Paris. what's not hot about that? Our plane ended up being an hour late, but no big. I've come to expect stuff like that from China. By the time we got to our hostel it was 3 am. We got to bed at about 3:30 am and woke up at 6:30 am.

Saturday September 27, 2008 Changdu

We woke up at 6:30 so we could go see pandas. Yeah, that's right, I've seen pandas. They are pretty big-not grizzly big- but definitely average bear big. I don't remember ever seeing bears before. I know I have at the zoo, but I don't remember what their tails were like. Pandas tails are pretty long. I was surprised. It was kinda ugly. So pretty much after seeing two pandas they where all the same, and I got bored. We also saw some red pandas, which just look like a cross between fox and and a raccoon. Still pretty cool. We also got to see baby pandas. They where so cute!!! I guess that baby pandas are born really early in development, so not all of their organs are fully developed, including their eyes. The flash of a camera can injure their under developed eyes and can eventually cause them to go blind. So we where not allowed to take pictures of the baby pandas. But I was able to sneak a couple pictures with my flash off. But some people were still taking pictures with their flash which kind of makes me mad. The people where Chinese none the less. Stupid people! At the end of the panda reserve there was this museum thing. We kinda just skimmed through it, but there where these exhibits with stuffed animals in them. They were supposed to look real I think but it was just funny how fake they looked, and they were really dirty. I don't think anyone has cleaned them since the place opened. There was another exhibit that had dead animals that had been stuffed, and they looked really gross too, but life like at least.

Monday September 29, 2008 Changdu:

Half our group went to the "biggest" Buddha the rest of us thought that it was to expensive so we just stayed in Changdu. It was Makayla, Cheslea, Brittnay, Nattalia, Lexxy, and I that satyed back. We slept in till about 11. Talk about being lazy *smiles awkwardly*. We all went to lunch together and then decided to separate to go shopping. I go this cute little Abercrombie sweater. And a light blue Puma fanny pack.

At 5 we met up with the 3 girls to go to dinner. We were looking for a place called Pete's Tex Mex. After asking half a billion people and two hours we finally found it. But man was it worth it! The Oreo shake was pretty much to die for. It tasted like cake batter and was really, really good! I also got some tacos that were good too.While we were waiting for a table a black guy walked past and Lexxy made a comment about it, and realized he probably spoke English. They then came to Petes and we talked to them for a little. We found out that they are Brazilain and stuff. Then while we were eating the waiter brings us a cell phone. The black dude calls us and asks what we are doing and all this jazz. It was a little creepy, but really funny. We were seriously there 'till 10 pm; and it took us an hour to walk back. But we didn't get lost which is good!

Ok sorry I know I shouldn't have felt this way but much to my dismay we arrived back at the hostel to find Emily. She and Dan got separated from Bonnie and the others and had decided to come back to the hostel instead of going to the mountain. She was all stressing about Bonnie and all this jazz. It was really lame!

Wednesday October 1, 2008 Changdu:

This was our last day in Changdu. We spent the morning packing and junk, left our stuff in storage, and yeah, headed to Petes for the third time. I wore my friends high heels the whole way. It was fun. I like high heels! On the way back we stopped in this underwear store. Asians are flat! We got back to the hostel and finally we met back up with Bonnie, though I was never worried. We then began our 33 hour train ride.

Friday October 3, 2008 Beijing:

We arrived in Beijing at 6 am and no busses were running yet, so we caught taxis to our hostel. But only Bonnie had a paper with the address to our hostel, so of course the first thing we did in Beijing was get lost. Pretty cool huh? We just told the driver to take us back to the train station and on the way we saw Bonnie and Sarah. We were blessed! Though Dan and his taxi had gotten lost too and Emily was freaking out and being kinda immature. So Kayla, Cheslea, Abbie, Sarah, and I went to Tiananmen Square while Bonnie and Emily went looking for the others. The square and the Forbidden City where both really crowded and pretty cool.

