Nothing but Blue Skies

keeping busy

2012-01-26T09:23:00.000-08:00

Thank you pinterest for giving me so many ideas to keep myself busy while Matt is gone.

The latest? A raglan shirt for Miss Natalie from this great tutorial. Seriously so easy... and totally helped me conquer my fear of knits. (just remember to pull the ribbing around the collar as you sew... luckily Nat's double chin hides where i messed that up!)

I have like a bazillion projects in the works right now, I'll keep you posted.

And wait, what was that? Oh, you don't read my blog for sewing posts? You read because you're related to me and want to see pictures of my girl?

ok, fine.

And a couple more for her daddy:

The Mountains Have Earlobes

2012-01-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

Check it... the first of hopefully many family movies to come! This was our present to Matt's parents this year for Christmas, it totally reminded me how much I like making movies!

Natalie Mei

2011-11-20T13:17:00.001-08:00

Oh how I love this tiny little person. In case you missed it on facebook, our baby girl is here! I wanted to post her birth story before I forget stuff... this may be epic-ly long, and a little TMI so sorry about that, but I always like lots of details in other people's birth stories, so feel free to skip this post if you're just not that interested!

I was due on the 7th (a Monday), the same day as my normal doctors appointment. When the doctor checked me I was still the same as I had been for the past three weeks, so he scheduled me for a non stress test on Thursday. He also told us that in his opinion, nothing good happened after 41 weeks... so he wanted to induce me the next Monday if she didn't come on her own. I really didn't want to be induced! Sooo, fast forward to Thursday, (with lots of hoping that she would just come already!) I had the tests and everything still looked good. They told me my doctor had me scheduled for 11 am on Monday if she didn't come over the weekend.

Later that night, Matt and I were watching X-Files in our room, and at about 6:30 I started to feel something weird... I was pretty sure they were contractions when they started coming really regularly. We were stoked! I wanted to stay at home for as long as possible, so Matt got a bath ready for me and set up the computer in the bathroom so I could relax and watch some Gilmore Girls. It was great until the water got cold and I got sick of being all scrunched in the tub (normal bathtubs are not designed for six feet tall people, much less six feet tall people with a basketball for a tummy). So, it was about 9:00 when Matt and I got situated in the living room on our love sac. Then, a little while later I feel this big 'movement' in my tummy, I thought it felt weird... I thought it was maybe a gas bubble (TMI? Sorry, I left all sense of modesty and dignity in the delivery room) but then a few seconds later I feel like I'm starting to pee my pants, but my 'stop peeing muscles' aren't really doing anything to stop it. I said to Matt 'Ummm, either I just peed my pants a little, or my water broke!'. So he helped me up and I was halfway across the living room floor and I got all stuck, on account of it felt weird to be walking normal while wetting my pants. We were both nervous laughing a lot and I told Matt to help me, and he just looked at me like I was crazy and said 'uhhh, not really sure what to do', so I did an awkward walk/run/keep my legs together into the bathroom. And you want to know what they don't tell you about your water breaking? It's not like one gush and you're done... oh no, you're in it for the long haul sister! Get ready for a whole night of peeing your pants goodness.

So... of course I called my mom and told her that I was pretty sure my water broke and she said I should probably get to the hospital (my contractions were still really mellow, so I wasn't ready to go in for those yet). And I knew that when your water broke you were supposed to go in, so Matt and I real quick gathered up our stuff (which I luckily finished packing that morning) and drove to the hospital... nervous/excited laughing the whole way. When we got to the parking lot and I got out of the car, another wonderful gush came, successfully drenching my jeans. I was still stupidly trying to stop it (you can't really, by the way) by crossing my legs and doing a little dance. Luckily Matt was there, or I probably wouldn't have gone into the ER, for fear someone would see me in my soaked pants. I tied my sweater around my waist and held my purse in front of me (this is how not intense my contractions were, I was still worried about how I looked). Anyhow, made it up to labor and delivery (the wonderful thing about your water breaking, no one asked me any questions, they just got me gowned up and in bed pronto).

I had wanted to walk around and stuff during my labor, but since my water had broken, they were worried about the cord getting pinched, so they put the monitors on me and told me to stay put. I was dilated to a four, almost a five, so I was pretty happy! It was getting late, and Matt and I had already been up since 6, so I told him to take a nap since my contractions weren't bad. Sadly, I stopped progressing at a 6, so they wanted to start me on pitocin (enter me being not super excited about that). They did that, and whammy, my contractions started to be not so fun. I was having a lot of back pain and the only thing that helped was sitting indian style on my bed with Matt putting counter pressure on my lower back. Not a super fun. Luckily, Matt was a serious rock star, and pushed on my back through every contraction and reminded me to breathe. Man, I love my husband.

I stalled again at a 7 and they upped my pitocin... and I was getting really tired and not super with it so I asked the nurse for something to just take the edge off (I had heard there was a drug for that, and I didn't want an epidural) so she told me she could give it to me, but probably only for an hour, they didn't want me taking it within an hour of when the baby was born. So I did that, and it helped some, but contractions are contractions and they don't call it labor for nothing! Again, soooo thankful for Matt, I totally thought I would be a 'get away from me, don't touch me' kind of person when I was in labor, but I wasn't, and during the breaks I just leaned on him and held his hand. I was really glad when they started prepping the room for delivery... because I figured that must mean it was almost over.

When I was at a nine, they said to tell them if I felt the urge to push and they would check me again to see if I was ready. I didn't really want to tell them, because being checked meant laying down and that wasn't really that comfortable... but then I thought maybe I had to push, and I heard that pushing wasn't as bad as being in transition (and my thoughts are all a jumbled mess right now, you know, being in pain and heading on 24 hours of being awake). They brought the doctor in, got me all ready to push, and then, get this, they make me push, but tell me I can't make any sounds... cause that lessens my pushing power apparently. I was holding Matt's hand, and the nurses hand, and feeling like I was going to have an aneurysm I was pushing so hard. Then, they tell me I'm not pushing hard enough, and I'm pretty sure I was telling Matt and I didn't want to, or couldn't, or something to that effect. But alas, after three contractions worth of pushing, at 5:35 on 11/11/11, out came my 9 lb 12 oz, 21.5 in long baby girl! The doctor was surprised she was so big and asked me where I had been keeping her. There was meconium in her fluid so they had to get her all cleaned out and stuff (I had wanted them to put her right on me, but I was so past thinking at this point, I didn't even care).
After she got all cleaned up and stuff, Matt brought her over to me and she was looking all over, and as soon as I started to talk to her she totally turned her head towards me, like she knew my voice! It was awesome. I held her for a few minutes, then Matt went with her to do whatever they do to newborns and I slept. I don't think I've ever been so tired, and the whole night had just felt so surreal.

That's about it as far as my birth story (I know, super long huh? I don't even care if you didn't read it, this is probably the only place I'll write the whole thing out). But let me tell you, being a mom is amazing. After my nap and the return of my lucidity, I really got to hold her and talk to her and it was awesome. Words just really can't explain what it is to meet your baby for the first time. I love every little thing about her and I'm so happy that she's finally here!

the first grandbaby

2011-10-04T11:24:00.001-07:00

I was always curious to see how my family would respond to their first grandchild/niece/nephew, and it's been... interesting.

The other day I was standing by Annie and I leaned in to tell her a secret. She jumped away from me and screamed 'you touched me with your baby!'. Today she put her hands on my belly to feel the baby kick, then, when baby delivered, Annie jerked her hands away and said 'GROSS! She feels like an alien!'

I was getting some cream cheese frosting out of the fridge. I wasn't planning on eating it straight (I'm sure I would have found something to put it on), and Shane wordlessly took it out of my hands and put it back in the fridge. If he had his way, his niece would be raised in a womb that was fed only with organic food.

My brother Jeff sent me one of his famous one line emails the other day, it said 'so... this is awkward... I still think I should be able to name your child. I mean, it only makes sense'.

I haven't taken any 'belly' pictures for awhile (and I know I'm going to regret it later), so I'll just share this nice one of Matt and I.

Squirrel Cake

2011-08-23T14:17:00.001-07:00

I was sitting in my mom's kitchen with my *little* brother Mitch. Baby started kicking like the ninja woman she is so I asked Mitch, 'have you ever felt this girl kick?'... you know, so he could kinda connect with his niece.

'Yes, I've felt squirrel cake,' he responded haughtily.

I have a weird family.

(Matt took this picture at 27 weeks, I'm now 29 weeks and in my third trimester... just in case you were wondering, I know all I do anymore is talk about the babe.)

Baby Brain Dump

2011-08-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

Last night I had my first dream about Baby actually being here... then when I woke up, I missed her. It was an odd feeling to miss someone I've never met.

My mom just remembered the other day that my brother Mitch had the same due day as Baby (Nov. 7). My brother Mitch's actual birthday was November 21. Let's hope baby girl is content just sharing a due day with her uncle (let's also hope for my sake she's smaller than Mitch's 10 lbs 5 oz, and her dad's 10 lbs 14 oz)

I don't know why I was so reluctant to buy maternity pants (I was determined to go my whole pregnancy with my top button undone to accommodate the bump) because I'm now considering throwing away my regular jeans and wearing elastic waistband pants for the rest of my life. They are that comfortable.

I am twenty six weeks along. November seems forever away, but 14 weeks sure doesn't. (I'm almost in my third trimester, crazy yes?)

