Make Like A Tree and Leaf

iheartzelbie

2011-02-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

Check out my new blog! www.iheartzelbie.com I will now be blogging there from now on.

Ninja Sauce

2011-01-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

I am home! I have no excuses about why I abandoned my blog all together the last couple months so I am going to move right on past that. I have been home from China for 5 weeks now. The 4 & 1/2 months that I spent there were some of the hardest and greatest times of my life. I am so grateful for all the people I met and experiences that I had. I will never forget my time there and I am forever a different person because of the experience. I must confess that I really want to go back and plan on it someday soon. For now, I am living in Tempe, AZ. I am not going to school at the moment. I am just looking for a job and crafting and painting as much as possible. I am starting a new and different blog. I will post it here as soon as it is up and running.

Here are just some pictures to rap up China...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T15:18:00.001-08:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine was wonderful and definitely one to be remembered. It was parent day at school so for the whole morning, there were tons of parents observing our teaching. We were a bit nervous but it went very well. Amazingly, the kids were really good with their parents there. The school put on a huge dinner for us in honor of Thanksgiving. Our chef, Michael, made delicious Chinese food and we made some American dishes for everyone to try. I made mashed potatoes for the first time and gravy. They turned out really good. It was definitely different than most of the Thanksgiving feasts I have had. There were chicken feet, fried squid, weird sausage things and many other interesting things but the stuff I did eat was really good. Some of the other girls made apple crumble and cookies so I still got to over dose on sugar. It was so much fun to be around all the teachers and staff at the school that we rely upon so much and that we have come to love. The food was great and then we played some games.

I have so many things to be grateful for! I have been so blessed with such an incredible and supportive family. This year, I am particularly grateful for the opportunity I have had to live in China. It has changed my life. I am a different person now than I was before and I hope that I have changed for the better.

Happy Free Jeans Day!

2010-11-15T05:48:00.001-08:00

About a month ago, we went to a lunch that was put on by a company for foreigners in the area. We did not love anything about the activity except the food. The food was delicious. We were however promised free jeans so we all attended. At the lunch, they had someone measure us for our jeans. After much waiting, we all got our free jeans yesterday! It turns out that all the styles are completely different. They are all different colors and types of jeans. They all have different brand labels on them as well. I do not love mine but I love that they are free. China is always surprising. I can understand trying to bribe people to your event with a gift but I would have never thought of giving jeans. It worked for us and I am not complaining. Here are the four of us in our new jeans.

Talent Show

2010-11-09T05:30:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago, Candice asked us if we wanted to compete in a talent show. We had and still have no idea what the talent show was for but a couple of the girls in our group are really into dancing so we all agreed that we would throw something together. We decided to dance to Thriller since we had to have a performance for the Halloween Party our school was throwing as well. After a long series of events, we merged our thriller dance with 3 of the Chinese teachers that were also dancing. This turned out to be an extremely good idea.

Here were the most interesting things about the talent show...

1. We were the only white people participating and we were dressed up like zombies. We usually get starred at but it was taken to new levels at the talent show.

2. We participated in the talent show and then found out that not only was there another round but that we made it to the finals so we had to dance again. We had no idea that we were just participating in the preliminary. We were all very distraught at this news. It turned out that we had to perform again a week later in a much more public place outside. There were 10 dancing acts and 10 singing acts that made it to the finals.

3. We did not win but we did get a case of milk that turned out to taste a lot more like something unlike milk than milk but we happily took it. Tina bought us ice cream and gave us lilies that made our apartment smell good for weeks so we are completely satisfied.

4. Heidi made the observation that Mandarin just doesn't sound great in song form and I have to agree. It may just be that I cannot understand the words but it definitely is a strange language in song. The singing acts were really all terrible.

5. We were the last act to perform. This didnt bother me. I was not at all nervous. For some reason, performing in front of hundreds of people that I do not know and cannot speak to does not bother me in the slightest bit. If you asked me to dance in front of my roommates, that would be a different matter entirely.

6. After the talent show was over, they made one person from each group go up on stage to accept the prizes. For some reason, the Chinese teachers decided that Wendy needed to be the one that represented us on stage. The only problem with this is that Wendy does not speak mandarin and had no idea what was happening. She just stood up there and every once in a while someone would make her move to a different part of the stage. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

7. In all the talent show was a good experience. I am glad we did it and I am extremely glad that I never have to do it again.

Fairies

2010-10-30T22:49:00.001-07:00

A while ago, we went to Guangzhou to performance of some sort. We still dont really have any clue why this performance was going on or why we were there but we do know that we managed to get our hands on about 25 leaf fans that they gave to everyone in the audience. After seeing these amazing fans I decided that Wendy and I needed to be leafy fairies for Halloween. We made that happen. The wings were made out of some hot glue and the amazing fans we procured. The skirts are just made out of tulle and elastic. I loved being a fairy and sincerely wish that I did not have to dress like a zombie for the gigantic Halloween party our schools is throwing for 1,000 people but at least I got to dress like a fairy once out of the four times we had to dress up for Halloween this week.