That night an Australin girl took us to this shopping place that had so many clothes and purses and junk. But I did finnaly get my framed backpack I've been wanting. I think I probably spent to much on it, but I couldn't get her to go any lower. I also ventured up to the art floor with the three. Ok, so at this place everyone is trying to get you into their shop so that you will buy from them. It's really annoying! I was walking around just looking when I walked pass this guy, just sitting there. And he said "hi how are you?" This really caught me off guard! But I just kept walking. But because he had been nice and seemed sincere I went back to his stand to see if there was anything from his stand that I could buy. I ended up talking to him for an hour. I told him that I was from Utah and all that jazz, you know, and he was like "so do you go to BYU?" This really took me back. I told him that I went to Dixie. And he knew that Dixie was down by Arizona. He told me that some of his friends wanted him to come over to BYU. He noticed that I didn't have a CTR ring on. It was just really weird. Not weird, but interesting, because honestly how many Chinese people know that much about us? He knew stuff about Romney and all this stuff. I cant help but wonder if he is LDS or if he has a friend that is or if he just somehow googled the church.

Saturday October 4, 2008 Beijing:

We went to the summer palace. I didn't want to spend the money, so I didn't go in. So us three (my roommates and I) went exploring around there. After meeting back up with the group, me and Makayla decided that we didn't want to go shopping with them. So we just hopped on the bus back to the hostel. But of course we got lost. We some how missed our stop and had to catch it again. Going back it was pretty funny. We took a nap when we got back to the hostel then everyone else went shopping. I then wandered out by myself. I found this guy that sold me rings for 1 Yuan which is like 25 cents. It made me happy.

Sunday October 5, 2008 Beijing:

We attended the Beijing International Branch. Outsiders are not able to talk to citizens about anything church related so they have a branch just for other people. It was really cool! After church we went to the mission presidents house for dinner, and it was the best food I have had since I got here! I seriously ate two huge plates of food and I had desert and it was just so good! I love that you can go anywhere in the world and find friendly faces that will always do what they can for you!

Monday October 6, 2008 Beijing

I went to the Great Wall!! Yeah that's right. It was so cool and so much fun! We went to a less touristy part of the wall so it was all decrepit and broken but it was still cool! We hiked along 2 miles of it. So pretty much I have been to the two places that you can see from outer space how many people can say that? After we got back to the hostel we headed out for more shopping! I was able to get some underwear, some earings, a bracelet, and make-up. It was so much to do.

Tuesday October 7, 2008 Beijing

We woke up bright and early and headed to the market. We got there at 9 in the morning. I was able to buy a really cute purse, some pants, shoes, scroll, and some shirts and a jacket. I never realized how much fun shopping could be!! I really like shopping. Especially when I'm able to get good deals. We didn't leave the shopping place 'til 2. That is seriously the longest I have ever spent shopping, but it was fun!

Where in the World is Carmen San Diego

Interesting Random People I Have met while being in China

Name, Orgin, Where I met them, other

Jay, Flordia, Train coming to Kunming, doing service here.

Tom, Paris France, Kunming Airport

????, Brazil, Pete's, Hit on Nat

????, Brazil, Pete's, Cuter of the two

Frank, Changdu, Train to Beijing, has a sister and nephew and studies religions

Ashley?, Australia, Beijing Hostel, Teaching English to

????, Canada, Pearl Market, took our picture

Steve, China???, Pearl Market, Knows english knows about the church

Jamie, England, Church, here to study but goes to school in Leeds

????, England, Church, here to study

Branch Presidents Wife, America, Church, lived here for 16 years

?????, Australia, Great Wall, 3 or so of them

?????, Isreal, Great Wall, 5 of them didnt come together

The Prince and the Princesses

So there I was minding my own buiseness going to do pull ups because I love doing them when I'm really frustrated or happy just depends. It was almost 10 and really dark outside. When all the sudden I heard something behind me I turned around and there he was my Prince it was love at first sight. I more or less gave him a hug and took him back to my appartment. He chilled in the bath tub for a little while i was in my room listening to my book. I heard one of my roommates go into my bathroom much to my dismae it was Makayla a moment later she said Chelsey come look at this. Chelsey said "its something gross isnt it." she isnt much of one for anything creepy crawly. I couldnt help but laugh at her. She said it was you wasnt it. I full out busted laughing. she didnt react to my prince like I thought she would.

ok so my prince was a Frog.