*please note: it has already been brought to my attention that it looks like I am arching my back. Let's clarify something... I inherited the infamous 'McBride Butt', creating the illusion that I am arching my back in every side view picture of me that exists(there's a reason you've never seen one before now). I am also aware that wearing t-shirts with skirts looks a tad ghetto, please excuse my flagrant disregard for fashion.*

Marrakesh, Morocco

2011-07-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

Morocco was crazy. Pretty much, I could finish the post there and feel like I summed it up rather grandly. We got in around 10 in the morning, but we had been up since 2:30 am. I was feeling good until the bus dropped us off and we walked into our part of the Medina (the walled in 'old city'). We were definitely not in Europe anymore. My first impressions were not good, I won't lie. Our hostel was the sketchiest place I have ever stayed, the streets were lined with markets selling meat and breads covered in flies, and the area we were in definitely did not look anything like the famous Jemaa el Fnaa I had just seen on America's Next Top Model (and that our hotel claimed online was only a five minute walk away). This combined with no sleep and crazy pregnancy hormones equals one lady who wants to spend her two days in Marrakesh watching Alias in her creepy hotel room.

Luckily, things started looking better after we located a supermarket and I found my ultimate comfort food, chocolate milk (seriously wouldn't want to visit a country that doesn't have it). Morocco was totally different than what I expected, but turned out pretty cool and really different from anything I had ever seen(which I hope someday will be really saying something). Hurray for visiting my fourth continent.

one of the MANY mosques

Matt with the snake charmer who tried to charge us 30 bucks for this picture and a few others like it. 'Ha!' was all we said to that.

In front of the main square(it was really cool once we actually found the place... the medina is like a maze from your nightmares)

A famous garden and house, once owned by Yves Saint Laurent. And yes, after who knows how many seasons of Top Model, I still didn't know who the heck he was. Luckily, Matt did.

Just eating some skewers. Eating these made us miss the spiciness of Hunan... strangely, Morocco made me miss China quite a bit.

Duisburg, Germany

2011-07-02T11:46:00.001-07:00

Our next stop was to visit Matt's family friend Kathinka (who stayed with them as a foreign exchange student when she was in high school). Matt was super sick when we were there (thanks to whatever Carter brought the 'runny nose of death' to Tahoe), so we took it pretty easy. Duisburg is a pretty city, but not a lot to see... so we just relaxed, took a walk by the canal, took a picture at Lego Land and ate some delicious German food. It was good to finally meet Kathinka, and her parents were excellent hosts!

I would definitely be down with being stationed in Germany w/ the Air Force so I could see more of it!

Oh, and how could I have forgotten to mention that we went to a modern art museum where Lady Gaga had just visited the previous month... riveting, yes? I don' t know why I forgot to mention it above.

Etretat, France

2011-07-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

Or, as Matt's family calls it 'the cliffs of insanity'. Whatever you call them, they were gorgeous(this is where I took the picture from the post below). It was a really blustery day, and Matt kept climbing into such precarious places I was afraid he was going to be blown away. Luckily for me, he wasn't. What would I have done in France with no translator?
(Oh, I wish I could have done these cliffs justice, maybe when I have time to sort through them for real and do some editing... but these will have to do for now)

(just in case you missed it on fb, my 20 week baby bump. Hopefully soon my belly will be bigger than my hiney...but we all know I will have to be very pregnant for that to happen)

Fathers Day

2011-06-19T00:29:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to give a shout out to all the amazing Father's in my life. My dad, my father in law and my soon to be daddy, Matt.

I can't possibly imagine a better person to raise my baby with. He's funny, smart, hardworking, loving, adventurous, and truly my perfect match.

He picks up where I lack, and I'm beginning to trust him as much as I trust my dad (which I told Matt at the beginning of our marriage would probably never be possible). I never get sick of being with just him, even when we spent almost every waking hour together for a year in China... if that's not true love, I don't know what is.

Happy Fathers Day Sugar! You're going to be great! (and just in case you didn't see on Facebook, we're having a little girl!)

'I see dead people' & 'Literature kills Architecture'

2011-06-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

I couldn't decide between titles for this post so I decided to use both quotes, since they sum up the day so famously. We finished Paris by touring the Catacombs, the morbid part of me just couldn't resist a mass grave. It did not disappoint, and was actually quite sobering.

You start your walk through the catacombs with the warning 'Stop, this is the Empire of the Dead'

You walk through quite a bit of tunnel to get to this sign, but this is where the real stuff starts. I thought a smaller section would be open to the public, but Matt and I walked fairly fast and it still took us 15 minutes to walk through all the bones(sorry for the blurry pictures, it was wicked dark in there).

After the catacombs, we picked up our rental car and headed out into Normandy. We stopped in Etretat(one of Matt's cities he served in and saw a cool cathedral(I know, a cathedral in France? Blows your mind huh?) and I ate some seriously delicious quiche. Seriously delicious. I must learn to make them.

This is my 'yum' face, but I think it just turned out as my 'creeper' face(and let the 'Kristal got ready in a public bathroom/shower' pictures begin! I thought I had seen the last of those for awhile after China... guess not)

Next stop was Rouen, where they burned Joan of Arc at the stake. There we saw the remains of a church built for her, and the newer one. Also, another cool, massive cathedral. It was while exploring all these awesome old buildings that I became sad that no one really does this anymore. Oh how wise you were Victor Hugo... literature really did kill architecture... big time.

The cross in the top left is where they burned Joan of Arc, the big black roofed building is a church, (Matt is unsure if it's dedicated to her, and I'm too lazy to find out) and what looks like piles of rock are the ruins of an old church (once again, we're unsure if it was built specifically for Joan of Arc... but why else build one in that specific spot if not for her?)

Then we finished the day arriving in Le Havre (Matt's first area) and meeting a couple ladies in the ward, one of whom was nice enough to lend us her house.

Let them eat Cake

2011-06-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

Can I just say, Marie Antoinette was my kind of lady. Well, you know, besides ignoring all the starving, dying, pre-revolutionary Frenchmen. We went to Versailles yesterday and her 'domain' was amazing. Seriously, she gets a bad wrap for building a little 'play village' for herself, but someone builds the Louvre and Versailles and no one questions their vanity? I think those buildings are both a little more excessive than a few peasant cottages, don't cha think?

Anyways, her area is where we spent most of the time, and while the rest of the Chateau Versailles and the gardens were beautiful(and ENORMOUS), I thought her gardens and smaller 'party/concert' buildings felt much more intimate and much less gaudy.

(the main Chateau and gardens, with the 'grand canal' back there, maybe you are smarter than me and already knew that some of the kings used to stage naval battles in there.)

The smaller 'vacation from your vacation chateau' chateau:

Marie Antoinette's Domain:

This is Sacré Cœur (obviously at night). On our way to see this, we stopped for some crepes. We saw a mouse running around on the floor. I then saw said mouse climbing through a hole in the wall that looked like it was specifically built into the paneling for him. When I mentioned this to Matt, he suggested that they let the mice come in to keep the place clean. 'Au contraire' I said, very Parisian-like.

The City of Love

2011-06-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

Day one of our Europe 'Babymoon' we spent in Paris, France. Matt served his mission here, and he's always wanted to show it to me, so here we are!

We didn't sleep much on our flight over, so when we landed in Paris at 7:00 am we were already pretty tired, throw in the Effiel Tower, the Louvre and Notre Dame (and searching for the right metro station for a bit) and you have a seriously tired couple with a grumpy wife who can't keep her eyes open on the metro and has to be held onto by her husband so she doesn't fall whilst nodding off. Needless to say, I feel asleep five minutes within entering our hotel room... even though it was barely 6:00.

All in all, it was a great day! We got to see a bunch, and I hardly even remember how much my feet hurt. I would definately recommend all of these places to visit, they were amazing. For reals. I'm realizing today though, that I should have made a 'bucket list' before I went to China and now to Paris, because seeing the Great Wall and the Effiel Tower definately would have been on there... and you can't add things to your list just to cross them off. My bucket list, should I ever make one, is going to have some serious traveling holes in it.

Kesha

2011-05-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

For all of you that thought that Annie and I would outgrow this immature phase, please skip the following video.

If you still planning on watching (which means you must be my Aunt Patty), please be forewarned that we haven't made a music video in years, and are obviously out of practice. We're planning something more epic for this summer.

Get ready for lots of hair whipping, drunk walking, a cameo appearance of my blogging celebrity sister-in-law Liv, and a few random dancing high school boys.

Baby of mine?

2011-05-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

Some of you that are new to reading my blog may not remember this ugly baby that VW generated for us:

I was not at all satisfied by the results.

That is why I am switching to this baby morpher for all my future morphing needs:

Apparently they don't think it's genetically impossible for two very white adults to conceive a child with dark skin. I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed that they're right.

*maybe next time I should look a little harder for good pictures... not just the random ones in my 'downloads' file*

I love weekends

2011-05-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

We spent last weekend in beautiful Monterey, one of our possible future residences. I love weekend trips.

I wrote a lot more about this trip, but then I deleted it, because even I was bored. I thought I would spare you. But it was beautiful, especially later when the sun came out.

*I would like to show you a picture of my baby bump, but so far Baby doesn't want to make momma 'bump' so much as 'pudge' after I eat anything.*

Too Long

2011-04-28T07:49:00.001-07:00

I know it's been ages since I posted, and even longer since I posted anything interesting, but this time I totally have an excuse... I've been a little distracted by something else:

Baby is due November 7th (and if babies being late is genetic, then Baby will probably decide come sometime the end of November)

Needless to say, we're really excited! I think the only thing that could make me happier is if Baby wasn't being born in the 'year of the rabbit'- lamest animal of their whole system.

Books I'm Dreading

2011-03-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

But at the same time, I'm also kinda excited to read them, obviously, because they are all on my 'to read' list... but for different reasons I have been putting them off.

The Canterbury Tales: this one was assigned reading from my Humanities class in college, meaning that during the first week(the week I pretended to be studious) I read halfway through the first chapter. I think 'assigned' books tend to give me a mental block.

East of Eden: Steinbeck. I can't decide if I hated Grapes of Wrath because I was too young to appreciate it, or if I just don't like Steinbeck(or that particular book). In either case, I've been putting this one off.