Halloween Week

2010-10-30T22:41:00.001-07:00

This last week has been crazy. It was Halloween week, of course, so everyday at school was a different dress up day for the kids and teachers. We had fun dressing up and the kids were even more adorable than usual.

Monday- Pajama Day

Tuesday- Crazy Day

Wednesday- Backwards Day

Thursday- Black and Orange Day

Friday- Costume Day

I was in charge of arts and crafts this week for my lessons so I made Halloween crafts with them all week. Some lessons worked better than others but I made these headbands with the kids and I think they are so adorable. On Wednesday one of the ILP directors, Casey, came for a visit. He watched our teaching and saw how things went down at the school and at our apartment. His visit went very well and he reaffirmed to us that we are at the best school, have the best coordinators and live in the best apartments in all of the ILP programs in all of China. We are truly blessed because all of those things really are true. Casey talked about sports and politics with us and it was really nice to have someone else to talk to that can understand you completely and that knows what is going on. He even took us out to dinner and bought us ice cream. That is really all it takes to win us over.

I am so glad this week is almost at an end. It has been crazy and tiring. Thank goodness tomorrow is November! Happy Halloween!

T.H.A.W

2010-10-16T04:10:00.001-07:00

One day at school, a little girl did not have an English name so we were asked to name her. We were brainstorming possible options and Wendy decided that we should name her something that had the first initial of all our names in it. The best option she could come up with was J.A.G.T.H.A.W. You will be happy to hear that we named her Daisy but the name has stuck with us and that is what we call ourselves. It also turned out that J.A.G (Jessica, Alex, Gabby) lives in one apartment and T.H.A.W (Tessa, Heidi, Alyssa, Wendy) lives in the other.

About a month ago, we were bored on a Sunday afternoon so we decided to take T.H.A.W roommate family photo's. We then made large prints of them and awkwardly hung them all over our house to make our visitors feel awkward and to make our place a bit more homey. The Eighties themed photo's we took, that will not be displayed on my blog, are hung up in our apartment as well and are sure to make all the people that visit us feel awkward. I spend most if not all of my time with these girls.

In the pictures it goes Alyssa, Wendy, Me, Heidi. I love my roommates and they are some of the best people I know. I am extremely lucky to get to live with them here in China. You can blame them for my love of Hindi movies and other strange hobbies that I am going to come home with. It is not my fault.

10 weeks

2010-10-16T03:06:00.000-07:00

This week marked our 10 week anniversary of our arrival in China! Time is starting to go by fast. We had a Hindi themed party of course! No other theme would do. We are all a bit obsessed with Hindi films at the moment. Heidi, one of my roommates and my Head Teacher, is really into it and has us all hooked. We got noodles from our favorite Muslim noodle place, some friends of ours came and brought some Apple Chutney and we watched a fantastic Hindi film called Ghajini. It was rather comical to have 10 of us in our tiny living room watching a 3 hour movie, in which you have to read what they are saying, on a lap top. We have a TV but we dont know how to turn on the English subtitles because all the menu's are in Chinese so we are forced to watch all Hindi movies on our laptops. The party was a success and China is better than ever. I am constantly overwhelmed by how amazing this experience this is. I think the only thing harder than coming to live in China will be having to leave it. I try not to think about it. Thankfully, that is not for another 8 weeks.

The picture is the only picture we took at the party. Everyone is doing their best to look like Sanjay, the main character in the movie. I am not sure if they were quite spot on.

Yangshuo 11 Hostel

2010-10-13T04:48:00.001-07:00

Since being in China, we have stayed in some rather shady hostels around the country. They have been perfectly satisfactory for our needs but not a place I would like to chill after a bad day if your picking up what I'm putting down. However, we LOVED our hostel in Yangshuo a great deal. It had a sweet big TV with all the movies on it that you could ever want. The rooms were relatively clean. You got to our hostel by winding around these little tiny alleyways off of the main road and I loved getting to do that. The people in charge of it were extremely helpful and friendly. Our favorite part was the roof. Our hostel had the highest viewpoint of the whole village and it was in a perfect location. We loved to just sit and look at the gorgeous scenery from the roof. The only problem with the hostel was the smell of our bathroom but I can even overlook that because it was so awesome. I miss that hostel and Yangshuo and probably always will.

The pictures were taken from the roof of our hostel.

Moon Hill

2010-10-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

For one of our glorious days in Yangshuo, we decided to go on a hike at Moon Hill. I was completely naive as to what Moon Hill was and what the hike was going to be like. I am glad that I did not know how hard that hike was going to be because I if I would have known how hard the hike was going to be I probably would not have gone.

