Cab riding

Pictures of the city Chengdu




The second day I arrived in Chengdu Michelle went to the North Train Station Market and I have regretted not going. I have not found a time to go with Michelle since, so yesterday I just could not take it anymore and caught a cab and went there all by myself! I’m so proud, I managed to catch a cab, I was kind of scared that first time but there was nothing to worry about. On the way home the cab driver i guess did not understand where i wanted to go, so he just dropped me off as some random hotel. That was maybe a good thing though, since i did not have small bills to pay him with, so the door man to the hotel ran in and got me smaller bills. After, I managed to catch another cab and he got me home. The North Train Station is a massive area where people sale anything you can think of. It 4 blocks of wear houses and little shops inside of these wear houses and lots of little halls with little shops. There are also shops outside of the wear houses as well. It is so easy to get lost. I managed to do that many times, I still don’t know how I got out of it.



This is most of everyone in our church group. We just meet in different peoples houses, we switch every month. We may be small but we have fun!

Peace out Babe!

Its a wonderful life

Friday night I went to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, It was awesome! USA played against Sweden; we won 2:0! The second game was North Korea against Nigeria, North Korea won 2:0. Nigeria was a dirty mean team and Korea was amazing, they had stragey and were so organized. That game I swear, every play someone was down on the ground, it was wicked intense!
Last night I could not fall asleep it was about 12:30 and I was just thinking about how blessed I am and how great life is right now. Being here and going through this experience has changed me, and I can see it already. Its incredible! People have always told me that this will be the most exciting and fun time in your life, and I never really believed or cared then, but it really is true! I had tears in my eyes just thinking about how wonderful life is. Its not that I have everything I want or things are always going right, but that does not seem to matter in the long run aslong as I’m doing my best.

This is one of my favorite songs, I listen to is all the time
“It’s a Great Day to Be Alive”

And it's a great day to be alive

I know the sun's still shinin' when I close my eyes

There's some hard times in the neighborhood

But why can't every day be just this good? 



Church has been very touching lately, I feel as if I’m a little child or a sponge and just taking it all in and wanting more of what is being said. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true everywhere you go. It’s been amazing to see that, the lord love us all, no matter who we are. In sunday school class we talked all about the atonement, its such a tender subject to so many people as for myself, and every time I read about it or have a lesson on it, my heart is touched and my testimony of it grows and I’m reminded of how much our savior really does love us. Jesus knows what I’m feeling, when I’m lonely, he experienced loneliness when he was in Gethsemane and the apostles kept falling asleep when he needed there support, and he also felt any pain that I have felt in my life. It’s a great strength to know I always have someone to turn to that knows exactly what I’m feeling and going through. The sprit is really amazing when you are tuned into it.
I love my Family, even If I have showed a lack of it in the past. They are really amazing people and are great examples and strengths to me in my life.

Himalaya Mountains

Last Saturday we got up early and left by 7 to head up to Hailuogou Valley, which is at the bottom of the Himalaya Mountains.

The first half of the drive was straight freeways and the second was going up and down on whindy mountain rounds. Let me tell you the roads was very narrow, it scared me because you have to pass other vehicles constantly because they are going to slow so passing on mountain roads with blind curves is horrifying. If you thought driving with me was scary, then don’t ride with James. It was gorgeous, the mountains with waterfalls coming down all around you, rivers with gushing water, tall green trees, I could never get a picture that would capture the beauty of it all. Saturday when we arrived we took our bags to our 4 star cabins/hotel rooms and got in the hot springs!.

(this is part of the hotel, the bridge if you go to the left is the hot springs and to the right and up some stairs is where our cabins where)

Ok the 4 star hotel was just a little better then camping, it did not have hot water, the toilet stunk and the shower, sink, and bathroom floor weren’t very clean. The beds were hard but atlest they had heated blankets in them, that was a plus since at night it was a little chilly. The hot springs were so amazing, there were many different little pools you could get in and each was a different temperature. For dinner we at the restaurant at the hotel, it was alright, my favorite dish is the kung pow chicken, it had lots of peanuts in it, it was delish! That night I was so tired that I went to bed at 7:00. Sunday morning we got up early and ate the hotel breakfast, Um Chinese breakfast is flavorless; I ate a bowl of peanuts, a stemmed roll, and a hard boiled egg that was not boiled long enough. You aren’t missing anything if you never in your life have a Chinese breakfast. Then we caught the bus up to the glacier, and then rode the sky tram up to where you can touch the glacier.



We also took a hike up to try and find another glacier but we never found it and the kids were getting tired so went back, but the hike was beautiful. On top their was also a tepee of Tibetan prayers hanging. That night we got in the hot springs and hung out, Monday morning we left early and got back home about 2:15pm.

Once we were unpacked everything Joel, Julie, James and I all rode the electric bikes and went out and got dumplings and then went to the DVD place.



I got about 20 DVDs for about $20! Its so freaken awesome!

KTV/Panda Field Trip

Thursday Joel, a friend from AZ, and his friend Julie came to visit. That night we all went out to eat dinner and then after we went out to KTV (Karaoke).