Les Miserables: I am actually REALLY excited to read this one, but as you can see, it's about as big as they come. My goal for 2011 is to read 50 books. I think I have to save this one for book #50, just to make sure I have enough time to finish. Matt is reading it right now and loving it.

The Brothers Karamazov: Ugh. Dostoevsky. Author of my least favorite book, possible ever(The Idiot). I have heard good things about this book though, and I figured I needed to give him at least one more chance before I swear off Russian Literature... okay, so I can't dot that, I still need to read Crime and Punishment and Anna Karenina.

David Copperfield: I love Dickens, so like Les Mis, I am excited to read this book but am intimidated by the size. Isn't it a beautiful copy of the book though? I'm slightly obsessed with leather bound books right now.

Ahhh, my 'must read' list is about as long as Les Mis. Have you read any of these books? Any words of wisdom or other books you consider 'must reads'?

I'm a mo-model, you know what I mean

2011-02-28T09:38:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I heard my mother in law answer the phone and say: "Umm, no, but Kristal would be good at that! Do you want her?"

Uh oh. My great mom-in-law greatly overestimates my abilities in almost every aspect of life. For all I knew, there was a nuclear bomb headed towards Paradise and they needed someone to stop it.

When she got off the phone, she explained that a lady in our ward needed a model to do a photo shoot for the magazine she works for. I had no idea what to expect, except that I would get paid 25 dollars. I really hate getting my picture taken... I think I'm the poster child for non-photogenic-cy. But, the thought of being able to claim 'professional model' on my resume greatly outweighed any aversions I had to having my 'camera-face' in a magazine. So I did it.

Ever since, Matt has been singing that Flight of the Concords song to me, "you could be a waitress, or a part time model"

I was waiting to blog about this until I either bought the magazine, or found it online... and today I found it online. So here it is in all it's glory.

I think it confirms my non-photogenic theory... considering there are three pictures of me, and two are of my bright yellow shoulder.

the part time model:)

Comfortable

2011-02-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

I can't remember where I first saw this video... so I'm sorry I can't credit someone with showing it to me. When I saw the title 'how to be alone' I thought it was going to be a downer, made for single people to wallow together (something I would have subscribed to heartily as a teenager), but I was pleasantly surprised:

Isn't it pretty? Matt didn't like it(thought it was weird), but I LOVE it.

I love her voice, how it sounds almost like a song, I love the style, the music, and mostly I love the message. I totally want to go out and do all of these things without feeling weird, because even though I love being together with Matt, I want to be comfortable alone with me.

2011-02-23T10:22:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law Olivia has this awesome blog. She's a writer/mom/photographer/all around superwoman and her blog is funny/creative/real. I always bug her about publicizing my latest whims; photography, Annie's swim lessons, my Etsy store, I'm sure she hates it... but she still does it! That's an awesome sis-in-law for ya!

Anyways, she is doing a giveaway with some of my hats over at her blog Gnome Sweet Gnome until Sunday... so check her out and leave some comment love. Seriously, you'll probably want to blog stalk her, I know several of my friends already do!

I seriously have the cutest niece and nephews ever don't I? (FYI: the model on my shop page is Mimsy, my other adorable niece)

Accessorizing

2011-02-19T18:12:00.000-08:00

For as bad as I am at dressing, I'm ten times worse at accessorizing.

I usually just stick to a pair of studs accessory-wise... I haven't even messed with a belt since high school. But when I saw this pretty belt tutorial, I really wanted to make it and hopefully wear it. I don't think Matt really likes it, but I thought I would ask all of you (like the two people that comment) what you thought. As you can see, I tried on practically all of my clothes that aren't in storage... I'm so clueless. I *almost* like it, but I'm not sure yet.

HONESTLY, what do you think? I'm not sure how I even feel about the 'waist belt' style on me, much less a ruffly one. Do any of these outfits even work?

Come on guys, I'm in Young Women's now so if it looks awful, I gotta know before all those teenagers judge me.

My Invention

2011-02-18T11:52:00.000-08:00

I like to sew. I'm fairly good at following a pattern, but I am without a single 'inventive' bone in my body. Give me a pattern, and I can make it (mostly). Show me something, and ask me to figure out how to do it, and I'm wandering around Jo-Ann's for hours like a chicken with my head cut off. I NEED instructions.

Anyways, I've been looking at LOTS of tutorials lately, trying to find a way to use some little girls shirts I scored a the dollar store, and some awesome fabric I found at Wal-Mart. At first, I looked at this tutorial, but wanted to make some changes, and wasn't sure how to do the things I wanted without WRITTEN instructions.

So, I decided to try to invent something myself. And this is what I came up with:

Old jean pant leg into little girls skirt! It's so simple it's laughable, I know. I had a little pink shirt I was working on 're-fashioning' and I thought it would look really cute with blue jean material. I like the seams in jeans, and wanted to use that somehow instead of just making a whole skirt out of new denim. So I got the measurements for my cute niece Mirian, and luckily, they were perfect for using the pant leg of some of Matt's old jeans. It was so easy, but I kinda like it. I also made the rosette removable so that she could stick it on the shirt or on a headband or just wash the skirt easier.

Sports Highlights by Kristal

2011-02-17T16:07:00.000-08:00

Note: This is probably old news to most... but what can I say, I stink at blogging.

Shane Williams gets another unflattering picture in the paper

Shane Williams, a senior on the Red Devil Swim team cannot seem to catch a break with the photographers from The Daily Herald. Last year, he was inadvertently captured in what came to be one of the most popular 'prep sports' photo of the year. This image was published no less than three different times in the paper and was even featured on this blog. Shane is pictured on the left.

Although Williams preformed extremely well in the 4A State Championship meet, placing 1st in the 100 Freestyle and 2nd in the 50 Free, he still ended up looking as if he is about to collapse and die in his photo. His older sister, Kristal said to him 'you don't have to be photogenic when you're wicked fast.' And he is indeed, wicked fast.

The Springville boys placed second overall, winning them their fifth consecutive trophy.

Jerry Sloan Retires, much to the dismay of Jazz Fans everywhere

An iconic figure for Jazz fans across the Nation, Jerry Sloan unexpectedly resigned from his position as head coach of the Utah Jazz, ending his career as the longest tenured coach of any of the four major sports. It was indeed a sad day when he called it quits after the Utah/Chicago game in Salt Lake last week. One obscure blogger, Kristal Carter, says this about Sloan:

"I almost cried when I heard that he was retiring... Jerry Sloan and the Jazz are like peanut butter and jelly, I just can't picture one without the other. At least I got to see one of his last games in Sacramento. Thanks for all the good memories Coach. I'll never forget my dad jumping up and down so high he almost hit his head on the ceiling when the Jazz won the game that sent them to the finals is 1998. And I always laughed real hard when you got kicked out of games for yelling at the refs. You will be missed."

Jerry Sloan has coached 1,903 games with the Jazz, 196 play-off games (2 1/2 seasons worth) and has taken his team to the playoffs 20 years out of the 23 he has coached.

Librivox

2011-02-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

I found the greatest thing the other day. Well, greatest if you happen to love reading classic literature and need audio books to listen to.

There is a site called Librivox, and it is a collection of books in the public domain that have been recorded by volunteers. It's awesome. I've been listening to them a LOT while I'm sewing or working out... so nice.

Pros: Free books to listen to online or download to your ipod

Cons: At the beginning of each chapter, the reader announces the book, chapter, author and a message from Librivox. This recording doesn't bother me, but I can see how it might annoy some people.

Anyways, try it out. (If you want to download it right to Itunes, search for 'librivox' in podcasts. Each chapter is an episode, so make sure to download them all)

a few I would suggest:

The Count of Monte Cristo - or anything by Dumas

Anne of Green Gables

A Tale of Two Cities

Favorite Movies to Quote

2011-02-15T13:09:00.001-08:00

It's no secret for anyone that has spoken with me for any length of time that I derive about fifty percent of my daily dialogue from a few choice films. The following movies aren't necessarily my favorite to watch, but definitely some of my favorite to quote.

{surprisingly} CinderellaStory

"Droughts are for poor people, you think J Lo has a brown lawn?"

"Where's your crowns? Where's your prizes? Winners get prizes!"

"You know it costs a fortune to fly that stuff in from Norwegia."

Fiona: I am very, very, very, very upset about this.
Brianna: You don't look upset.
Fiona: Oh, it's the Botox. I can't show emotion for another hour and a half.

"You're not very pretty, and you're not very bright... I'm glad we had this talk"

Baptists at Our Barbecue

"You dumb... water drinker!"

"Tartan spelled backwards is SATAN!"

"If you do not choose to take back that last statement, I will have to call church headquarters and inform them that YOU, one of their AMBASSADORS is willfully preaching blasphemies!" (you would be amazed how often this line is applicable)

Clifford

one of the best movies ever, please watch it if you haven't

"Don't reject me!"

"But I didn't say "Nice wig", Uncle Martin, I said "Bestest-looking wig". I believe there is a difference" (I mostly say the last part)

"And they tied me up, and then they told me stories...some of them were fun but some of them were scary!"

"I'm sorry, Miss Nice Older Person, but I don't know what you're talking about. Perhaps you were just having a nightmare about your early days in the circus."

'"Cause if you did I'd be so angry I don't know what I'd do."

"Don't worry about Clifford, he'll be fine if you give him a ton of sugar and a book about Hitler."

What are your favorite movie quotes?

Etsy Shop

2011-02-02T12:21:00.001-08:00

Yep, I did it. I started an Etsy shop. I just like to sew too much... I needed an outlet. So here she be:

There are only a few things up there now, but I'll be adding as I go. As soon as I get a few more things listed, I'll be doing my very first giveaway! Wahoo! I never intended for this to be a 'craft blog', but that's where I am right now, so that's where my blog will be also.

I got a pretty stinkin' cute model too:

Chinese

2011-01-17T13:21:00.000-08:00

Matt got a Rosetta Stone for Christmas. He's been forcing me to learn ever since... the only motivation I see in my learning Chinese now is so that we can speak code together.