We took a bus to the park and before we could even step off the bus we were surrounded by four elderly Asian women with big coolers full of stuff they wanted to sell us. We sat down on a bench for a while and they sat with us. They stayed with us the entire time we were in the park. At the beginning of the trail you can see a big mountain ahead of you that has a moon shaped hole in it. I thought to myself, "we surely cant be hiking up to that hole. That is too high up and far way." I was apparently mistaken because the trail consisted of 1000 stairs that went to that moon shaped hole. I was extremely brilliant and forgot my inhaler that would have been mighty handy in that situation. I may or may not have had to stop about 5 times on the way to the top but I made it! The Chinese women did not even break a sweat or breath heavily. They make that hike once or twice a day. Once at the hole, the Chinese women showed us a trail that had a sign in front of it that said, "NO ADMITTANCE." They pointed above us and then pointed to the trail. This shady little overgrown trail led us to the very top of the mountain. There were incredible views from there. I was not looking up at all the mountains around me. I was among the mountains that were surrounding me.

Dragon Bridge

2010-10-13T01:36:00.001-07:00

I am not exactly what you would call an outdoors and exercise lover but it is amazing the physical activity you can get out of me when I am in exotic places around the world. In Yangshuo we went hiking around caves, bike riding and climbed a limestone formation that was 1,000 steps high. One of my very favorite days in Yangshuo was when we biked to Dragon Bridge that was 20 Kilometers away. It was an incredible bike ride. We were biking through some of the prettiest places I have ever seen. Since, for some reason, I mysteriously get really brave around water, I jumped off the 30 foot tall bride. That was an extremely terrifying experience but I am glad I did it. There was many Asians at the bottom cheering me on with their camera's at the ready. Everyone in our group jumped in except Jess who was completely at peace with herself and did not want to destroy that peace by self inducing terror. If I could go on a 24 mile bike ride like that everyday, then exercise would become a lot more appealing to me. Yangshuo is just so dang beautiful.

Li River

2010-10-12T09:31:00.001-07:00

One of the highlights of the trip was our boat ride on the Li River. The river runs through Guilin and Yangshuo and many other little villages that are between them. We knew all along that we wanted to go by boat from Guilin to Yangshuo where we would spend the remainder of our vacation but we did not exactly know how that was going to happen. It was a holiday so everything was very expensive. Thankfully, we ran into a man who offered to take us for a pretty good deal. He kept introducing himself by different names so we are unsure if his name is Smiley or Jerry. Anyway, he convinced us to start our journey at 5 AM so that we could be on the river when the sun rose. The only problem with that plan is that we did not realize how cold it can get at 5 AM when you are on a river in a boat. It can get a medium to extra large amount of cold and none of us brought jackets or even decent pants. Smiley/ Jerry picked us up in a van and took us about 45 minutes along the river to where we got into the boat. It was the bumpiest and craziest ride I have ever been in. We then got into a bamboo boat that was actually made of enormous PVC pipe. Normally it would have bothered me that the hour and half boat ride that we paid for was only fifty minutes but I was so cold that if I would have been on that boat one minute longer I may have expired right there. The boat ride was gorgeous though. I loved weaving around the big limestone formations. After the boat ride we drove through some little towns and got to see where the picture on the 20 Yuan Bill Note is taken from. I am definitely glad that we went to Yangshuo by boat. In my opinion, there is no other way to go.

Guilin

2010-10-12T09:16:00.001-07:00

Our vacation started out in Guilin. It was a nice place but not much to do. It is a rather big city and it was crawling with people while we were there but we managed to have a good time. I found muffins that where baked in pie crust and owl purses so I was perfectly content with our days there. One of my very favorite things about Guilin was the gigantic Sweet Potato I got from a street vendor that was baked by a fire. It was so delicious and I loved it a great deal. We also really enjoyed seeing the pagoda's of the sun and moon. They were really pretty.

The Knight Bus

2010-10-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

The last several weeks have been some of the craziest and greatest days of my two decade long life. Four days after returning home from Bejing, we traveled to Guilin and Yangshuo. I loved Yangshuo a great deal and will post many photo's. First, however, I must explain how we got to Guilin. I have been on many 12 hour long road trips but none of them were quite like this. We decided to take a sleeper bus because it was relatively close and the bus was inexpensive. The bus was quite remarkable. There were three rows with beds stacked two high. There were about 42 beds on that bus that were asian sized which means that I was about 6 inches too tall for them. On the way there, there were extremely sketchy blankets on all the beds that I had to use because of a tragic incident with my fruit juice that I will not go into detail about. Here are significant things about the bus and our bus ride.

1. When entering the bus, you can see a very large "No Smoking" Sign that is ignored and apparently not enforced. It was a very smoky ride.

2. When entering the bus you must take off your shoes and put them into little baggies. I suppose the goal of this is to help keep things clean but I wonder where the cleanliness the are trying to retain is. I am not sure how much good removing your shoes does for the already filthy bus. Nevertheless, I complied and removed my shoes every time I got on the bus.

3. There were TV's on the bus that played extremely strange Asian movies at loud volumes. Randomly, on the way there they played the new Twilight movie which was a bit sad to me. Even on a sleeper bus in the middle of China I cannot escape the mayhem that is Twilight.

4. The bus ride was the bumpiest, craziest and most beautiful ride I have ever been on. We weaved in and out of mountains and winding rivers. It looked like I had pictured China to look like. I loved looking out the window.

