Thanks, Secondhand

A girl like me is impossible to find.

More China

My brother made another video of a part of our travels.  We ran across several places that had people practicing their calligraphy on the black stone walkways.  It was very interesting to watch.  This man was very good and even practiced cursive writing in English.

6th Grade Drama

I intercepted a noted being passed during science today and put it in my pocket for later.  I just found it again and read it, it made me chuckle, shake my head and then feel sorry for the student.  I just have to share it with you (it's best if I keep all the poor grammar and spelling and I probably shouldn't use any real names)...

Student #1: so whats up
Student #2: nothin much but boys r stupid. no offence to u, ur not just (insert boy name here) is.
#1: r u sad
#2: nope just my teeth hurt & im really tired & i lost my spacer
#1: oh sad
#2: chhya
#1: what did he do
#2: he just tells a girl he loves her then he breaks up w/ her & goes up to another girl and tells her he loves her but he doesnt cuz if he loved her he wouldnt break up w/ her

I kinda wonder where it would have gone from there if I hadn't taken it away.  I feel for the girl, sometimes I feel the same way, boys r stupid...no offence to u.

The Caucus Race

I was a good citizen tonight and attended my precinct's caucus meeting tonight. I participated in voting for delegates, but the whole time I kept thinking of Alice:

New Post

What with all my China posts, I felt as if I couldn't mix in my "regular" life until the story was finished.  Now that it is finished, I just want to let a bunch of "stuff" out, but that wouldn't necessarily be good.  So, here are a few things on my mind and in my life...

* Parent-teacher conferences are tomorrow night and we all know how well the last one went.  I'm a bit worried (that could possibly translate to "scared" in some ways).  Nothing has really happened, but nothing had happened before the last one either or so I thought. This term's conference is a little bit of a different format so hopefully that will help and not hinder my evening.

* Pi Day is tomorrow!  I made two apple pies, in fact, they're baking right now.  I really love pie and I've decided that I really love making pie too.  The thing that was holding me back before was the crust, it's the hardest part.  I've been getting a lot of practice lately so my crust turns out pretty good nowadays.  (Just pulled them out, they're the most gorgeous pies I've ever created!  Maybe it's because I'm kind of hungry and they smell so good, I don't know, I just can't wait for tomorrow!)

* Now that I'm back in the country, I'm not sure what to do.  I was so busy before I left since I had to get so many things ready before I left at home, school, church, life, etc. and I was so busy catching up right after I got back.  I think things will start to settle back down soon, but now it's like I don't remember what I used to do before the trip.

* I think I was bit by the travel bug.  Since coming home, my roommates and I have been planning a few trips: Orlando, a cruise, Ohio, and now possibly even Disneyland!  Why stay home when you can leave?

* I'm surrounded by some amazing people.  The last month or so has been kind of crazy for me at school, church, life and there were a few times I just didn't understand what was going on, I still don't in some aspects.  I've picked up some pretty good friends that just spend time with me and listen to me.  They may not be able to solve my problems, but they would if they could and when they can't, I know they're here for me.

* I've been working on my PAEMST application some more.  I just need to get my letters of recommendation collected, my resume updated (I've done some pretty amazing things over the last two years), and go over my narrative paper a couple more times.

* It's a good thing that China postponed any other posts because there's one thing I've learned in the last few months, I can't trust myself to say or not say something when I'm tired.  I'm still pulling out of the jet lag, I'm doing much better, I just can't fall asleep when I want to, so I've been a bit tired lately.

* Only 47 more school days left!  I'm just not allowed to start counting down just yet...maybe after Spring Break.

China Day 8

Our last day in China mostly involved the process of leaving China which was harder than coming in.  Our flight didn't leave until 4pm so we had until 1pm until we left on the bus.  My brother, Nick and I decided to try to go to church since it was a Sunday morning and the local ward started at 8:30.  We had general directions as to the whereabouts of the meeting place so we set off.  After two taxis and walking around too much, we found the right place and walked in as they were finishing the sacrament.  We stayed for the rest of the meeting and Nick ran into two of his mission buddies not even knowing they were in the area.  After church, we went back to the hotel to finish packing.  We still had quite a bit of time before we left so we explored the hotel a bit.  We checked out the pool to see what it looked like seeing as it was never open when we were around and then went to the top floor to get a view from the revolving restaurant.  We checked out and were on our way to the airport around 1 pm.