Take for instance the other day when I was very angry with him (we both have pretty violent tempers). I needed to express my frustration in a way that was not English, like they do in the movies.

'Hong se da yu' I hissed at him, quite darkly.

He was not offended. Probably because I only know enough Chinese to effectively label him a 'red fish'. But just you wait Henry Higgins, my next lesson is 'shopping', and if they teach you how to shop China style, I should be learning all sorts of insults.

Faux Tutorial: FHE Memory Game

2011-01-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm doing a semi-tutorial. It just seems like the homemaker/blogger thing to do these days. This one is really easy, and not so much a tutorial as a sharing of ideas. This is a set of memory cards matching the Apostles with their names. My mother-in-law made this particular set to use at a Stake activity using the pictures that they sell at the Distribution Center. They are mounted on foam board, so they're sturdy enough you can just lay them on the floor and they can take some abuse. Plus, they look really nice.

I don't want to insult your intelligence by writing the step-by step process to cutting out squares and gluing paper to them. So I'll summarize.

Get some pictures. You could make these memory cards to go along with almost any lesson.

Get some foam board from the dollar store. You can fit 5 8.5x11 pictures per board. While you're out, pick up some rubber cement and a utility knife if you don't have anything that can cut through the foam board.

Cut out the foam board, put some rubber cement on the back of the pictures and smack it down. For the regular printer paper we used spray adhesive, I like that better than glue sticks so that the paper doesn't get bumpy where you glued it.

And ta-da! You're all done. You could use the foam board backing for any memory game, but the church pictures were just sooo easy. Plus, you could use them for ANYTHING. I think once I have a place to store them, I'll make myself a set for all the different collections of pictures they have!

What Ryan Seacrest and I have in common

2011-01-03T23:04:00.001-08:00

We are both big fans of the Utah Jazz.

(I think I should pursue a career as a tabloid photographer, don't you?)

I don't think its relevant that he spent his time court side chatting with his GF and left halfway into the 2nd quarter, I can tell that he secretly loves those Utah boys. Seriously, he was there.

Once in awhile my papa gets third row tickets to see the Jazz, and it just so happened that he got four tickets for a time when Matt and I would be here. Matt is just about as big a Jazz fan as you can find, and the poor boy has only been able to watch about five games in the three years that we've been married. He'll seriously watch the live statistical reports as the game is happening. It's boring, but thats how hardcore he is.

It was a fantastic game(we won), close the whole time, and we got free Jazz flags to boot.

A couple of how to's from the 80's

2010-12-23T23:43:00.000-08:00

There's no need...

2010-12-09T10:58:00.000-08:00

for me to ever do a Christmas card as long as I'm included in my in-laws:

I mean, how can I even compete with this?

Christmas Cards

2010-11-23T10:13:00.000-08:00

I have been toying with the idea of sending out Christmas cards this year. I mean, that man and I have been married for three+ years now, and it just seems the the socially correct thing to do.

I feel a little reluctant to do this though, it seems like the last plunge into adulthood. I'm just not sure I'm ready to commit to a lifetime of sending out pictures of my family, accompanied by a letter about how awesome of a year we had. This year we're covered with Christmas card content, since the first half of the year we lived as communists in a far away land, but what if we never do anything interesting again in our lives? I haven't even been able to come up with blog posts lately, can you imagine a letter full of things not even 'blog-worthy'?

But I think if I do a photo like this:

it won't matter what's in the letter, the picture will be awesome enough.

Family Ward

2010-10-26T22:40:00.000-07:00

Graduating into a family ward from a married student ward is both good and bad, the bad part is if you do not in fact have a family. I received two books on Sunday from two different people, obviously hinting Matt and I should begin procreating.

The Family Home Evening Book came with this intro:

Sister So & So: "Do you have Family Home Evening? You should really do that, it's such a great way to bring your family together, etc, etc... How old are your children?"

Matt and I: "Ummm, we don't actually have children" (I considered telling her that we had chosen to imagine them)

Sister So & So: "Oh... (insert awkward pause) well, when you do, this book is great!"

The Pregnancy book carried this message from it's bearer, my mother-in-law:

"Somebody handed me this book and said I should give it to you."

Fabulous. I guess the ward members are now split between thinking that Matt and I are childless rebels, or that I am currently 'with child'

My life as a homemaker

2010-10-07T14:41:00.000-07:00

I'm quit obsessed with felt food. No idea why. I think it was my first trip to Ikea that did me in, with their far too cute play kitchens. So far, I've made half a sandwich (it took me all day), bow tie pasta and raviolis. There's too many tutorials I want to try!

Making the cupcakes from this great book. (these are supposed to be coals, with rice cake hamburgers cooking on top)

I've also been working on quilts, knitting baby hats and sewing lots of random stuff, but I won't lie, I've also been wasting a colossal amount of time.

But all in all, I love it. Being a homemaker is great.

8 Minute Awfulness

2010-09-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

I've been doing 8 minute buns/abs/torture off and on for a little while now. It's amazing how painful 8 minutes can be... I'm kinda out of shape.

Anyways, the first time I did them was with Emily in Washington. While we were doing the arm video, she told me to get ready for an awesome line. We were doing this:

And the instructor says: "Aesthetically, this will really look great! It will make your waist look smaller, THIS IS WHY WOMEN WEAR SHOULDER PADS, it really makes it look nice. We're going to do it the natural way!"

Natural shoulder pads? No thank you sir! I immediately discontinued this particular thirty seconds.

My Mormon Ad

2010-09-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

You know you need to get a life when 2 of your last 5 blog posts center around your brother.

I know this.

I made this poster for Jeff for his upcoming birth celebration. Got the inspiration from real MormonAds (which I love) and this email.

I printed it out 16X20 and have been showing it to anyone who would look for the past three days. Thats how much I love it.

Being Happy

2010-09-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

I was looking through old pictures of Matt and I today, while listening to some reminiscent-ish music. I've been kind of in a slump lately, and this was just the thing to make me realize...

life is good

We've had a really great life together so far, and it was so nice to be able to go back through 'our life in photos' and remember all the good times. Pictures are so good at reminding you of the best things in life.

Yes, I think I will

2010-09-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

I was using Google Maps today to find out how long it would take to get to various places. I got bored and decided to see how Google suggested I get myself to China.

Who's with me?

My Baby's Babies

2010-08-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

The other day my mother in law found this picture Matt made when he was little:

All I know is that if our kids turn out half as cute as their daddy, I will be one happy lady. LOVE his skinned up chin, seems like Matty hasn't changed at all...

*please note that this is not an 'announcement' of any kind*

Elder Jeff

2010-07-26T14:29:00.001-07:00

My 'little' brother is on a mission in Alaska. I tried to email him every week at the beginning, you know, to be a good big sister. I got kinda out of the habit when he would send me emails like this:

"Need some new ties, about ten. Ask the woman for money" (translation: please purchase me some knockoff ties while you're in China. Mom will pay you back)

That is literally the whole email. I guess he is too busy fishing on his p-days to write decent letters. However, I can tell that he is growing, and his emails have been getting longer (still not sure if he refers to my mom as 'the woman'...). I just got a forward from him today, and I wanted to share part of it with you.

"here is some funny tracting dialog from yesterday:
jeff- hey hows it going?

man- good

Jeff- well we're missionaries from the church of jesus crhist.. bla bla bla have you ever talked to missionarues before?

man- yeah i have but it's not really for me

jeff- hey man thats cool. it's not for everyone... just kiddin it is."

*spelling was left 'as is'*
**Elder Williams is the one in the attractive blue tie on the right. Whoever picked out that tie must have impeccable taste**

Don't worry

2010-07-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

You're still in the right place... it was just time for some changes. What do ya think? Title, color, etc?

Check it

2010-07-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

Since I've been back, I've been borderline obsessed with photography (okay, that's a lie. Ever since I got my DSLR I've been obsessed).

I've been working on a photography blog lately, but most of the time I just feel kinda self conscious and shy about it... so I've been waiting for a day when I feel empowered to blog about it and get some feedback.

Today is that day folks.

It could be an email I got from my sister-in-law Liv, or just the Washington air, but I'm feeling it. So, here goes nothing: check out my photography blog. Leave some comments, or don't, whatever. Just remember that it's a work in progress, everyone has to start somewhere, and I don't think I'm the best photographer around but I love doing it... so I'm going to 'have a try' and see where this goes.

Top Ten China Memories

2010-07-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

Wow, can't believe we've been home for so long already... it is starting to feel like China was just a dream! Just to wrap things up in China, here are our top ten 'Most Memorable Moments'(not I did not say BEST moments) in no particular order:

1. Seeing the Great Wall for the first time. Epic. That's basically all. It was freaking hot and quite the hike, but since we met some nice workers at the top, we have ultimate bragging rights. How many people do you know that have helped rebuild the Great Wall?

2. Laying in our FREEZING bed, cuddling under a blanket that was hardly big enough to cover us in a horrible hostel in Fenghuang(oh, and don't forget the loud, off key karaoke parties going on all around us). One of those few moments when you are so past crying that you laugh about the awfulness.

3. Our super early morning hike in Zhangjiajie(another trip made memorable by the beauty of the place, and horribleness of the trip). What a surreal place.

4. When Mr. Beard came to retrieve us from Changsha. The first thing he said to Matt was: 'You are much fatter than your picture'. He also gave us a puzzled look when we asked why his name was Mr. Beard when he did not in fact, have a beard. When we piled all our suitcases into the trunk, we still had one medium sized one that we put in the back seat between Matt and I, which would have worked out fine if not for the random Chinese lady that we were giving a lift back to Dong'an. Matt spent the five hour ride with a suitcase between his knees and I spent it trying not to slide into the stranger next to me. The last thing I wanted to mention was the place we ate dinner. If you have ever watched the 'Christy' series, just think of the O'teals cabin when you think of where we ate. Mr. Beard highly recommended the fish at that place, because they were 'not as polluted as in Dong'an.' That place was creepy.