In our afternoon group there are three Sarahs. The two that are not mine have for some reason taken a liking to me. We have a break in between a couple of our classes and today they where hanging all over me. It was so cute. They are truly elect little girls.

Blessed Be the Little Ones

...and he took their little Children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them. ... And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: behold your little ones.

Ok so there I was the other day gathering my preschoolers when I looked to my left and there Tyson (which happens to be one of my favorite preschoolers) was sitting praying. It really looked like he was praying it was the cutest thing I have ever seen it melted my heart and made me like him that much more! I wish I could have gotten a picture of it.

So there we were minding our own business as usual walking to class when there are 3 chinese boys staring at us. I figure its because me and Emily had on the Jumpers we got today. but so there we where and they said hi. One of them was trying to push another closer to us and Kayla said something to them in chinese. So I said the only thing I know Chin Wa. Man you should have seen the kids face he looked so shocked and they all ran into the bathroom. it was so funny!!

Makayla, Chelsey, Bonnie where dancing in Kayla's room just before we where supposed to teach and all the older ILP kids where standing in the door watching and laughing. The boys would try and push eachother in. I tried to get one of them to dance with me, they all refused didnt know I was that ugly :(. Anyways so I call for steven and pull him into the music and he danced with me it was so cute of him all the other boys where afraid but Steven is smarter then that. I Love him so much! He seriously does everything he supposed to for me its so nice. He makes my class much easyier to deal with. I can always count on him! Also I've tried to teach the kids how to play tag and him and Gid are the only ones that really get it.

We where in the last break (there are two) of the day, lining up the kids. When a kid named Lex walks up to me and hands me a flower. Have I mentioned I love getting flowers from guys. (hint to all guys thinking of ever dating me) It was the prettiest flower I have ever seen! the kid is such a suck up, he must have know that we where having brownies. I just happened to have my hair down today. yeah I know amazing I dont do my hair down in the US let alone in China.A couple mins later Peter came up and gave me another one. followed by Gid I love my boys. I Love my Children!!!

By the way I'm leaving today for Beijing so I will not be on the computer for 2 weeks but I want to hear from everyone bbluvsfame@gmail

3 Essentails to Life

So while here in China I believe that there are "The Essentails." They would be 1. Electricty 2. Water and 3. Internet (4 including food).

So our story begins on Sunday afternoon. The children had the day off of school because of some mid-autumn festival. So I had ventured down to their apartments to play with them when it starts to sprinkle. The nanny pulls the children inside and tell me to come in to. I do for a little while. It then starts raining cats and dogs while I'm getting restless. Much to the nannys dismay I leave. (The Chinese don't like rain I have concluded). The school is pretty much flooding. There is so much water everywhere! It is so cool. I love the rain when it's not interfering with riding horses. So I'm splashing in the water heading down to the field where Dan and others are playing soccer. I decide to join them since I'm already soaked and I had wanted to play soccer all day. It was so much fun. I love soccer.

After we were done playing soccer, I headed back to my apartment and find my roommates with a wet bed and the power out. Fun huh?? Little did I know it was just the beginning of the fun. The power would come on for a few minutes every now and again but it never really stayed on for very long. So without the power on we didn't have internet. That didn't bother me at first but it was one of my roommates' mom's b-day and she was supposed to get on and talk to her. She was stressing out so bad. I kinda feel bad for her but not too bad because she is on the computer talking to her parents two times a day for seriously an hour and a half each time. I'll be honest it really bugs! But what ever floats her boat. I don't need to be on the computer. Sorry but I need to vent to someone because I'm being "good" and not complaining about the people I'm with. But she is so negative it bugs the living day lights out of me and I really can't handle it.

So back to the story; so I go to bed with the power off and I wake up in the middle of the night to the lights coming on. So I get up and turn them off and don't think anything of it. I wake up the next morning and the computer is off so I try and turn it on with no luck. I try unplugging it and such and nothing would work. So I just gave up. It never even occurred to me that the power had gone off again. But eventually I figured it out. Later on I find out that the water is turned off too. So we are living without power, water, and internet. It wasn't very cool. Finally the power came back on at 7 last night and the internet came back up at 8. It was nice to have power again. But the water still wasn't on. At about 8:45 Bonnie came and told us that the water would be turned on at 9 but that they where having issues with the pipes so it would only be on till 10 and who knows when it will be turned on again. So Sarah and I went running and told the other people the news. None of them were bothered by it, and all but one elected to not take a shower. I think they are crazy. So I took a shower and had to fill our bathtub so we could flush our toilet.

