Here is what we've been doing lately:
Playing the Wii with some friends we met at church-these people like to laugh. We played mario cart, Guitar hero, and American Idol. Tay sang Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody and did not progress to Hollywood. Sorry Tay. (Simon was so nice to everyone else and so rude to me, I didn't get any love for doing a song with such a high difficulty level! - Taylor)
Getting our house in order-you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find hangers here! So our clothes have been laying around in the back bedroom and we've been on the lookout. Today while walking home from The Wii friends home, Tay spots this old man on a bike carrying a load of household goods, including hangers. Tay runs after him, stops him, purchases all the hangers he has, which by the way was still not enough, and bargains for nearly half the price. We then walk into an art shop and sitting by the front were the owners, and the one lady says to the man (in Chinese of course),
"Look at those foreigners and all those hangers. What on earth are they going to do with so many hangers?" Taylor turns and says to her,
"I've got a lot of clothes to hang, thank you very much!"
They both kind of giggle and gawk that a foreigner can speak such great Chinese, and they ended up becoming friends, and he offered all his artwork in the store for a low price. Even for the huge wall paintings. It's awesome that he can understand because we'll get many comments while walking, or shopping, and Taylor always understands why they're laughing or pointing.
An eventful trip to IKEA. We bought a few household items and ate lunch there as well. IKEA is just as big as it is in Utah, and their lunch menu contains swedish meatballs, some sort of egg drop soup, spaghetti, salmon wrap, and raisin rolls.
Eating dessert with friends from the church. It's quite interesting to see the kind of friends we hang out with now. They're all at least 10-20 years our senior and all well established.
Getting massages. We picked a cheaper place off the streets for our last massage, and it was by far the best. We figure it's all hit and miss no matter how much you pay. It's fun because we get a little room together and get them at the same time! (Jen was having a great time. It was supposed to be 60 min but half way through they convinced her to add another 30 minutes. Then before we left they got her a VIP membership card! - Taylor)
There haven't been too many dull moments yet. It has been nice to have Tay staying home with me the past few days; to help me get the house in order but he will be going back to work tomorrow morning. :( Now it's probably time for me to find a job...
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Thoughts
Thoughts: First Day
-I miss my mom.
-Noodles are eaten for every meal.
-People here are so polite.
-You can get a nice, juicy pomegranate for a fraction of the cost you'd find in the U.S. Awesome!
Tay's thought:
-"Why do I bother getting dressed when everyone stays in their pajamas all day?" (It's true, I can't tell you how many people we saw on our first day who were in their matching pajama set and sandals in the store, at breakfast, walking down the street in the middle of the day...
Thoughts: Second Day (Looking out my balcony at 5:30 AM)
-It's so light at this early hour.
-I sure hope that's humidity hanging thick in the air and not smog.
-I miss my mom.
-Noodles are eaten for every meal.
-People here are so polite.
-You can get a nice, juicy pomegranate for a fraction of the cost you'd find in the U.S. Awesome!
Tay's thought:
-"Why do I bother getting dressed when everyone stays in their pajamas all day?" (It's true, I can't tell you how many people we saw on our first day who were in their matching pajama set and sandals in the store, at breakfast, walking down the street in the middle of the day...
Thoughts: Second Day (Looking out my balcony at 5:30 AM)
-It's so light at this early hour.
-I sure hope that's humidity hanging thick in the air and not smog.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Fun Run
I had to do a posting on this small Payson Day 5k fun run on Labor Day because it was my very first race ever with my sister. I don't know of anyone who has a cooler sister. I always wanted to get her to run back in the day but she never got into it. One day, years later, she started running and is as hooked as me! She's more dedicated than me that's for sure. With three busy girls, she dutifully gets up way too early every morning and runs. This is our first race together. I hoped with it being so small I could win the race but then a really fast girl showed up, and knocked me to second. Seth won his race of course! For our prizes they gave out minted silver dollars. Awesome!
Jaime did really well and took second out of her running groupies of which there are five or six. Way to go!!! The best part about the whole day was spending the rest of the afternoon with my parents, my sister, and her cute, fun daughters.
Where's Taylor you ask? ... sleeping in.
Where's Megan you ask? ...sleeping in.
We had spent the previous night at Seth's parents and had stayed up way too late watching movies and chatting.
Jaime did really well and took second out of her running groupies of which there are five or six. Way to go!!! The best part about the whole day was spending the rest of the afternoon with my parents, my sister, and her cute, fun daughters.Where's Taylor you ask? ... sleeping in.
Where's Megan you ask? ...sleeping in.
We had spent the previous night at Seth's parents and had stayed up way too late watching movies and chatting.