*I don't have any pictures due to my emotional instability at this point in history, so here is a picture I never posted of a mummy we saw in Changsha*

5. Enjoying one of the VERY FEW sunsets we ever saw in China on a beach in Sanya. Just chillin', people watching and eating fried rice.

6. The train ride from Guilin to Dong'an when our parents came to visit us. I don't know why I didn't blog about this when it happened. This train was INSANE. Since it was smack in the middle of the largest migration of people in the world(practically all of China's billion citizens travel for Chinese New Year), they add extra trains to accommodate the madness. We still ended up with standing tickets(meaning that we stood in the aisle with the other unfortunate souls who could not procure seated tickets), and that car was packed tight. One of the train conductors noticed our white skin-ness and told us he could give us some seats. Ten cars down. I *think* both of our moms were in tears by the time we had pushed and squeezed through seemingly impassible aisles to get to our seats. I just laughed the whole time and thought, 'Welcome to China!' But seriously folks, this was crazy madness. This picture isn't from this trip, but it will give you an idea of how crowded the trains can get. Try navigating through that with your backpack, suitcases and sword case tucked under your arms.

7. The haunted Pagoda we visited for Halloween. It was funny to sit at the top and think "this building is older than the United States!" and then realize that it's not even very old for China.

8. Going to the Temple in Hong Kong. Super cool.

9. Freezing our bums off while visiting the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an. Winter in China is pretty miserable.

10. The Worlds Fair in Shanghai. Seriously one of the coolest things ever! It was built in a huge area, and each country that wants to comes and builds a 'pavilion' showcasing their culture, people, etc. I heard it once described as the Olympics of Economics. The Eiffel Tower was built for the Worlds Fair in Paris, and the Ferris Wheel was invented when the fair was in Chicago(I think). Sooo glad we went, and I wish we could have stayed for longer. My favorite was definitely the Africa pavilion(all the little countries got together, built a huge building and each one had a little area inside) but there were definitely some awesome pavilions.

Last stop: Shanghai

2010-06-21T21:51:00.001-07:00

Yes, the time has come for us to depart this crazy country. We are in Shanghai right now(went to the World Fair last night... AMAZING, a post about that to come later), and I wanted to post one more time before we leave TOMORROW! It's really weird to think that in a few hours(comparatively speaking) we will be back in the good ole USA! We feel like we have seen a good bit of China, and we are ready to be onto the next thing in life. Here is our finally completed map of all the places we visited in China:

Farewell China. HELLO America!

They're fierce, if you rile 'em

2010-06-08T07:57:00.001-07:00

Saw these guys doing Taichi.
Matt said: Look at those Kung Fu Masters!
I said: They're just doing taichi, not kung fu.
Matt said: Ya, til someone pisses 'em off.

True dat.

Yunnan

2010-06-08T07:33:00.001-07:00

We've been in Yunnan since Saturday, the first two nights in Kunming and now we are in beautiful DaLi. The sky is sooo amazingly blue and clear here, I don't know if we've been in smoggy Hunan for too long, but is the sky normally this blue?!? Sorry, not really much to say, but I haven't blogged in awhile... so here are some photos:

Of course you put organisms in the trashcan... where else would you put them?

The sign said this ginormous chinese chess set is in the Guiness Book of world records for something... maybe size?

Around 'Old' DaLi

Ya, I know what's up

2010-06-05T04:52:00.001-07:00

Sometimes my best friend Matt likes to 'tell stories'.

Sometimes I don't believe him when he tells me things. Not because he means to decieve me, but because sometimes I think his memory is a tad bit defective.

The other day we were watching Chuck, and some people were sitting in a hotel room in Paris, and Matt told me that it would be impossible for them to be staying in a hotel that had that view of the Eiffel Tower. He thought that they were too high up(in Paris they can't build more than five story buildings because there are so many tunnels underground that the buildings would be too heavy and colapse the subway). Anyways, I didn't really believe my handsome husband, choosing instead to place my confidence in Hollywood. They don't just make stuff up on TV. I should have listened to the fellow, not only did he serve his mission in Paris, but has been there several other times.

Then, lo and behold, while we were watching Alias they were *suposed* to be in Vietnam on a secret mission, but when it showed the shot of *suposed* Vietnam, I recognized something. I rewound to get a closer look at this:

See that builing in the right hand corner? That building I have been to, and I have not travelled to Vietnam. That is in fact the Summer Palace, located in Beijing, China.

And needless to say, there are not any tall buildings in the vicinity. Normally, that barren wasteland is a lake, sorry Alias, you're not fooling this lady.

There are two morals to this story:
1. As it turns out, you can't believe everything you see on TV. I should probably just listen to my well traveled husband at least in regards to forgein travels, physics and ice-cube filled bathtubs.
2. I now feel at least a little accomplished in my travels...I'm happy that I can recognize at least a few places that most people would not(another being the mountains from Avatar)even if all those places are in China! Ah, I'm excited for the day when I have been to so many places that TV will never be able to pull a fast one on me.

My thought for today

2010-05-21T03:52:00.001-07:00

I'm reading Water Babies right now, and I loved this line:

"Now if you don't like my story, then go to the schoolroom and learn your multiplication table, and see if you like that better."

I thought this quote was awesome. Sometimes I tend to get too caught up in what people think of me, and it makes me sad to think that sometimes, I don't do what I want because I'm too scared other people will judge me. Just thought I would throw that out there, along with a picture that I took when I very first got my DSLR that I really like, but was too shy to post back then.

Hurray for feeling empowered today.

New Name

2010-05-20T22:08:00.001-07:00

If you have ever wondered why my blog title is so weird, here it is:

I was setting up a blog, oh, three years ago. Then I came to the 'blog title' line. I am terrible at naming/titling things, so I just made up something lame and stupid. This is where KK Carter Coolspot was born. "I'll change it later" I thought. But I never did. I've made a few different headers, and when I make each one, I try to think of a new name for this here blog... but I always just think, "Whatever, the title is good enough, it's not like it matters anyway unless people pay attention to the header".

Then blogger started doing followers. I was looking at my sister-in-laws profile the other day, and I saw that my blog was listed... as KK Carter Coolspot. I wanted to throw up in my mouth a little bit. BlAH, I have started to hate the name. I never really thought the title mattered, until now.

Problem is, I still have the same problem as three years ago. I stink at the name game. So, I need some help. I want to redesign my blog, but I don't want to do it without a change in titling.

What should I name my blog?!?! I know not that many people even read it, but it's driving me crazy! If you have the awesome-est suggestion, I will bring you a prize from China, how's that for incentive?

Wigging Out

2010-05-20T02:21:00.001-07:00

China has really cheap stuff.

Cheap stuff includes wigs that are of an acceptable quality.
I LOVE DRESSING UP, and there is nothing that changes your appearance quicker, or more effectively than a wig(I of course learned that from Alias)

I have now purchased three such wigs, and could not be happier. One is for my sister Annie(if she remains in my good graces by marrying the boy I have selected for her). I think that I am going to create some alter egos for myself, using these wigs, for when I get bored of being Kristal. I already have one... when I wear the really short wig, my name is Victoria De la Cruz. She is from Transylvania and doesn't speak a word of English. I think she may be somehow involved with foreign intelligence agencies, but I'm not sure.

If anyone else can think of some cool stories for the other wigs in my collection, let's hear 'em! I plan on having many personalities in the future(just when you thought I couldn't get any weirder)

*Please note that while Annie has short blonde boy hair in both of the above pictures, they are not in fact the same wig. Aaron Carter can't have the same hair as a stalker. Thats just not right. We hacked off a Miley Cyrus wig just special for Aaron.*

Month Number 9

2010-05-19T05:00:00.001-07:00

*Chinese sign for 9*
It's May 19th. That means that Matt and I arrived in the Orient exactly nine months ago. As someone pointed out to me the other day, that means that I could have had a baby here, and no one would even know. Let me assure you that is not the case. My faith in the healthcare here was abolished when I saw the dentists office. I would rather hit my abscessed tooth out with a rock Cast Away style than make a visit to the chair.

Anyways, I had wanted to do a monthly 'numbers' theme while I was here and I failed. In walkie talkie language 10-9 means 'Repeat Message', so for month 9, here is a list of 9 things that still confuse me about China (are you catching the connection, or is it too far out there?)

1. Racism: Not only towards me and my dear friend Matt(usually in our favor), but you should have heard what some of my students said about President Obama and Africans in general the other day... man, it was RACIST to the max(I won't repeat it here, since I like Africans, and I don't know who reads this blog, but if the curiosity is killing you, call me on Skype and I'll tell ya). Most Chinese people only like white people. Think I'm being racist or overgeneralizing? Our program director is almost UNABLE place people as teachers in China if they aren't Caucasian, none of the schools want them. They all fight over the blonde hair blue eyed girls. (Hopefully nothing in that statement was racist, I mean overly)

2. The Grocery Store Ladies: There is a lady waiting to assist you in every aisle, and they never let me buy what I want. They always surround me(everyone within 10 aisles is there), poke at me, speak at me in Chinese really quickly and replace whatever product I have in my hand with what THEY want me to buy. I don't understand it. I bought some really gross yogurt the other day because the refrigerated section lady wouldn't let me buy my normal kind. When I want American brand shampoo and face wash, I have a special plan. I stand aways away, and locate my bottle. Then I walk really quickly through and pick it up, before anyone can stop me. Any hesitation and I'm through.

3. Prying Questions: Usually when we meet people, the first question they ask Matt (in Chinese) is "Do you speak Chinese?" the next question is "Where do you work/live?" the 3rd question is "How much money do you make?". I mean really, this happens ALL THE TIME. So much so, that I even understand the question in Chinese, and that is saying something my friend. I guess it's not weird to inquire about income with strangers here.

