Our Daily Life

Every day in the streets of our neighborhood you’ll see people throw out their garbage into the streets: full garbage bags, uneaten leftovers, rotten fruit and vegetables, cut hair from the endless barber shops lining the street, and any other type of garbage imaginable, including human waste. Very gross. TP will occasionally get mad at those people if he sees them do it and confront them, like he did today: “Why do you ruin your city like that? Do you not like your country?” The people are always thrown off and are very confused. TP always wants to throw the garbage back into their homes or businesses but I have to remind him that these people have never been taught any other way. They’ve simply known all their lives to throw out the garbage in the street, and the street sweepers (with their blue overalls, their garbage wagon on wheels, and their bamboo brooms) will come out every few hours and sweep it all away.

In the local restaurant today we paid $2 for our dinner. The lady brought out TP’s food first (not like in America where everyone gets their meals at the same time) and then brought out my soup and placed it next to TP, on the opposite side of where I was sitting, as if serving to an imaginable person, even though I had ordered it and she knew it was mine. We laughed and TP said, “Who are you serving it to? There’s no one sitting there?” She seemed very confused as she put it in front of me. We still haven’t been able to figure that one out.

Our apartment has a gym with a pool where I like to swim…or float. Call it what you want. The first time I tried to get in the lifeguards wouldn’t allow me to since I was pregnant and it’s apparently unhealthy for a prego woman to swim??? I assured them I’d be fine and that I would only pool run to ease their nerves. The agreement was that I would stay in the shallow end only and not dunk my head under. One of the lifeguards stayed by my side the entire time and yelled at anyone who got too close telling them to be more careful when near me because I was 7 months pregnant.

The other day I went for a swim, and a rather large old lady blocked the stairs and told me not to get in since I had a big belly. I ignored her and got right in beside her and smiled. She also yelled at me for swimming with my head under water. That same day a bunch of young boys were playing tag in and around the pool, running at full speed around the perimeter chasing each other. Even though the floor was slippery wet and they could have fallen and been hurt quite badly, not one lifeguard gave a second glance…Some things I will never understand.

Jen at 11 weeks


At 31 weeks

At 33 weeks

I think we are back in the blogging business

The government has put restrictions on various websites, including blogger.com, and more recently Facebook, which is why we haven’t been able to post. Unfortunately, we have been denied access along with the rest of the country. We are sad we won’t be able to view all your blogs, however, we will now send our posts to TP’s sister and she’ll post them for us allowing us to keep up with our family journal. Thanks H!

So to play catch up:
In China:

We had our friends from Guam spend two weeks visiting us in China. We had a great time taking them around 4 different cities. In Pudong we rented bikes and boats in Century Park. In Hangzhou, one of our favorite retreats, we rented bikes and biked around West Lake, and explored many different areas. We took them to a water town and took another little fishing boat along the canals. In Nanjing we hiked up to Sun Yet Sen’s Mausoleum. And we spent the majority of the time exploring Beijing on bikes and foot. I think we all agreed that Beijing is quite the historical place to be and were astounded at the immensity of the Great Wall. It is simply the most amazing man made structure I have ever seen. I don’t think I can write words that fully express how amazing it is. Did you know it was built in 221 B.C.? Neither did I. It’s crazy to think the Great Wall was built before Christ walked the Earth! We also enjoyed running in the Birds Nest where the greatest runners in the world competed in during this past Summer Olympics. We all ran a short 100M sprint together in honor of becoming such awesome friends through running. The last time we had all been together for a run was in 2003…

The Bird's Nest

The Great Wall

In America:

We took a ‘heavenly summer holiday’ back in the good old USA. I quote ‘heavenly summer holiday’ since I’ve been asked to write about this exact topic for a ward newsletter, and since upon arriving in the U.S. I did use that exact word: ‘heavenly’. Here is what I wrote:
Highlights of our heavenly summer holiday included spending a week with my sister and my beautiful nieces; getting together with college running friends at Ruth’s Diner up Emigration Canyon for breakfast and laughing like we had never spent a day apart; a Price Family Reunion up in the top most hills of Ogden Canyon and being in endless amounts of open land on top of the world; playing a made up game with my brother that lasted all day long; cheering TP on in the Wasatch Back Relay, a 12 man relay race that spans 188 miles beginning in Logan and ending in Park City; having a 4th of July bratwurst bbq and then taking an evening walk with TP in the quiet, calm before the fireworks--and then watching the sky turn all sorts of wondrous colors before the setting sun; sitting on a grassy hill with TP on a Sunday afternoon after a Sunday walk and watching another family playing fetch with their dog: up and down, up and down that hill, repeatedly he went; shopping with my mom, of course; and above all, sitting quietly in Logan Temple’s celestial room with my husband beside me, holding my hand. I enjoyed the open green land and wonderful Utah morning air so much I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity (despite being 7 months pregnant and increasingly uncomfortable) to go on a quiet morning run, which I did, and didn’t make it more than 20 meters without realizing I had to walk the rest of the way. But that’s okay, I enjoyed it almost as much as a run. It was almost the same.

TP and his sister at the end of the Wasatch Back Relay

Ogden Valley

Back in China:

Taking a visit back to the U.S. to be with family and friends is always heavenly, but upon being back home in SH., I’ve discovered a new noise: It’s something quite different than the normal loud honking, people talking, jack hammers pounding away throughout all hours of the night. No it’s not that. It sounds like a loud washing machine gone crazy. A vacuum multiplied by a thousand. Its loud humming buzz seeps into my apartment on the 11th floor along with the heavy humidity, and upon further investigation, I realize it’s the cicadas alive and well in the trees. It’s an amazing sound that reminds me of movies I’ve seen of jungles in Vietnam, or of a lush tropical island, or of hiking in the jungles of Brazil (something I can only imagine), and I think that this is heaven too. On this side of heaven I get to spend the entire weekend with my husband, and I get him all to myself; and all because of our great house help, dinner is on the table at 6, dishes are washed promptly when we are through, our home is clean and orderly (though not always the case), our laundry is always clean and folded; we have awesome friends in our branch; and cicadas buzz in the trees during the hot humid summer months. Besides that, SH’s week long New Year’s firework celebration can’t even compare to any 4th of July firework celebration ever given in the U.S. I mean really, the U.S.’s show starts at dark and ends with the finale at 10:30 PM. In SH, the celebration doesn’t even begin till midnight!