So here I am. It's Tuesday morning and we have power after not having it for 24 hours. Though we still don't have water and who knows when we will have it again.

Snow Day

So I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of my roommate typing on the computer. mind you it was 3 in the morning. next I heard her throwing up so I ventured out to she if was ok. she just shrugged me off so I when back to bed. but I couldn't't sleep and i kept hearing her type and gagging it wasn't fun to listen to her in pain. In the morning she got a blessing from Dan. She was supossed to teach at ten but Sarah came back and told her that her class was cancelled. So she was able to rest through out the day. She and I later worked to set stuff up for her afternoon classes. Which we found out that we only teach for an hour on wednesday. another blessing for her. So it wasnt really a snow day but we got down there to teach the classes and colin said there had been an erorr in scheduling so we wouldnt have to teach that afternoon. another blessing for her. It was just so nice to see the lord cradle to her needs throughout the day.

For me the day was pretty much uneventful. I finally got my children in my Preschool class because they kept switching it around on us. the final census is Trason, he is such a pill he will not stand up in opening and if he does hes running around but I think he wants attention. Next I have Trevor, which if i mentioned him before I called him Terror but hes not really to bad hes alot better now then he was when we started. Then there is Stetson, hes just a good kid. Kenzie which is still probably my favorite out of all my kids. She is smart! Then I have one I named Coop because he didnt look like anything to me and I thought Coop was a cute name. This kid is hard he is probably one of my hardest. He eats his name tag and gets Trason to misbehave. But its all good and Finally there is Shoni which used to be boyd because she lookes like a boy and I thought she was a boy but I was wrong oh well she is still a pill.

After my morning class I came back and set up for my afternoon class which we didnt end up having. When we didnt have it I came back to my room and started decorating it. It looks pretty cool so far. I have this Palm Tree and a Crab then you know the arch at Cabo I made one of those with seals and seaguls on it. its all made out of construction paper. I'll get a picture when I'm done with it.

Last night at 730 we had a training meeting and at about this time some loud bangs start going off. So we run out side of our apartments to try and see what it was. We couldnt so we ran around our apartments to the field and saw fire crakers going off. they seriously went off for 3 minuets and none of the chinese seem to care it was really strange. While we where there I saw another kid light off a few and he was seriously only two feet away from it when it started going off I thought he might catch on fire. That was pretty much my day yesterday. It was a good day.

So below will be the Pictures of my kids

My Preschool Kids (mornings)

My Primary Kids Afternoon

I dont know why I dont have a pic of Mike I think he might have been Camera shy

GID

Andrea

Jack

Nattalie

Peter

Sarah

Steven

Teaching

We started teaching last thursday. The kids were pretty bad. I'm teaching the younger group along with my roommates Chelsey and Makayla, also a girl named Abbie. since there where only 4 of us we had 9 kids each when we are supposed to have a max of 7 kids. it was pretty hecktick. Bonnie our head teacher yelled at collin and told him we could only teach seven kids. he said that this was how it always was. but bonnie persisted. a kid name Dan was supposed to be teaching ELE and thats why we only had 4 teachers in our group so bonnie pulled him out of that and him teach the little kids with us. needless to say friday went alot smoother then thursday the classes where much better behaved. believing that we had our students that we would be teaching we named them. come to find yesterday they switched up the classes on us. I got most of my kids and then I got 2 other ones. My kids are Gid named after Gidgidaniah in the tennis shoes series, then I have one named Steven, Mike, Peter he is really cute probably my best next to gid, Andrea, Sarah, and Nattile she is a total brat the worst girl of all the kids, last I have a kid named Jack the chinese teachers call him crazy it makes me feel so bad for the kid he is my worst kid but i really wanna work with him and get close to him.