The check in process at the airport was crazy.  The people at the counter didn't speak much English and we all had to make sure that our bags were checked all the way through to LA instead of just our stop in Beijing.  We finally all made it through the check-in process and through security.  We made sure to fill up our water bottles before getting on the plane because we were looking at a long trip ahead of us.  We tried to get something to eat while we were at the Shanghai airport but once we were through security, there was no where to really buy anything to eat.  We were fed on the plane, but it was really gross.  As everyone was finishing up their meals, we hit some crazy turbulence, like what you might see in a movie almost.  Trays were flying everywhere, people were madly trying to put their seat belts back on as they were being tossed around, people were screaming, and I even saw some coffee leave a man's cup and fly at least a foot and a half into the air.  During this whole time, my brother and I were laughing our heads off.  It was very much like a roller coaster.

At the Beijing airport, we made our way over to the international section.  We had to go through customs to leave the country which was more intensive then when we came in.  They stamped our passports again and had us fill out an exit card.  We then had to go through security again (I was patted down each time we went through security in China, their metal detectors are really sensitive!) and we weren't allowed to take any water through even though we could have only gotten it at the last airport!  It wasn't too big of a deal as I had two more empty bottles in my bag to fill up before our next flight.  We had a few hours so we stopped at Pizza Hut for some real food.  We sat outside our gate for about an hour before we were able to board and when we did board, we found another security checkpoint!  Yet again, they took our water.  A twelve to thirteen hour flight is not very fun without water.  The plane we took back to LA was much nicer than the one we came on.  We each had our own screen in the chair in front of us and we could choose which movies or TV shows to watch and there were even games to keep us entertained.

We got into LA around 5pm on Sunday night (just an hour after we left Shanghai) and then proceeded to go through US customs which took about an hour.  I stayed at my brother's house overnight and then flew back to Utah the next day.

I have been back in the states for a week now and as much fun as I had, I am glad to be back.  Jet lag really kicked my butt (I realized that from the time I woke up the last day in China to the time I went to bed on Monday night in Utah, it had been 54 hours and I had only gotten about 7 hours of sleep), I think I'm just now starting to get over it.  I really missed eating with a fork and being able to eat chocolate any time I wanted (I just didn't see much of it over there...I really missed desserts).  All the smells around me are back to normal.  I can text my friends whenever I'd like.  Once my appetite came back, I ate a huge plate of pancakes, eggs, hash browns,  and steak at IHOP and enjoyed a lovely burger at Five Guys along with a root beer (I really missed root beer).  It's funny though, it's not that I have to have these things or that I enjoy them even all that regularly at home, it was more of the fact that I couldn't enjoy them while I was in China, that and those things are home to me in a way.

China Day 7

 This was basically our last day to do anything.  We had the option of going on an additional excursion to a small town nearby, but we opted not to so we could have our own adventure.

We started off walking to the subway and hopping on a train to get to the Shanghai Zoo.  This was mostly because when I had told my class that I was going to China, the only thing they asked was for me to take a picture of a panda.  We didn't see any pandas wandering the streets of Beijing or Shanghai so we went to them.  This zoo was huge!  It was actually more of a very large park with animals but the animals were very spread out.  We saw more animals in the small portion of the zoo we visited than in other zoos we've been to.

While we were there, we also saw the lesser or red panda.  The rest of my group didn't know these guys even existed which surprised me.

After the zoo, we grabbed a taxi to go to the train station.  We rode a bullet train to a nearby city called Hang Zhou.  Earlier in the week, our tour guide told us about when Nixon first visited China.  As a gift, he gave China a couple of bison and two sequoia trees.  Michael heard about the trees and decided he could write off the whole trip if he went to see these trees as he does an Arbor Day show and figured he could include these trees in one of his songs or skits.  We knew that one of the trees had already died, but were hoping the other was still around.  The train took us just under an hour to get there and we travelled up to 304 km per hour (about 189 mph), it was pretty neat.  Once we got to Hang Zhou, we had lunch at KFC (we were starting to get tired of all the same meals), but it was not quite the same as home.  We knew the trees were planted in a local botanical garden and we finally found someone to tell us how to get there.  We took a taxi out to a very nice area by a lake.

A few of the workers gave us directions and even walked with us a bit of the way.

Michael took a lot of videos rather than photos.  He was also really excited about finding the trees.

We eventually found the right area but the two original trees had died.  There were still sequoias there to see and hug as they were the descendants of the Nixon trees.

After finding the trees, we started walking back towards town so we could take a look at the lake.

Along the way we also found a gorgeous flower garden.  I'm sure it would be even prettier if it was winter.

It was raining pretty much the whole day so we were a bit damp.  We had a bit of a trouble getting a taxi back into town as we weren't really in a populated area.  Eventually we did grab a taxi to take us back and we got back on a train to Shanghai.  This trip was a bit more interesting as one of the locals took a liking to Dani and followed her onto the train.  He sat behind us the whole time and kept trying to get her to pay attention to him.  We don't think he was all there (he was probably missing a marble or two) and eventually someone complained and the train people realized that he didn't have a ticket so they handed him off to the authorities at the next station.