5. I officially vow to never complain about bathrooms in America again. I went in the shadiest bathrooms I have ever been in on the bus ride. The bus would stop and the man in the front would smile and wave to us which meant that we could get off to go to the bathroom. We would be led to strange places that resembled bathrooms. There was not one bathroom that had doors on the stalls and most of them resembled troughs. I survived. That is all.

6. The bus ride there took 11 hours to go to Guilin and when we came back from Yangshuo, which is 2 hours closer, it took 13 hours. We are not sure how that works but, when we are talking about this bus, it makes sense somehow.

7. I am rather sure that there are very few foreigners that ride on that bus because they seemed very confused and befuddled by our presence.

The bus was a good experience and made me feel like a Chinese person. That is always a nice thing.

Eight Weeks

2010-10-01T05:39:00.001-07:00

This last Wednesday marked our eighth week in China. The fact that I have been living here for eight weeks is astonishing to me. To mark this occasion, Wendy and I decide to host a Harry Potter Party. We decorated our apartment like The Great Hall (of China), dressed up, ate dinner, had a sorting and attempted to watch one of the movies. About ten minutes before our guests arrived, I realized that I did not in fact have any of the Harry Potter movies with me so we did our best with You Tube but it was an epic fail. The night was quite the success though. I managed to get my hands on some butter and I made pasta. It was delicious. We also had tons of fruit and our British friend Elaine brought ice cream. Wendy and I dressed up like Fred and George Weasley. Heidi dressed up like a wizard who is trying to dress like a muggle. Alyssa had my favorite costume that consisted of a sheet because she was Dobby of course. The other girls were Belatrix Lestrange and Luna Lovegood. Wendy and I were very excited that our little party was such a success. I am sure that the next eight weeks will be as great as these last weeks were. Wendy and I are planning our 10 week party and all I will say about it is that it is going to be epic.

Three Down

2010-09-30T23:19:00.000-07:00

One of my lifetime goals is to visit all seven man made wonders of the world. I am happy to report that I only have 4 more wonders to go. Here is the official list and the sites in red are where I have visited.

1. TAJ MAHAL (AGRA, INDIA)

2. PETRA (JORDAN)

3. MACHU PICCHU (CUZCO, PERU)

4. GREAT WALL OF CHINA (CHINA)

5. COLOSSEUM (ROME, ITALY)

6. CHRIST THE REDEEMER (RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL)

7.CHICHEN ITZA (YUCATAN, MEXICO)

The opportunity to get to see The Great Wall of China was one of the reasons I decided to come to China and it did not disappoint in any way. Out of the three man made wonders of the world I have seen, The Great Wall is by far my favorite! Was it because of its beauty? Was it because of its vast length, size and location? Was it because I got to toboggan down from it? Was it because the weather was amazing? I would have to say that it was because of all of those things. As with many things I have seen in China, it completely blows my mind. I do not understand how it was possibly built. I cannot believe that the wall is over 5,500 miles long. We traveled about 2 hours outside of Bejing to go to a section of the wall that is up in the mountains a bit more. It was beautiful. I stood at one point and could see sections of the wall three mountains away. The whole time we were there, I could not believe what I was seeing. We walked along the wall for a little ways and it was very hard work. I know you are wondering if we really did do Kung Fu on The Great Wall of China and the answer to that quandary is always yes. On the return trip from The Great Wall, we got on an extremely full bus and stood in the isles for the 2 hour ride home. It was worth it to be sure.

Who wants to go with me to my next man made wonder of the world? I am up for any and all of them.

I Love Bejing More Then Ever!

2010-09-28T07:12:00.001-07:00

I did not know was crazy was until I experienced the last week of my life but China consistently and frequently redefines many things that I thought I knew and understood. Bejing was wonderful and none of us wanted to leave. I will break down a basic schedule. I will post more on each site later but that is a start.

Tuesday September 21rst- Went to school, and then took a 4 hour bus ride that was suppose to be 2 hours to Guangzhou where we would catch our train to Bejing. Then we barely caught our train to Bejing.

Wednesday September 22nd- We chilled on the train in the morning and then finally got off of our 21 hour train ride in Bejing sometime in the afternoon. We checked out Tiananmen Square and stuff downtown that night. It was the Mid Autumn Festival so we thought there might be festivities going on but there turned out to be no festivities just thousands of people.

Thursday September 23rd- We went all around Bejing and dominating the extremely crowded metro like ninja's. We went to The Forbidden City, different sweet places around Bejing, various temples, the Olympic Stadium "The Birds Nest", and went shopping at The Pearl Market. We were extremely excited but it was a great day.

Friday September 24th- THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!! We went to a section of the wall that was about 2 hours away so we took various metro's and buses to get there. It is truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I was and am still in awe. We took a ski lift up to the wall and then tobogganed down. It was great. The two hour bus ride back in which we were standing the whole time amongst a bus chalk full of Asians was not quite as amazing as The Great Wall but that is not to say that it was not a good experience. We then went back to The Pearl Market because I had dreams of all the pearls that I saw there and I had to have more. China is so cheap and I cannot help myself.