I also teach a class in the morning. these are the preschool aged kids and they are hell. We only have 3 teachers and 6 kids each. Chelsey Abbie and I are the ones that teach these ones. My home group is pretty good. I named these ones Ann Marie like off of rescuers down under because she lookes like her, Kenzie she is my best and smartest kid, Stetson, Trason, Todd, and Boyd i think there has been a role reversal here. i'm the teacher and he is the smart mouthed little twerp but he is pretty fun to work with. i think that him and Ann Marie are close because I had to stick boyd in the chinese chair and she would get out of her seat and go and talk to him it was annoying! ok so after my home class I had Abbie's kids holy cow these kids are bad there is a kid in the group that just cries the whole time. then there is a kid that mimics him. they love throwing punches at each other. they wont stay in there seats. there is one that i named terror that is so cute he is such a suck up before school started he hung around our appartments and would just be addorable but he is so bad in class he just sits there and speaks chinese and eggs the other kids on. when i got this class yesterday i was ready to cry i pretty much decided to ignore them as long as they where sitting in their seats and i just worked with the girls not giving the boys any of the supplys unles they where quiet and said the name by the end of class they where more or less settled down. though it took 3 of us to get them to line up on the wall so we could rotate them to the next class. the last class was likened unto mine own pretty good considering the last one.

All the Small Things....

Today we ventured to The Nationalities Village, which is located just outside Kunming about an hour and a half from our school. Within this "Village" there are little sections from all the different nationalities of China.

The first thing we did when we got there was ride elephants. It was so fun. Alot of people in our group dressed up in some Chinese costumes they had there, and took pictures on the elephants. I personally decided against the costume. But it was so cool to be on an elephant. By the way elephants have way bad breath! Once we were done with that we climbed on some rock elephants that where there. Taking photos on them was not allowed, and the Chinese did not appreciate us doing it, but Colin let us so oh well.

Next we hit the zip line. It was probably 200 feet long and over a really pretty lake. It was really exciting and a lot of fun.

We hit a little restaurant for lunch and the food didn't really look that good but I was starving and needed something to eat. So I settled for some noodles with vegetables and Chile sauce. Besides the fact that it was cold it was actually pretty good. I think I might have finally learned how to use chopsticks too! At least with noodles. At the school we only have rice so I have just been shovelling it into my mouth - not really learning how to use them.

After lunch we kinda just broke off into little groups. It was Sarah, Chelsey, Kayla, Colin, a few of his friends, and me. First thing we found where some swings. They where hard to pump on but Colin's friend pushed me (because I cant remember his name we will name him Mike because he reminds me of Mikey, or they way him and Colin interact reminds me of Danny and Mikey). Within that same little area there was a hut and inside there was an outfit made out of grass or something it looked really cool but really itchy. There was also a rice crusher and a bean masher. It was all really cool. On our way out of that section there was a cool little tree that we decided to take a picture in. Guess what happened, yep we got yelled at again for climbing on the stuff. Next we headed over toward the Tibetan village. We never made it there though. Instead we found these goat like statues much like the elephant ones. This time we made sure there were no security guards around before climbing on them.

Next we went to an elephant show. It was pretty cool. I fed the biggest elephant my corn on the cob. One of the girls from our group got a "massage" from the elephant it was really funny. You most definitely had to be there. That was pretty much all the exciting stuff about it. After the show my roommates and I just wandered around for a little. I did see some girls riding horses and I really wanted to but they wouldn't let me. So that's pretty much it. It was alot of fun and I would most definitely suggest you do it if you are ever out Kunming's way.

Oh yeah so there was this little goat tied up next to a statue of two big goats. There was a hole in between the two goats heads. The little goat went through the hole to get away from us so I went on the other side of the statue to scare it back to the other side. The other girls where nervous that the goat would ram them but it looked harmless enough. Picture this: I'm on the one side of the statue and everyone else including the goat are the other side. We decide to leave. Kayla and Dan leave first a few strides ahead of Emily and Chelsey. I come around the statue and scare both the goat and I so it takes off towards Emily and it's afraid and has nowhere else to go so it rams Emily in the thigh! Chelsey and I can't help but laugh and Dan and Kayla missed the whole thing; it was so hilarious. Earlier Emily had commented on how you just need to be faster than the goat. She wasn't.