After getting back to Shanghai, we decided to go see the Bund at night all lit up.  We also found an underground market (literally--it was under the ground, not secretive).  A couple of girls at the market were talking to Nick and he discovered they thought I was thirteen and with my parents, Dani and Michael.  At least I was getting a little older.

 

We took a taxi back to our hotel that night and then started packing up a bit.

Here is a video that Michael put together of our adventures in Shanghai:

China Day 6

Once we were in Shanghai, the air was a lot better but that's because it rained pretty much the whole time we were there.

Our first stop was at the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Asia's highest TV tower and the world's third highest.  We went up to see a view of the city.  The tower is 468 meters tall, we went as high as 350 meters to the highest observation deck, but...

(Next door to the tower)

...like I said earlier, it rained a lot so this is what we saw.  We all laughed as soon as we got to the top (don't worry, there was an elevator).

At 263 meters, we went out on the sightseeing floor, glass floor and everything!  The wind had picked up a little and was blowing the clouds away so we were starting to be able to see a bit more.  We had a bit of fun playing with the floor too.

We then went to 90 meters for an outside observation deck.  It was on this floor that we also discovered a small arcade and roller coaster.  We had to stop and laugh at the Engrish instructions.

It was at this point that my camera started telling me that I forgot to charge the battery the night before, so I didn't take as many random pictures.  In the bottom of the tower, there is a wax museum representing the history of Shanghai.  We didn't think it would be all that exciting, but it ended up being really neat.

After the tower, we went to lunch.  At this point int he trip, the meals all started to look and taste the same.

After lunch, we went to walk the Bund.  We explored the waterfront and took in sights of colonial Shanghai and the Huangpu River.

After our quick jaunt on the Bund, we went to a local market.  We first started in a tea shop for another sales pitch and informational introduction like at the jade and pearl stores, but since my brother, his friends, and I don't drink tea, we left and went shopping before the rest of the group.

We practiced bargaining with several vendors and walked away from quite a few "deals" (that's what you have to do in order to really get to the good prices).  At the end, Michael went to look for sunglasses and Dani, Nick, and I got ice cream at Dairy Queen.  The cashier was very excited to use his English with his American customers.  His English was really good but he was also relieved when he realized that Nick could speak Mandarin.  This guy reminded me a lot of a friend of mine, Craig.  Of course, this guy was the Chinese version of Craig.  Nick ended up asking him how old he thought the three of us were.  Apparently I look twelve while I am in China.  Most people that I was just out shopping and traveling with my parents, Nick and Dani.  After that, it made more sense why more vendors didn't try to approach me to sell me things I didn't need.

The end of our evening was at an acrobatics show so the tour also provided dinner for us.  It tasted just like lunch...yum.  I couldn't take any pictures during the acrobatics show, so this is where the photos end.

China Day 5

On to day five!

This was our last day in Beijing so we had to check out of our hotel first thing in the morning and load our suitcases onto a truck that would meet us at the airport later that day.

This is the 80-story building that was next door to our hotel.  It's so tall I couldn't fit it all into one picture!

Our first adventure of the day was at a local pearl store.  It was another sales pitch, but also informational about fresh water pearls.  They even opened an oyster up for us to see where they get the pearls.

After the pearl store, we went to the summer palace.

(You can still tell that we're in Beijing because of the haze)

This guy was there practicing his calligraphy on the black stone walkways.  We found a few places where people would come and do this.  This guy was really good even with English cursive.

We learned about the Dragon Lady and her love of power.

The summer palace is next to a lake.  In case you can't tell, it's covered in ice, pretty thick ice at that.  People keep asking about the weather while I was there...well folks, it was cold!

We then went to lunch.  After lunch we stopped by the Olympic venues to stretch our legs a bit before our flight to Shanghai.  Two ladies from the group got lost and we had to hunt them down so we wouldn't be late for our flight.

The rest of the day was spent in airports, airplanes, a bus and then the hotel.  The hotel room was amazing!  Nice sitting area separated from the sleeping area and a huge bathroom.  Before going to bed, we took a walk around the block to check things out.  I immediately liked Shanghai better than Beijing as the weather was warmer (drizzly, but warmer), the air was better, and the city just felt more familiar (there was more of a western influence in Shanghai than Beijing).  On our walk, we found nine tobacco shops and four fruit stands.  Our tour guide told us that China has 1/5 of the world's population but 1/3 of the world's smoking population.  Let's just say there was a lot of smoke around.  At the end of our walk, we stopped in KFC (they're pretty big there) for some ice cream.