Saturday September 25th- We went to The Silk Market in the morning and then caught a train to head home in the evening.

Sunday September 26th- Chilled on the train all day then, once we finally got back to Guangzhou after another 21 our train ride, caught a 2 hour bus ride home. It was extremely strange to return home from a big trip to somewhere other than my actual home. I do love my Chinese Home though and was very glad to see it.

Monday September 27th- We taught at school during the day and then took off, in our extremely beautiful lime green polo's, back to Guangzhou to go see a huge performance in celebration of the International Tourism Day that I did not know existed. It was incredible. I have never seen anything like that performance before. We got back from Guanzhou that night at about 12:30 AM.

Dont worry, there are no signs of slowing down anytime soon. In 3 days we are going on another vacation and this time we are going for 10 days to Guilin and Yangshuo. I am extremely excited. There is no time for resting in China. There are far too many Asians to meet, things to see and food to try. Maybe I will slow down when I get back to the U.S. We shall see.

Hello Malaysian Food

2010-09-20T02:53:00.001-07:00

Making friends is not always the easiest thing in the world for me to do but I have found the answer to my difficulties in that regard. All I have to do is live in a foreign country that does not speak my native language. I have never found it easier to make friends. If I meet someone who speaks English, we are instantly friends because we can speak to each other. It is amazing how grateful I am for communication when it is not readily accessible to me at all times.

We met Joy on our first day here in Zhongshan. She is from the Philippines living here with her mom. She also teaches English and claims that her Mandarin is not very good but I think I disagree with that. I do not think she has a ton of friends so she likes to hang out with us from time to time. She lives right next to us and Wendy and I run into her all the time on buses and around the apartment. She asked us if we wanted to go shopping with her and grab some lunch sometime and we were delighted to agree. So last Saturday we went out on the town with Joy and had some of the best food I have ever had. She took us to a Malaysian food place that was fabulous. Joy ordered Squid Curry as an appetizer and it wasnt completely terrible but I liked the Chicken and Potato Curry that I ordered much better. Wendy had Pineapple Fried Rice that was served inside an actual pineapple. I think Wendy could have died of happiness right there in that restaurant. The kitchen was right in the middle of the restaurant and there was about 10 different cooks in a line all wearing brightly colored do-rags just waiting to cook their portion of your meal. It was awesome. At lunch, we also met a teacher from Scotland and a younger American girl that is here teaching. Again, it is great to get to know people you can talk to so hopefully we will be seeing them again too. They are going on vacation the same places we are so I expect to see them around. The more I see of our city, the more I like it. It is such a beautiful place.

At this time tomorrow I will, hopefully, be on a train headed to Bejing!

Kung Fu Lessons Revisited

2010-09-18T18:01:00.001-07:00

We started Kung Fu lessons a month ago but, because of Karaoke last week, we just had our third lesson this last week. It is time for an update. I am going to go ahead and answer questions that I know you have before you even have to ask them.

You have been in Kung Fu lessons for three weeks now, are you a Kung Fu Master yet? No. I am not a master yet but I am definitely less sore than I was in week 1 and week 2. I am not sure if that is because this last week I only participated in half the lesson because I was laughing most of the time or if it because I am getting better. We will go with the latter.

Are you going to have to do a Kung Fu show at the end of the year in front of all the people you work with? Unfortunately, yes. Apparently the principle has a big party planned and us, and our Kung Fu, will be part of the entertainment. Spring does not think that one time a week is enough time to get us ready so we are going to start going to lessons of Saturday as well to get us ready.

Are you planning on doing Kung Fu on The Great Wall of China? Yes! It is going to be awesome. That is all.

What do you do in Kung Fu? We usually start by stretching. Due to a genetic anomaly I am extremely flexible in some ways and not at all flexible in others. When Spring saw this, he became determined that I was faking and that I can actually do the splits. If I could do the splits, I would not pretend I couldnt I assure you. Anyway, he pushed me, literally, until I thought I would split in half. Maybe it is different here in China, but I was under the impression that when a person screams it means to stop what you are doing to them not to push harder. Maybe I should try laughing next time. Dont worry though, I will conquer my inflexibility! We then learn some Kung Fu moves for show. Spring then teaches us some fighting Kung Fu moves. This usually just means that one or more of us end up on the ground. Kung Fu is always a good time. We have a little too much fun for Spring. He always says, "Kung Fu bu kaixing (Kung Fu no happy)"

Is Spring infatuated with Wendy? To Wendy's dismay, I am afraid that the answer to this question is yes. To my dismay, the fact that Spring loves Wendy means that I have to work harder than the others because I am always partners with Wendy and Spring never leaves her side. For example, we all had to do 50 sit ups but because Spring never left Wendy's or my side he decided our sit ups were not good enough and we had to do another 50 while the others just sat there. I suppose I should be grateful. I wasn't at the time though. Spring made Wendy dance in front of us all which she hated. She also would constantly whisper things to his buddy Brandon and then they would both stare at Wendy. I think it is rather funny, particularly because they have matchy matchy headbands, but Wendy has determined that she would rather have an old man teach us. She is a good sport though, as seen in the photo's.