Karaoke was so fun, we all just hung out, Josh and Gabriella, Adrian and Jordan from church, and 4 other Chinese people James works with were there. It was so hilarious because all of the Chinese songs have Karaoke music videos to go along the karaoke song and the English songs don’t, so the Chinese decided to come up with there own ridiculous videos to go with them. It was a blast, I was so tired when we got home, 6:00 o’clock came very early Friday.

Right to left: Josh, Joel, Michelle, Me, Gabriella, ?, ?, Monica
Happy Birthday Day Dad!!!! Friday 7th was my dads Birthday. How young are you this year? Goodness I love my dad; I could not have picked a better father! I’m blessed with the GREATEST parents and the most wonderful family! Friday at school we went on a field trip to the Panda Research Center.

China was sending 2 baby pandas to Spain and invited the school to the going away ceremony and my class got to go, I was so excited when I found out! You are so close to the pandas and we saw 4 or 5 baby pandas they were so adorable.

I think I want a pet panda bear now, lol I can wish cant I! It was a lot of work going as a teacher on field trip, keeping track of kids and making sure they aren’t getting swept away in crowds is tough, you always have to be on guard.

I want to go back and see all the exhibits I missed. That night I babysat for the kid upstairs, he is about 7 and is a really fun, cute kid. He did not want to go to bed and I told him as long as he stayed in his room and was quiet that he could stay up. I ended up falling asleep on the couch and when the parents came home the boy was still awake, I always feel bad when that happens but I was tired and the parents were late.

Rap up the past week

Like everyone else I know, I like to blog barf too!! I’ll start with last Friday 31, TGIF, everyone at from work was going to hang out at Karin’s house, my boss, and so I went but of course I had to be fashionably late. I also was just a little nervous to go, I don’t know why, just because I’m weird like that. Anyways I rode James’s electric bike over I was so cautious and went really slow, “I’m not ready to die yet I’m still too young!” It took me twice as long to get there but I made it there with out running into anybody or getting hit by anyone else!! GO ME! It was really fun when I got there, a few people were drinking and the rest of us just hung out and talked in the living room. We played a little fortune telling game and talked about if we believed in destiny. It was a very fun and interesting conversation because we all had separate opinions on the subject. That is the neatest thing about being here is I get to meet so many different kinds of people from all over the world and to hear there story’s just amazes me! Saturday morning I walked 35Min's to Carrefour, it’s sort of like a two story wal-mart, and I was planning on taking a taxi cab or pedi cab home. Well it all started off great but after I got done in the store and went and put all my stuff on the pedi cab I could not find my taxi card that tells them where I want to go. So I’m frantically looking for this card in all my bags and purse and I try and call Michelle to translate for me but I could not remember how to send a call. It was funny as I was walking away there were a other pedi cabs wanting me to ride on theirs so I simply told them, “I want to go to the American consulate and you cant understand me, so you cant take me”. It took me twice as long to get home as it did to get to Carrefour, my cafes were a tiny bit sore when I finally arrived home. That just means I’m really out of shape. The Fowler's had a pool party at 3:00 it was a blast, I just jumped in the pool played with all the kids, raced, played games etc. I just really enjoyed playing with all the kids. Later on some guys from church came, they teach English here, and I talked with them for a while “Sorry guys sometimes you are just not interesting”!!! After everyone when home, except Josh and his girlfriend stayed and we all hung out and played the Wii! Wii’s are fun toys!
SUNDAY, for the most part was pretty good. We had a new couple at church from Afton, Wyoming come, they are here teaching English, he is a REAL COWBOY, they are an older couple and they are the sweetest people! That reminds me I love old people!
Sunday after noon brought gloom. Sometimes you just have hard times and Sunday afternoon was like that for me. I won’t go into details but I was being stubborn and hardhead and I ended up getting my feeling hurt. Sounds childish but I guess you have to learn from things, I ended up crying in my room for a good 2 hours. I don’t know what I would do with out MUSIC!! Music is my outlet when I need to calm myself down or just need to get my mind off of certain things. Hilary Weeks was the Artist of the day.
Monday I went out to eat Chinese food with the Fowler's, It was pretty good. OH, James put the sichuan pepper on one of the dishes and I got a mouthful of it, I was going to puke. It took a good 10 mins to get the taste out of my mouth. Oh I had a dish of extremely thin shredded potatoes that were deep-fried, it was so amazing, I don’t know why American has not discovered it yet. Tuesday after work, I rode the electric bike to Carrefour again, this time it only took about 8-10Min's to get there. I hung out there and bought some clothes, like I need more clothes! Wednesday night I got a pedicure and a manicure again, I just can’t resist when it’s so affordable! Next thing I want to do is get a massage because I hear they are amazing and freaken cheap, like only 20RMB which is only $3 an hour! After I got my nails done I meet up with a friend from work, Joy, she took me to get dumplings. They weren’t half as bad as I expected, and I’m getting better with chopsticks too. She is from a little village outside of Beijing, and she told me the story of how her family became christian, it was incredible.