Teacher Teacher

Those of you that have taught English know these words well. They are seriously my new favorite words. Today after dinner I walked outside and there where these two little girls playing. When they saw me they where like "Teacher, Teacher." The older one introduced herself as Angie; she was 8 years old, the other little girl was 6 I believe. The little six year old was riding a three wheeled scooter that had lost a wheel. After observing for a moment we decided to go play on the teeter totter and Angie starting singing "Row Row Row Your Boat," and then she sang "Jingle Bells." I think she mixed some chinese in the lyrics but it was so cute. Then we ventured over to the swings. again it was "teacher teacher push." So I pushed them on the swings for a little. I tried to get pictures with them but it was hard to get them to stand still. I did my best. Today we also ventured into Kunming where we hit the local DVD Shop. The local dollar has stregthened while the US dollar has weakened so if you want DVDs they will be $1.25 per DVD and TV shows will be $5 a season or if you want nicer ones $20. Some movies we saw today where Ironman, Interperter, Enchanted, Bee Movie, Wall-E, Rattatoulie, Bewithed, Casino Royale, Remember the Titans, Mulan, Clone Wars, Nemo, Lion King, Hancock, Monsters Inc, PS I Love You, Roman Holiday, Cars, The Notebook, MIB, MIIB, I Am Legend, Bugs Life, Fantasia 2000, August Rush, Toy Story, and some TV shows are Lost, House, Prisonbreak, CSI, Heroes, Greys Anotomy and yeah so if you want movies just Email me bbluvsfame@gmail.com

Home Sweet Home

I finally made it safely to Kunming China after 6 days of traveling and man was I ready to get here!

Chin Wa

I began my journey last Wednesday, August 20th 2008. I Flew out of SLC to San Fransisco. From San Fransisco I flew to Taipei which took 12 hours and I only slept about 6 hours of that. From Taipei I flew to Hong Kong; we spent two days there. Then this morning we took a train from Hong Kong to where ever I am now. We are spending a day here because only 1 train a day goes to Kunming and we missed it. But to get to Kunming we have a 26 hour train ride. Sounds like fun :o)

Ok so about my group. My Head Teachers name is Bonnie and she is 24. She seems like a lot of fun. Then we have a brother and sister combination. The brother is 22 and his name is Dan. He is pretty protective of us all. Its kinda cool. I think his nickname from me is going to be "big brother." The sister is Emily. She is really cool. She is only 17 but she is fun. She and I spent an hour talking in the airport about random things and now we are rooming together while we are here in this town. Next there is Chelsea and Kayla, both of whom are really cool and from Saint George. Kayla is actually Rulons cousin for those of you that know him. Then there is Abbey. She is my head teachers cousin. Then there is Sarah. I have not spent to much time with her but she did go out exploring with me and the siblings in Hong Kong. The last 3 I don't really know at all.

OK so finally to the story. A bunch of us went to the Hong Kong Temple. but me and two of the other girls did not have our temple recommends so we just took pictures of the temple. that lasted about a whole total of 10 minutes so we where going to go explore when we saw some elders. I personally was really excited so we went over to the elders and started talking to them. Two of the elders were American and the other was Chinese. The elders took us inside the chapel which was located on a floor of the temple. Inside we talked for about 45 Min's. The Chinese Elder acted like he didn't really know English but the American elders said he did. So toward the end of the conversation I shyly asked the elders what Chin Wa meant. The Americans said they did not know and the Chinese did not admit to knowing what it meant so I told them what I thought it meant and the Chinese elder admitted that it did mean "kiss me." It was so cute because he was shy and it was just so fun to talk to the elders. And it was fun to visit the temple. It was so pretty. We talked with the Temple President for a little. He was half Chinese and half Hawaiian; he was really cute. Its just so fun how cute all the people are.

When we arrived at this city there was a guy standing there and he said he was from our city. So immediately I was like "Colin?" And he said "yes." So I ran up and gave him a hug. And he asked me who I was. But it was cool to finally meet him. And yeah, thats pretty much how life has been so far. ILY all

Beth