That is all I have to say about Kung Fu for now. In two days we are going to Bejing! I could not be any more excited. We are going for 4 days and then we come back, teach for 4 days and have another 10 day vacation. We are going to go to Guilin for the long one. It is going to be a crazy several weeks but bring it on! I will update the blog a great deal when I get back!!!

Decisions Decisions...

2010-09-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

I have been in China for 6 weeks now! To celebrate, we are going to eat American food at an awesome Pizza place down the street. We love eating there but we try to save it for special occasions. We definitely count our 6 week anniversary of our arrival in China a special occasion. We have very big plans for our 8 week anniversary that may or may not have a Harry Potter theme and involve no bake cookies. It has been a fantastic 6 weeks! The hardest and the best in my recollection.

The pictures were taken at a park in the City I live in. We just discovered it and it is one of the coolest parks I have ever seen. I live in such a beautiful place. I have decided, with the help of some extremely wise people within my acquaintance, to go to a University in the Spring and major in English. The only problem at this point is that I do not know whether to go to ASU or NAU. It is a difficult decision but it will be made soon and from China. That much I do know. I am very excited to go to school again. This is an awesome break but it will be nice to get back into the swing of things.

I hope the next 6 weeks in China will be as awesome as the first 6 weeks were. I have a feeling that they will be pretty great because we travel to Bejing in a week and 4 days after we get back from Bejing we are going to Guilin for 9 days.

Karaoke

2010-09-12T01:05:00.000-07:00

Friday was Teachers day in China which was awesome! A little boy gave us some Moon Cakes, which happen to be disgusting, and we also were given hearts, chocolate, and a weird felt rose. Our Native Coordinators, Tiny and Candice, wanted to take us out to do something special to celebrate as well so they took us to Karaoke. We had to skip Kung Fu lessons because Tina, Candice, and Fanny all wanted to go during the buy 2 hours get 2 free special. So, just to make sure we are on the same page, we did indeed go to 4 hours of Karaoke with 3 Asian women.

Things I discovered about myself, China, and the entire Universe during Karaoke...

1. I know every single word of "Burn" by Usher. This is something I did not know about myself. I am not a fan of Usher. I am not a fan of the song. I just happen to know it all. I have no idea how. This excites me because I knew a pop song better than the 6 other pop loving girls I was with and depresses me greatly because I knew a pop song better than the 6 other pop loving girls I was with. However, I was encouraged by the fact that I didnt know any of the other backstreet boys, N Sync, and Brittney Spears songs they sang.

2. Every song that was in Chinese has random English words just thrown in every few sentences. I have no idea why every single song needs to throw in English words but they definitely do. Tina, Candice and Fanny would sometimes sing Chinese songs that were in English. My favorite song they sang had a chorus that went something like this, "I'm a big big girl in a big big world and its no big big thing if you leave. But I do do feel that I do do will miss you much, miss you much." Dont worry everyone, I will find out the artist so you can download this gem of a song soon.

3. Most of the English songs they did not have permission to be using so they could not use the original version or the original music video. An example of this would be the fact that the "Do Re Me" music video were a bunch of Asians dressed up dancing on a hill. They would always use extremely random river scenes or historic sights of China for the background of all the English songs. Lets just say that we got extremely sick of those video's by the end. The Asian music video's were also weird but extremely modest and cutesy.

4. Four hours and the word Karaoke should never even be mentioned in the same sentence. Let us just say that the experience was tolerable and even enjoyable for the first 2 hours but after that it was rather excruciatingly painful. I am not sure if I have ever been happier to leave a place.

5. Chinese women love High School Musical and Taylor Swift. Candice, Tina and Fanny were so excited to sing High School Musical and Taylor Swift. It was hilarious. Believe me, High school Musical music is much better when it is sung by Asians. Fanny also rocked singing "My Heart Will Go On." I am not sure if I will be able to listen to any song I heard that night the same.

There you have it, that is my experience with Chinese Karaoke. It was a great experience and it was also great to see it end. Sorry the pictures aren't great. The room was really dark.

Just Another Day at the Kindergarten

2010-09-12T00:27:00.001-07:00

As previously mentioned, Wendy and I worked with the little 2 year olds this week. It was frustrating but also awesome. We were told that they did not have English names so we named them all. I was just getting used to the names that we made up for them when, come to find out, they really have had English names all along. So we now have to call them by the names their parents gave them (rather frustrating, I know). I am so confused. They also have probably never heard their English names before so trying to get their attention is often a completely fruitless venture. On Friday, we were teaching Martin to say his name and he kept yelling, "My name is MARTIN MARTIN MARTIN!" over and over again. It was awfully cute. We do not get to work with the 2 year olds until we get back from Bejing for another several weeks. I am excited to see their improvement.