4. Public Spitting: Gross. My students spit on the floor in their CLASSROOM. I don't understand why they do this. 'Nuff said.

5. Shoes: Whenever Chinese people come over, I make sure I have my slippers on. They FREAK when you're walking around your apartment barefoot.

6. Chicken Feet: I've tried to eat them, and I really don't understand what part of it is edible. But they LOVE them.

7. Traffic: Still don't understand how I haven't seen millions of dead bodies strewn about the side of the road. There must be a method to their madness that I haven't caught on to yet.

8. Knocking: You can always tell if it's a fellow American knocking on your door, or a Chinese person. Chinese people knock incessantly for long amounts of time. Our friend Sam informed us of a time there was a student knocking on his door for literally TEN MINUTES while Sam was laying deathly ill on his bed, not wanting to answer the door. I don't understand that, at all.

9. Nap time: Our school recently instigated a forced nap time for our high school aged students. All the students are locked in their dorms for 104 minutes right after lunch to have a rest. Why don't they just let them out of school before ten every night? Or, let them sleep in past six? Don't ask me, cause you know I don't understand it.

That's all. Sorry it's long.

Fashion Impaired

2010-05-15T05:07:00.001-07:00

I have been wearing the same clothes I packed into my one suitcase for the last nine months. I feel ghetto, I am in desperate need of some new wardrobe staples. I was looking at some clothes online, and is it totally sad that my favorite find was this shirt... in four different colors? Would anyone judge me if the only thing that changed in my appearance from day to day was the color of my shirt?

I love basic tees. I wish I was good at buying/wearing accessories so I could wear them without looking so boring. Who wants to go shopping with me and teach me how to dress myself? Somehow I think I missed that day in how to be a teenage girl training.

Usually I make Annie go with me, but she always told me I dressed like a soccer mom, and that was BEFORE she spent four months in the fashion capital of the world. I don't think I could handle that kind of criticism.

Brain Dump

2010-05-10T03:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a trial run of uploading videos... this one is a tour of our apartment (please don't judge our dirty bathroom floor, the shower water drains through a hole in our toilet, AKA: not so efficiently.)

I have gotten into the nasty habit of talking about people NOT behind their backs. Nothing mean, but man, when you KNOW that the best English speaker in your city is Mr. Beard., it's hard not to say what's on your mind in a language that no one understands. It's amazing what you'll talk about in the most public of places when you know that if you speak fast and use lots of slang, NO one will comprendo. You better know that I spend a good part of my time looking up 'descriptive' words in Chinese, so that Matt and I can continue this habit when we go back to America. Ya, if we're speaking Chinese in front of you, it's probably about you(wahahaha).

I should be doing ab ripper X right now. But I just don't feel like it.

We bought plane tickets home! We will be flying out of Shanghai on the 23rd of June, and no thanks to the World Expo. for making our one way tickets 900$ a piece. At least we'll be able to say that we went to the World Fair.

KTV (what China calls karaoke) is one of the best times I've had here! You rent out a little room with a tv, speakers, couches and of course microphones and bust a move in privacy! It's soooo fun! I miss my Wii mostly because I used to play Karaoke Revolution all the time (and yes, mostly by myself). I think I will organize weekly singing parties upon my return... who's with me?

For the first time EVER Matt and I went to a place specifically to get fried rice. Most of the fried rice here hasn't been the greatest (I blame the excessive use of nasty pickled beans). Can you believe it? Almost nine months in China, and only a few times ordering fried rice as a meal. That's how delicious the rest of the food is(and some people thought I would starve to death here...).

I'm making some 'pages', check 'em out at the top!

I know Christmas was five months ago...

2010-05-07T19:10:00.001-07:00

But, I was feeling the urge to blog, and this is the only picture on my jump drive that I haven't previously posted. Sorry to always be defacing the Carters, but they happen to be the only large family that I have high resolution images of. If any of you remember the Craniums, or received their Christmas card this year... you may appreciate this. I think you still might, even if you have no idea who I am talking about. Merry Christmas from the Craniums!

(and yes, that is Annie on every single one of those bodies. Sometimes she's a little scary looking, I know)

Mud Caves

2010-04-28T18:39:00.001-07:00

Don't worry my friends, we didn't take a mistake to tour. We started out by entering the cave on a little wooden canoe, then we toured the caves for about forty minutes, played in the mud pit (no one else was there, so all the men that usually take pictures to sell them were just watching Matt and me playing around in the mud. At least we had our own personal photographer!) The images are terrible, I know, they're a picture (taken with our webcam) of a not so great print, but you get the idea.

After wallowing like little piggies, we rinsed off and went to chill in the hot springs. Man, life is just hard sometimes.

the Chinese Chip Testing of 2010

2010-04-27T20:50:00.001-07:00

Let me just start by saying they have some weirdy flavors of Lays here.

All the teachers came to stay at our house last weekend, so Matt and I decided to host a little chip testing. They have just expanded our grocery store, and also started stoking some new flavors we had yet to try. So we bought a bunch of chips:

Gathered the victims:

And made them all close their eyes, sample the chips and then guess the flavor.

After we tested all the chips and everyone was sufficently nauseous, I had everyone write reveiws, but since I am in Yangshou right now (yay!)I don't have them... so you'll just have to imagine what Mango, Cucumber, Seaweed, Cherry Tomato, Blueberry and Lime flavored chips taste like (I'll post the reviews when we get home, they were pretty funny). Let me just tell you that while the blueberry ones SMELLED like muffintops, the taste was something else.

I think the unanimous WOSRT tasting ones were the cucumber.

And, I think the prize for best face making definately would have to go to Shelby:

On a train, on a boat

2010-04-25T00:56:00.001-07:00

I thought I talked about this earlier, but I was looking back on my blog, and I don't think I mentioned one piece of China craziness.

Hainan is an island. We went to there. While we were planning our trip, we weren't sure if there were trains that went from the mainland to the island, or if we would have to take a ferry. We looked at google maps and saw this:

"Cool," I thought, "they built a bridge." And we didn't think anything of it again, since we bought train tickets from Guangzhou to Sanya (mainland to island) with no problems.

It was a sleeper train, so we settled down in our bunks and went to bed.

About three o'clock in the morning, I was awakened by multiple ruckuses. There were of course the babies crying and people snoring, but the train itself was really loud, and kinda bumpy, even though we were stopped, almost like they were separating the cars. I looked out the window and we were unnaturally close to another car, but it being three o'clock in the morning, I wasn't really too concerned about what was going on.

We arrived in beautiful Sanya at about six. While we were on a bus to find a hostel, we (myself, Matt and our friend Sam) started to talk about how we had all be woken up by the noise last night. We could not figure out what had been going on that could be so loud, or why we were stopped with cars on both sides of us. I don't know how we came about it, but we started to think that maybe they had put the train on a ferry.

"That's too crazy, even for China," we all agreed "Put a WHOLE train on a ferry and ship it across the bay? Thats insane."

When we arrived at our hostel, we got on google maps, remembering that we had seen a bridge. This time we switched it to satellite view, and this is what we saw:

No bridge. They totally put our train, car by car, onto a ferry, shipped us across the bay, connected us all together again and continued on their merry way. Who thinks of something like that? I'll tell you who, the same people who decided to build a railway on ICE into Tibet(seriously read the link, it's crazy talk).

So, moral of the story is, I have been on a train, on a boat.

For Christmas...

2010-04-25T00:12:00.001-07:00

I would like a baby, and right now, I think I would like that baby to be Chinese. Too bad neither Matt or I are thirty (the age you must be to adopt from China). Here are some Chinese children for your viewing pleasure:

(Sorry the posts have been picture heavy lately... I don't have anything really interesting to say)

Okay, so not really a picture of a child, but doesn't this old lady look cool?

Random Cool Door

2010-04-22T01:36:00.001-07:00

I have found about five thousand gazillion places I would LOVE to do a photo shoot in this country (I'll post pictures later of an abandoned amusement park) and this little area is one of them.

The Lost Memory Card

2010-04-22T01:24:00.001-07:00

I was clearing off my many memory cards the other day, and I found a bunch of pictures from our trip to Hainan at the end of January... most of these were taken in the center of the island where we went to see a bunch of minority villages. I love pictures. Especially BIG ones.

The Best Kept Secret

2010-04-20T06:37:00.001-07:00

Notice anything 'odd' about that little boys pants? Ya, the first time I saw that, I probably did the biggest double take in human history. I wondered what parents would let their kids run around commando, much less with a HUGE rip in their pants... then I saw a kid squatting in the middle of the Forbidden City, and realized this was no mistake.

Split bottom pants, ahh. Just when I stopped giggling every time I saw them, it got freezing, and we would see these babies with six inches worth of clothes on and their brown little bums peeking out(kinda defeats the purpose of bundling wouldn't you say?) Little kids here really just pop a squat any time they feel the urge. They wear these split bottom pants from infancy to when they are potty trained(mostly), they have diapers here, but I don't think they use them as much as in America. Next time I hear a debate about cloth vs. disposable, I think I'm gonna throw this idea out there and see where that takes the discussion.

Stages

2010-04-19T03:41:00.001-07:00

I believe that how adapted you are to life in China is directly proportional to how you respond to honking. According to my imagination, there are five stages. I will illustrate said stages by quoting the thoughts that go through your mind upon hearing a honk.

Stage 1: "Holy COW! Stop all this infernal ruckus! Why, oh why is there soooo much noise! Simmer!"

Stage 2: "I am super cool, I am totally used to all this honki- BAHHHH! Okay, that one scared me."

*and somewhere between stage 2 & 3, you learn that honking is not a sign of aggression, merely a friendly reminder that someone is fast approaching you, possibly head-on and is therefore used excessively. Just one of the many reasons why their INSANE driving does not result in thousands of casualties daily.*

Stage 3: not really a thought process, but an automatic movement from the middle of the road to the sidewalk upon hearing a honk.

