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.