Pictures: 1. Davis who is, in actually, named Martin. I can never remember what his actual name is. 2. Max who's name is awaiting official approval from his parents. 3. Benny had a bit of an accident and was being whisked away to get cleaned up. Good thing that little puddle was there for the other kids to play around for the rest of the time we were at school that day. I even offered to clean it up but apparently they just wanted it to sit there. Chinese hygiene is completely beyond me. Benny happens to be the most beautiful adorable little Asian I have ever seen. The Chinese teachers say this is because he looks foreign.

Babies

2010-09-07T04:18:00.000-07:00

This week, Wendy and I have been working with the brand new students at Bond English Preschool and Elementary that are two years old. It is definitely babysitting and we have no idea why we are there because the kids never stop crying and we never teach any English possibly because they barely know Mandarin. They are extremely cute though and the smallest improvements seem like gigantic achievements. For example, today, Max (that is not actually his name but he doesn't have an English name so we had to name him something) sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" with us today. It was really incredible. He may or may not have cried for the rest of the two hours we were there but he sang for a minute dang it! Also today, Sparky, our favorite and only bus driver, was taking apart the computer to fix it. One little boy pulled up a chair to join him and see what he was doing. Then another little boy pulled up a chair to sit right next to him. Soon, there were four little Asians and Sparky checking out the computer and fixing it. We have a bunch of future engineers on our hands I am afraid. We got pictures of the whole thing. When we showed Sparky the pictures he said, "So many children!"

My other favorite part of the day was the family pictures that I discovered on the wall. I have love/ hate relationship with these pictures. I love them because they are so funny. I hate them because all the little kids do in go and stare at their parents and say, "Mama! Baba!" I did want to share some of the pictures with you though. They are awesome! I can probably find some of those sweat ear muffs here if anyone is interested in recreating that first photo.

I have been in China 5 weeks today!

Welcome Party

2010-09-05T02:07:00.001-07:00

All Chinese schools started on September 1rst so, although we came a month early to teach at a summer camp, school officially started last Wednesday. We are teaching brand new kids and we are also teaching with new Chinese teachers. On Wednesday, they had a welcome party for us. It was one of the funnest evenings I have ever had. We ate dinner and none of the American teachers could sit by each other. There were seven of us and then about twenty-five Chinese women in their twenties. At dinner we had a true Chinese/ American meal. We had corn, cantaloupe, broccoli, hot dogs, chicken wings, chicken feet, fried noodles and spaghetti. We sat at a really long table and had to learn all the names of the food in either English or Mandarin (depending on our native language of course). I actually dared to try a chicken foot. I only took one bite and that was enough for me. I was lucky enough to get to sit right next to the chicken feet the whole time and did end up finding a chicken head as well. I did however eat a great deal of Michael's delicious spaghetti.

We had to introduce ourselves in Mandarin and the Chinese teachers introduced themselves in English. The goal was to make our introduction memorable. I only said, "Hello, my name is Tessa." Somehow, I do not feel like I accomplished that goal. Some of the Chinese teachers sang and danced to help us remember their names and it worked. One girl said, "You like Cherry, you like me. You like me, you like Cherry. My name is Cherry." One of my favorites went like this, "I like chicken leg, foot, skin, breast, wing but not chicken bone. My name is Apple!" We all talked and laughed all through dinner and then we went upstairs and played games.

At one point, all the Chinese teachers were given one of our names and they had to find their partner. Basically what happened is that on the whistle 25 Asian women were running at us as fast as they could. It was rather terrifying I must admit. We also played a game where they blind folded us, put a tray with everything that was at dinner in front of us and made us say what it was in Mandarin or English. It was hilarious. It was a great night. We got to know the women we work with everyday which is nice because it is difficult to get to know them because of the language barrier. I hope they are more comfortable around us as well.

1 Month

2010-09-04T20:10:00.001-07:00

It is officially official. I have been in China for 1 month! In some ways it has flown by and in other ways I feel like I have been here for much longer. I think that the time will really start to fly now. In 2 weeks we get to go to Bejing. We will be back for 2 days at school and we have another 10 day vacation. It is awesome.

Some things I love about China so far...

1. Teaching- I love being able to be around little Asian 3 year olds all the time. I am not the greatest teacher but I don't mind at all. I do my best. The little kids love you no matter what you do and I am very grateful for that.

2. Scooters as a family Vehicle- You may think a scooter is a very small vehicle for perhaps one or two people. That, turns out, to be untrue. I have seen 5 people and a tree one scooter. They hall refrigerators, building materials and anything else you can think of on scooters. It is quite impressive. Also, all the women wear a mens long sleeved button up shirt backwards when they drive a scooter. I suppose it is for protection but it is awesome no matter what the reason is

3. Michael- Michael is our cook and he makes delicious things for us to eat everyday. Honestly, they are sometimes very strange but we eat it anyway because Michael is so awesome. He makes the best spaghetti I have ever had and his fried Won Tons are to die for. He takes good care of us in the food department. He also teaches us cooking lessons which end up being more like demonstrations because there is no way for him to actually tell us how to many something. We love hanging out with Michael in the kitchen even if we cant communicate.