Stage 4: "They can totally fit around me"

Stage 5: upon NOT being honked at: "Hey! A little warning would have been nice before you came within an inch of my personage!!! Honk next time fella!"

And then there's Matt, who has reached the same level as a Chinese National and must be dragged out of harms way because he pays absolutely no attention to the horns.

Country Number 4

2010-04-15T06:43:00.001-07:00

I have this goal that I want to visit 50 countries before I am 50. So far I have the US, Mexico, China and most recently Hong Kong. I have technically been to Canada, but a four hour layover hardly counts I think. Matt and I got to go to Hong Kong with our parents over the Spring Festival Holiday, and it was really fun! I am still on the fence about counting Hong Kong as a different country from China, but here is my reasoning for doing so, and you can let me know what you think.

1. to enter Hong Kong from China, you must go through customs, the whole she-bang, departure cards, stamping visas, etc.
2. they have their own currency (which looks like monopoly money by the way).
3. they have their own separate government.

So, what say you? In the meantime, here are some pictures from H.K. (you may have noticed that I figured out how I can make my pictures bigger, despite the firewall! I know they are maybe too huge, but I think I am overcompensating for such small and weirdly organized pictures for so long. But ya gotta give me a break, I am working in html code here!)

The view from Victoria's peak:

The temple when we went in: (they were doing construction all around it, so it was hard to get the whole thing without a big ugly crane in there)

The Temple when we came out, as is everything else in Hong Kong, the temple was beautiful at night.

Mia Familia

2010-04-14T05:16:00.001-07:00

I was talking with my momma on Skype today, and she was giving me an update on the fam.

"Shane didn't think this was very cool, but he got a letter from Steven's Institute of Technology, or something like that... it's in Hoboken, New Jersey... it was about-"

"HOBOKEN?!?! Tell him to go to there. No matter what. He MUST go to this school. Doesn't he know that's where Carlo's Bakery is?!?!"

Carlo's Bakery is where they film my most beloved TV show, possibly ever.

Mmm, Cake Boss makes me happy. It's a reality TLC show with this Italian/New Jerseyian Baker who tries to be hardcore... but just isn't(those are my FAVORITE kind of people). Plus, they make some really delicious(sounding) and cool looking cakes. I think part of my affinity for this show stems from me discovering it right before I left for China, so it reminds me of happy-being-at-the-Carters times.

Basically, I think that Shane should go there, meet Buddy (the Boss) and get him to make me a specialty cake. I'm thinking "Devil’s Food Cake with Chocolate Mousse, a thin layer of Chocolate Ganache, and Fresh Raspberries or Fresh Strawberries", and it should be a representation of all things awesome. To embody our(mine and Matt's) awesomeness.

P.S. They sent Shane a letter about him possibly swimming for them. Too bad Shane is way too cool for Division 3.

Kristal vs. The Classics

2010-04-13T06:32:00.001-07:00

A few weeks into being here, we discovered our bookstore. In the back of said bookstore, there is a little shelf, with English books. It was just about the greatest discovery ever. I love reading. Always have, and always will. I haven't ever been really able to get into 'the classics' though. I guess I'm just kind of a hater that way. But since these books are the only ones we had, I decided to give it a go, and it's been awesome! I made a goal to read all the English titles they have.

I started with A Tale of Two Cities, and admittedly it took me awhile to get through the beginning of that book, but the end was really epic... and got me really excited to read more.

I have to say that I am REALLY suprised how much I have loved some of these books. I know it sounds totally cliché, but there is a reason (some) of these books have lasted. I'm just about halfway finished with the books there, so I have to fly to finish (but I calculated the pages per day, and I think I can do it!), but I thought I would give my opinion on the ones that I have read so far. Let me just say right now, that I read primarily to be entertained... so thats how I judge books.

Highly, HIGHLY recommend:
The Counte of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (the movie is bubkis compared to this book, I think it's my favorite ever)
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas(okay, so basically anything written by Alexadre Dumas, he's BRILLIANT)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

Worth the read (still awesome):
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen(anyone who knows of my former resentment of all things P&P, Emma and Sense and Sensibility should know how much this means)
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

They were okay:
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Tender is the Night by Scott F. Fitzgerald
The Oz Series by Frank L. Braum(I only read books 1-3)

Only High School English Classes should be sentenced to read:
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky (maybe I should have picked a more popular Dostoevsky for my first one? This one was painful to get through)
The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne(I 'read' this one in High School, and thought I would give it another go while I wasn't being forced. Still didn't like it)

Sorry for the ridiculously long post... I'll try to keep more up to date as I finish books. Right now I'm working on Plato's The Republic, and taking breaks with Edgar Allen Poe's complete short stories collection.

Feelin Snazzy

2010-04-12T00:55:00.001-07:00

The first weekend in April we went to Yangshou again (I know, obsessed much? We've only been there FIVE times in the seven months we've lived here) and I really love that place. Not only do we get to sleep in the only soft beds in China, but we get to do loads of shopping. I love shopping here. I'm starting to get pretty good at it too. The fine art of bargaining is a skill carefully aquired, but highly useful. My favorite buy of the weekend: my Chinese dress! I can now leave China fully satisfied. I had to get mine tailored for me, since all the 'long' style ones go to my knees(no joke). Most of the girls in my group had one made and so we went down to the Li river to take some photos. I pretty much want to wear mine everyday, just cause it fits so splendidly.

In case you don't recognize me after my long absence, I am the one in the black dress. I got the two piece outfit, just so that I could get two different lengths of skirts. It's fabulous!

Oh the joys...

2010-04-11T04:26:00.001-07:00

see that mischievous look on Annie's face? Not one you want to see when you know she is signed into/looking at your blog. Check out her handiwork on my sidebar...

The problem is, I can't even access my sidebar to change it back. Hence allowing Annie to sign into my blog (dangerous, I know). Guess I'll be a self proclaimed doofus until I return.

Want to live longer?

2010-03-26T17:43:00.001-07:00

Raise your grandkids while your children go to work.

Thats the only reason we can figure 80 year old men are still twirling around the parallel bars.

Chines tour group

2010-03-26T17:41:00.001-07:00

Good thing I left my blue floral Hawaiian shirt at home this weekend.

Textures

2010-03-26T17:39:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to learn some new stuff in photoshop, and I have been seeing tons of pictures lately with textures, so I've been playing around. I *like* them (better when other people do them, and only for specific pictures), but I don't think I will use them for portraits unless I can find a texture that doesn't make a persons skin look like sand paper, or I can find a way to smooth the texture out over the skin. I've seen it done, so I know it's possible... I just can't figure it out.

What do you think?

photoshop

2010-03-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

I love you.

For a full description, please see the post two posts down.

cards....

2010-03-26T17:23:00.001-07:00

see description in post below.

Birthday Cards

2010-03-26T17:21:00.001-07:00

Since we've been back from our Spring Festival Holiday (dang our students using UK textbooks, now words like WC and Holiday creep into my working vocab), we have been doing a whole lot of the same. We love living here, don't get me wrong, but it just gets incredibly monotonous after awhile when we don't travel to mix things up.

Hopefully this explains the lack of blog posts... doesn't it seem like the busier you are, the more you can get done? At least, thats the way I roll. So since I have all the time in the world...

Anyways, I have been making birthday cards for my family since we've been here, they aren't terribly exciting, but it sure keeps me entertained for a couple hours! I'm going to post a few because they are on my flash drive. And I'm too lazy to retrieve new pictures to post.

Xi'an and some terracotta awesomeness

2010-03-10T22:30:00.001-08:00

Remember on Gilmore Girls, when Rory is planning her trip to Asia with Logan? (ya, I finally conceded to watch it) She talks about the Terracotta Soliders in Xi'an (she says Xi'an a little funny though). Well, they are pretty cool. Freezing, as was the rest of our trip, but nonetheless impressive.

This Emperor wanted to have his army with him when he got to the afterlife, so he had an army of terracotta warriors constructed. There are over six thousand of them, and no two are the same. It's pretty crazy. They were only found like thirty years ago, by just a regular farmer guy. The warriors were a little worse for wear in that they were in pieces, but they are being put back together now.

I know I'm tall

2010-03-10T22:03:00.001-08:00

But really, you can't expect anyone to be facing forward on this toilet!

This was in our hostel in Beijing, Matt and I were taking the frugal route, and using the shared bathrooms/showers.

Summer Palace

2010-03-10T21:57:00.001-08:00

Home to the longest corridor in the world (who really worries about claiming a title like that?), this is the place where the emperors 'summered' from their normal abode, the Forbidden City (as if one massive 'city' isn't enough). It was a little late when we got there, but the sunset was amazing. It almost made up for the huge man-made lake being drained for the winter.

*and yes, the next two posts are also about the Summer Palace. Gmail is making me want to CUT someone. I had to email each picture separately. If the files are too big to send, why don't you tell me that when I attatch them, instead of making me wait ten minutes before getting an email that delivery failed? I guess it's not gmails fault, its the firewalls fault for making blogging so dang inconvenient. Yep, don't ranting now.*

Sunset at the Summer Palace

2010-03-10T21:51:00.001-08:00

wonderful, but freezing.

Summer Palace continued

2010-03-10T21:40:00.001-08:00

This file is massive, so it gets its own post.

Confused?

2010-03-10T05:53:00.000-08:00

Well, you probably will be by the time I finish blogging about the trip we took with our parents (and at the rate I'm going that could take years, lets be honest). Unless you are pretty familiar with the geography of China, my ramblings will probably need some sort of key, so here it is!

Our parents flew into Beijing. In Beijing we saw the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Great Wall

We took a sleeper train to stop 2, Xi'an. Home of the Terracotta Warriors

We then flew to Guilin, took a shuttle down to Yangshou. In Yangshou we shopped and biked around the countryside.

