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The perfect ending to my month long visit was a trip to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple with my family. It was really hard to say goodbye to my sister after spending a wonderful week with her and her daughters. It was bittersweet, really, since I couldn't wait to meet TP in Shanghai. I honestly believe I have the best family ever.

Scorpions and Grasshoppers!

The search for scorpions ended this morning. We found a street full of them! We also found a lot of other things that we didn't know were even available. The scorpions weren't bad, they were actually pretty good. We followed that up with grasshoppers, yes the very locus that seagulls ate to save the pioneers crops. They weren't very good. I had a grasshopper wing stuck in my teeth all day. It was like a popcorn seed that you can't get out unless you have floss. The scorpion legs got stuck in my retainer but that came out pretty easily.

This street had plenty of other tasty treats, including but certainly not limited to: starfish on a stick, huge-black scorpions (we had the small ones), catipillars, worms, larve, gecco on a stick, beatles on a stick and many other strange insects. oh ya, there were also little birds on a stick. We found a place that served dog last night and were going to go back tonight but after all of our tasty snacks we settled for a New York serloin steak at Outback Steakhouse.

Beijing

Well I don't have the camera with me but since we have taken a holiday from blogging I figured that it was time to at least get something back on the blog. Jen is still in the US hanging out with her sister and nieces. I came to Beijing the other day to go snowboarding with with a guy from work and one of my customers. The snowboarding in China doesn't even come close the anything in Utah! But it was fun to say that we went in China. We also went and walked around in the Bird's Nest, that is quite the place. There is no snow on the ground here but we have still had sub-zero temperatures the whole time. It is so cold!

We spent about an hour last night trying to find scorpians to eat but we couldn't ever find them:(
We did however see a restraunt that served dog, we are going back today! Last nights dinner was one of the worst I've ever had. I normally like the foods that we were having but it was all spicy beyond belief. We had frog, rabbit, crawdads and cow fat. It was so spicy that it nearly killed us but I made it out okay, so far.

Today I think we are going to go see the Great Wall and Forbidden City. The original plan was to snowboard again today but with the resort not being all that great we decided that we would go see Beijing instead.

"Winner Winner Chicken Dinner"

Consider the equation:

Warm chicken + dirty chopping wood block + right outside the front door on an old cardboard mat (perhaps a little dirty?) = a very good chicken dinner.

Oh Christmas Tree...

My Christmas Tree. Slightly crooked, very wiry and thin-not conducive to holding ornaments-extremely bare.

*I've posted this picture for the sole purpose of those who read Hilary's blog, and my comment.

I should note that my talent doesn't lie in decorating a home, or decorating for any holiday, and I'm afraid this tree will sit, exactly as you see it, unadorned, until January. I shall also note that TP really likes this tree.

Parks

And you thought parks with colorful play equipment were for kids...Not so on the other side of the world, where everything is upside down! Did I mention the college track meet TP and I went to: many of those watching the meet were smoking, and a couple of the athletes, upon completion of their race, lit up a smoke as well!

Many games of mah-jong occur in parks. Little stone tables are set up throughout for the purpose of playing this game. Walking through here I didn't know if the air quality was horrendously smoky because of the pollution, or because of the cigarette smoke I just couldn't seem to evade. The man above had just finished swinging on the bars.

Yes, these colorful pieces of equipment are similar to those one would see in a gym in the U.S. Don't they remind you of a Health Rider?

"Forward, back, forward, back; up, down, up, down, work those legs, till they burn."

I can't help but think what was going through their minds as I was taking these photos.



During the day around our neighborhood, intense games of mah-jong are played-all hours of the day, and into the late night.

The Thrilla in Manila

Our version of the Thrilla in Manila didn't exactly include Ali and Frazier going toe to toe to find out who is the best heavyweight champion in the world, but we did go to an ultimate fighting match in Manila. I know this doesn't sound like an activity that Jen and I would usually attend but we had free tickets from my customer who sponsored the event. There were 10 fights total during the night. The quickest lasted 15 seconds while others lasted 15 minutes or so. The last four fights were the big fights that everyone came to see. The final fight of the night was a different story though. It was the premier event and lived up to the hype. The match was between the Philipino champion, Kevin Belingon, and the Guam USA champion, Justin "the shocker" Cruz.

Little did I know that this fight would bring out a whole other side of Jen that I didn't know existed. I thought I was dreaming when all of a sudden I start hearing things like, "C'mon, hit him harder! kick him! get him!" I couldn't believe my ears when I kept hearing my sweet little Jen yell out to hit someone harder... The whole crowd was cheering for the Philipino champion but that didn't stop Jen from cheering loudly for "the shocker". The match lasted the full two rounds and the Philipino won by two points in a judges decision. Jen is still convinced that her man, Justin Cruz, won the fight.

She quickly became an ultimate fighting groupy as she waited for 20 minutes after the fight to try to meet Cruz and get his autograph or a picture with him. She was able to get a poster but didn't get the autograph. Her fighter is the one on the right. I'm not sure if it was all the tattoos or the bad boy attitude but Jen thought Cruz was the greatest thing ever (besides me of course!)

I never expected to see this side of her, but if anyone is looking for a friend to go to ultimate fighting with, Jen would go in a heartbeat. I would still prefer a track meet.