Labor Day
Over Labor Day weekend our best hang out friends Seth and Megan took us camping in American Fork Canyon. We four wheeled for hours over rivers, rocks, and mud. That night when we got rained out we were glad Seth's parents live right out of the canyon so we could be saved. We lasted till 6 A.M.!
At one point we went exploring over a marshy area and found moose and deer beds, dams that little beavers had built, and little fishes that were scared into hiding by our shadows. Crossing a very long log, Taylor realized it was unstable so as I come to cross unaware, Tay, at the other end, starts bouncing hard and says, "Just checking your stability." And to check out just how well my stability was, I started bouncing. Dumb, I know. Tay sees my test and starts jumping with the purpose of making me fall, and continues to do so even when I yell for him to stop. What a great guy:) That was a hard fall. Meanwhile Seth is warned of a beehive, and is chased by a mob of angry bees. The only thing that was going through my head at that moment was the bee sting scene in the forest from the movie, "My Girl" and I'm yelling, "Run!!!"...
Megan, witnessing this all with wide eyes from behind says, "I think I'll take another way."
Seth and Megan have become like family here in Logan. We run together, play games and cards, share family home evenings, get ice-cream, share recipes, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, long car drives up the beautiful mountains, camp, eat dutch oven food in the mountains, knock trees over in the mountains, throw rocks down steep canyon ravines (not recommended), share our innermost fears and excitements, build gingerbread houses, carve pumpkins, watch movies, go to movies, eat candy, laugh, and run some more. We've shared each others heartaches, and successes. They're the greatest friends ever and we will really miss them.
At one point we went exploring over a marshy area and found moose and deer beds, dams that little beavers had built, and little fishes that were scared into hiding by our shadows. Crossing a very long log, Taylor realized it was unstable so as I come to cross unaware, Tay, at the other end, starts bouncing hard and says, "Just checking your stability." And to check out just how well my stability was, I started bouncing. Dumb, I know. Tay sees my test and starts jumping with the purpose of making me fall, and continues to do so even when I yell for him to stop. What a great guy:) That was a hard fall. Meanwhile Seth is warned of a beehive, and is chased by a mob of angry bees. The only thing that was going through my head at that moment was the bee sting scene in the forest from the movie, "My Girl" and I'm yelling, "Run!!!"...
Megan, witnessing this all with wide eyes from behind says, "I think I'll take another way."
Seth and Megan have become like family here in Logan. We run together, play games and cards, share family home evenings, get ice-cream, share recipes, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, long car drives up the beautiful mountains, camp, eat dutch oven food in the mountains, knock trees over in the mountains, throw rocks down steep canyon ravines (not recommended), share our innermost fears and excitements, build gingerbread houses, carve pumpkins, watch movies, go to movies, eat candy, laugh, and run some more. We've shared each others heartaches, and successes. They're the greatest friends ever and we will really miss them.
Lotoja Bike Race
Congrats Tay and cousin T.J. for completing the 206 mile bike race from Logan to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They rode for team Barbacoa, and finished in 10 hours 26 minutes. They climbed three major mountain passes, and something like 3000 feet, and biked through three states. At the second feed station they made, their support crew failed them with much needed water, food, and salt tablets and made for a very rough first 100 miles. What wife would ever do that to her husband??? Apparently last year Jill, T.J.'s wife, witnessed this very same thing and thought, "What stupid wife would ever make that mistake?" And then we did that very same thing this year and had a chuckle. Oops!! Sorry boys!
Congrats Tay! You rode like a champ, and never gave up, even when your legs cramped up and caused you to lie by the side of the road and recover for a moment. You wanted to quit, but you got back on your bike and fought hard! You are one tough fighter! Thanks T.J. for helping him out!
Congrats Tay! You rode like a champ, and never gave up, even when your legs cramped up and caused you to lie by the side of the road and recover for a moment. You wanted to quit, but you got back on your bike and fought hard! You are one tough fighter! Thanks T.J. for helping him out!China home
Our apartment. Check out that Chinese furniture!
Awesome architecture.
The 1000 year old fishing village. Yes, those homes you see behind the Chinese man rowing are 1000 years old, and are still occupied and lived in. Not too clean.
For show they had these men in costume sailing by with their gongs sounding and drums beating in rhythm with the row.
Nanjing Lu.
One Lotus Flower in full bloom. Men playing chess in parks is something found in every park, every day. Women walk around doing Tai-Chi, and games of Badminton are also common.
East and West sides of the Huangpu River. Pudong and Puxi. Pudong is the newer, architectually innovative side; while Puxi (where we'll be living) has new architectually advanced buildings as well, but also boasts of old Shanghai.
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