We then took a train to Dong'an (this is where we would lose even the most ardent China geographer) and we effectively freaked out my mom.

Then another flight to Hong Kong (Chinese New Year made train tickets nearly impossible to find), and this is where our parents took a plane back to the States, and we sleeper trained it back to the sticks.

Hope that helps with the posts below, and the posts to come!

Forbidden City

2010-03-10T05:34:00.000-08:00

All I know, is that Matt and I are pretty sure the old emperors of China would roll over in their graves if they saw the kind of rif-raf allowed into the Forbidden City nowadays.

Back in the good old days, it was only the Emperor, his wives, concubines and eunuchs. Besides the emperor, no 'men' were allowed into the city... poor guys.

(you might wonder why I only posted one picture from such a historic place... and the answer my friends is that I have now sent this email SIX times to my blog, and each time, the pictures are too big, leaving me with this one)

Squat in Style

2010-03-10T05:28:00.001-08:00

In one of the Forbidden City's finest restrooms.

How many people do you know that have answered the call of nature in a star rated toilet?

I'm going to be slain

2010-03-10T05:14:00.001-08:00

by my dad for putting that picture of him on here, but its sooo worth it.

I told Matt I would give him a hundred kuai if he could get my dad to dress up for a family picture. The Carters are all about this kind of thing, but my dad needed a little bit more persuasion. He kept grumbling the whole time about Chinese people staring at him... he's kinda like me in the sense that he likes to fly under the radar, but I have lived in this country too long I guess, because I didn't even realize people were looking.

The Great Wall

2010-03-10T04:55:00.001-08:00

When we were in Beijing before we went to a different section of the wall, but this one was really cool. It was FREEZING though... seriously, not bueno (I still had not purchased a winter coat, hence the tiny jacket). We still had a good time though, when we finally got to the top (the hike is really steep).

What can I say, its grrrrrrrrreat!

Beijing

2010-03-10T04:50:00.001-08:00

Oh Beijing, how to describe it? Since the first time we were there we were feeling a little overwhelmed, so I was happy that we were able to go back and explore the city. It really is just cool, so much big city, but so much history too. Definitely worth the trip.

The one of me is from Tienanmen Square and the one with the 'rents is from my parents first meal in China (the Carters got there the day before)

Xiangtan

2010-03-10T04:46:00.001-08:00

After getting back from Sanya, Matt and I took a two day breather in Dong'an before heading up to Xiangtan to see our friends the Harlans. These peeps are AWESOME. Katherine always makes us all sorts of American treats, like chocolate cake, pancakes and hot chocolate. Plus, they have two super cute kids, and they are just fun to hang out with.

I love adult sleepovers.

One CRAZY Month

2010-02-25T01:40:00.001-08:00

Since January 22 (34 days ago), we have:

Spent only 4 of those days at home

Taken 8 trains, 3 planes and been in 4 airports

Stayed in 11 different hostels,

in 11 different cities

Seen all four of our parents

and covered about 4,415 miles of China (farthest distance: Sanya-Beijing, 1,886 miles)

Needless to say, I have a lot to post about.

And I start teaching again tomorrow, at least we hit our six month mark here somewhere in the crazyness.

4 more months...

Facebook Lite

2010-02-24T18:26:00.001-08:00

This invention is amazing.

I spent the last twenty minutes of our hotel time in Hong Kong getting my facebook fix for the next four months... then I come home and I am greeted by a new version of facebook that takes less 'internet power' (whatever the correct word for that is) so I can run it through the proxy avoidance program I use.

Brilliant.

Hallelujah Mountain

2010-02-09T03:26:00.000-08:00

Matt and I just went to see Avatar, since we are in Beijing! I was a little put out by the 120 yuan tickets (about 18$), but Matt informed me that for us, this was a once in a lifetime chance to see Avatar in 3d, in a theatre. Dang his logic. Big cities are the only places that have movie theatres, and most aren't equipped to handle 3d... so it was a true story.

Anyways... to the point of the post. Remember when I blogged about our visit to Zhangjiajie? Well, the 'floating mountains' are totally reminiscent of the peaks in that National Park. Seriously! The mountains in the movie were partially inspired by this place.

After the release of the movie, the tourism directors in Zhangjiajie decided to change the name of one of the peaks to Hallelujah Mountain (article here). It also talks about how China has effectively banned Avatar in China, only allowing it to be seen in 3d, since there aren't too many places that can show it. Weird eh? Name a mountain after it, but don't let anyone see the reason why... (and if we learned anything from Harry Potter, its that if you want everyone to see something, tell them they can't)

The moral of the story is... I have come as close as humanly possible to visiting Pandora. And it looks just as epic in real life, even if the pillars aren't floating!

I forgot...

2010-02-04T00:38:00.001-08:00

to post a picture of what I ended up ordering at that place with the crazy menu. I'm not sure if this particular item was even on the menu, but I like to just wander around the restaurant and see what other people are eating that looks edible.

This was a noodle 'crepe' (can't think of another word to describe it), that they cooked on a skillet, and then wrapped up meat and some sort of leafy vegetable inside. It was okay. But the meat had a texture like it had been dunked in rubber. It did end up being better than Matt's dish, he decided to go with the Guangzhou specialty... and we're pretty sure it was intestines (his dish was on the menu). It was pretty nasty looking, and I may have accidentally deleted the picture of it. Sorry. Just imagine Matt smiling at the camera holding in his chopsticks a tubular piece of meat.

I love speedos

2010-02-04T00:28:00.001-08:00

'nuf said.

Out in the boonies

2010-02-04T00:27:00.001-08:00

While we were in Sanya, we took a couple day trip into the highlands of the Island of Hainan. We went to a bunch of different minority villages, and some of them had houses that had walls that were literally woven.

Impulse buying

2010-02-04T00:24:00.000-08:00

Somehow, we ended up with this little number.

We were walking home after our monthly salary withdraw, and I guess the money was just burning holes in Matt's pockets.

And for those of you who think this stuff is sold only to entertain tourists, we saw about six old Chinese men wearing the exact outfit in the block it took us to walk home from where we bought the getup.

Psych!

2010-02-03T04:21:00.001-08:00

I was terribly excited to finally be past the blockage that is the internet in China... and I think I may have jumped the gun. I am back in Dong'an for a quick pit stop before we head up to Beijing to meet our parents (mine and Matt's! Cool huh?), and I found out that the program I was using to blog doesn't work on the computer we have to use here.

Dag nabbit.

So now I can only blog normally when we go on vacation, and happen to get wi-fi in our hostel room.

This little set back has made me incredibly unmotivated to blog ever again. But that could be the Kristal-that-just-spent-36-hours-in-a train/train-station talking. Maybe if I get a good nights sleep tonight, I'll be more motivated to blog about the last week and a half... and trust me, there's lots to say.

2010-02-03T04:13:00.001-08:00

I was talking to my mom the other day, getting the normal news. "So and so is engaged, (amazing how much I hear that) so and so is pregnant, Annie is moving to Milan on Wednesday, Shane is-"

Wait, WHAT?!

Annie is moving to Milan? Like, Italy Milan? This was on Monday, and she was leaving in two days. So much for being kept in the loop.

How awesome is that?

Let me just say that Annie and I are totally opposite in the fact that little sisters are 'supposed' to look up to their big sisters. She always used to tattle on me if I wouldn't let her hang out with me, she would 'borrow' my clothes and ruin them, she did this weird grinding thing with her teeth in her sleep when we used to share a bed (not to mention she kicks) but now, Ann is one of my heroes. For real. I love hanging out with her. Fresh out of high school she moved to India all by herself. She didn't go with a group, or with anyone she knew... crazy girl. Now she is once again residing abroad in Italy. You should really check out the rest of her blog post that starts like this:

"So I live in Italy now. Im annie the nanny! for the past week we have been in cortina, if any of you are watching the skiing world cup thats where i was."

That girl has gumption. She's fearless. She is good at everything that I'm not. I want to be just like her.

I miss you Ann. Next time you are in the country, please wait for me to get back before you leave again.

Past the Wall

2010-01-27T16:51:00.000-08:00

I am free! Thanks to a fellow English teacher we met at our last hostel, I have successfully navigated my way around the Great Firewall of China. I don't think you guys get the gravity of the situtation! I mean, google is considering shutting down google.cn (cn for China), its wild.

Freedom of speech.... don't take that for granted my friends.

Ah, it makes happy to me that I can be again writing in this little posting box on blogger. And facebook is once again accessible. I can even watch some youtube movies through a different site.

Basically, life is good.

The English Menu

2010-01-26T20:11:00.001-08:00

We are definately not in Hunan anymore.

Why I ever complained about our food at home before, I have no idea.

Some Chinese food is gross, gross, gross (and very bland tasting now compared to Dong'an).

*please, please click on this picture to blow it up and read the menu items!*

Oh, we're halfway there...

2010-01-21T18:08:00.001-08:00

Yep, thats basically all. We have been here five months, and we have five months left.

You can stand not seeing our pretty faces until then right? I know all you guys do is dream about our return.

Beach Bound

2010-01-21T17:57:00.001-08:00

Ahh yes, to finally escape the freezing cold.

It wouldn't be so unbearable if anywhere in China they believed in heat. Like classrooms for a start. 'Not that bad' of weather turns ugly when you have to lecture for four hours in it.

But Matt and I are free. Chinese New Year is approaching (get ready for year of the Tiger) and the students get all of February off for Spring Festival. Since mine and Matt's classes aren't very important (we don't even teach English class, ours is spoken English) we are free until March while the students get ready for and take their exams. And that means....

We are hitting the beach!!!

There is a little island on the south of China called Hainan, where we will be soaking up as much sun and humanly possible.

The Chinese are starting to get extremely jealous of my pasty white skin. I gotta get some brown on it pronto.

China...

2010-01-17T06:27:00.001-08:00

You are really beautiful sometimes.