4. Drinkable Yogurt- Do I love drinkable yogurt with all my heart and is there drinkable yogurt in China? Yes to both of those things. That is all.

5. Kung Fu Lessons- Spring may stretch me in ways my body has never stretch before, kick me so hard I have bruises and make me so sore that I can barely move the next day, but we sure have fun! Spring is an excellent teacher and I have rarely had as much fun as I have during Kung Fu. We all wear matching sweat bands to Kung Fu and Spring requested one as well. Wendy asked him what color he wanted and he said that he wanted one just like hers. You better believe I will get many photo's of Spring and Wendy in their matching yellow headbands.

6. Starers- I am not a person who loves attention. However, we get alot of attention here whether I like it or not. I have made the executive decision, since I am the CEO of my own life, to have fun with all the attention. I think it is the funniest thing. It is amazing how excited people get when I say hello to them in Mandarin. We do decline offers to have coffee at the police station, but we have fun waving at people and smiling. I suppose that the people here are not used to seeing Americans and particularly not 7- 20 year old girls.

7. Clothes- I am amazed at how good the clothes look on people here. It does not matter what they wear or how they wear it but it always looks good. For example, I would not look good in a dress that was cinched with elastic at the bottom so matter what size I was. Does a Chinese woman look good in a dress like this? Could I pull of wearing floral pants with a zebra stripped shirt? Absolutely not. Do older Chinese women wear two prints together all the time and pull it off? Amazingly, yes. I love the way people dress and I love all the clothes you can buy. It is good that I do not fit into most of them.

8. Street signs, Store Signs, and Advertisements- I have no idea what the Chinese Characters mean so all the street signs just look like art to me. I also love that everything is lit up with multi colored lights at night. It is so beautiful.

9. Trees- Is it any surprise that I like the trees here? No. I love tree's everywhere but there are some particularly awesome tree's here. A lot of times, you can see the tree roots above the ground which is awesome. There are some tree's outside out apartment that they grow the trunk to be woven together. It is sweet. I will take some photo's

10. Everything Else- I am often asked what my favorite part of China is and I never have an answer. I love all of it. I love all the bus rides, the smells, the crazy customs and everything else that is involved in living here. A wise sister one told me to love China because of it's faults not in spite of them and that is what I have tried to do.

It has been a great month. One month down, three and a half more to go.

Hello Shenzhen

2010-09-03T19:48:00.001-07:00

It turns out that in the two days I was in Shenzhen I only got this picture. This picture was taken because I wanted a picture of me dressed up for church because I never look this nice. You may be thinking, "She does not look very nice." That is true, but I look very nice compared to what I usually look like. Humidity does wonders to my hair and when I say wonders, that is not a positive thing. This picture is at a place called "Sea World". We do not know why it is called that but we do know that it has food from all over the world and American places like Pizza Hut, Subway, TCBY, Duncan Doughnuts, Starbucks, and many other places. We went and ate there and it was delicious. Oh how I miss American food. Shenzhen is the third largest city in China and it borders Hong Kong. Awesome

Also in Shenzhen, we went to a gigantic knockoff mall that is conveniently located at the bus, train, and metro station. We bought our bus ticket home, which was a struggle, and then went shopping for several hours. None of the girls I was with had ever bartered before so I got to show them how it was done. I forget that some of them have never left the U.S. before. I am not very good at it but I did rather well. There were 4 levels full of bags, clothes, shoes, electronics, fabric, jewelry, belts, and basically anything you could think of. I promised myself when I came over here that I would not buy any souvenirs or presents in the first month. I almost made it. I figured that I was close enough to my month mark so I did buy some awesome things. We then caught the bus home and we were so grateful to get to our Chinese Home. It was an excellent first vacation and we all plan on going to Shenzhen again before we leave.

Buddhist Monastery

2010-09-02T06:14:00.001-07:00

I know I keep going on and on about the Zhongshan tour we went on but we saw some incredible things and I can only post three pictures at a time so bare with me. Our last stop was at a Buddhist Monastery. This monastery was an incredibly beautiful place. We were all extremely tired and, if given the choice, probably would have decided not to go but I am glad we didnt have a choice. There were Buddhist Monks all over chanting and doing their rituals. They wore traditional orange robes and some of them were bald. The monks reminded me of The Last Air Bender. I am actually reminded of that movie all the time here. There were many extremely ornately decorated things everywhere. This is about the tenth Buddhist monastery/ temple I have been to and this one is by far my favorite. The differences in culture are so fascinating to me. I am so grateful for the opportunity to get to be surrounded by a culture that is so different than mine.

We started eating dinner at the other school today that is right by my house. It tasted a little like Dutch Oven Chicken and I loved it. I am hoping that dinner is always as good as it was tonight because if that is the case, my Chinese junk food consumption may go down exponentially.

Happinesses

2010-09-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

This is the list of the top 3 things I miss from America...

1. Family

2. American Food

3. Craft Supplies

With this list in mind, you can imagine the happiness I felt when I found fabric and other items needed for crafting, in Shenzhen Then I experienced even more happiness when I recieved a package from home by way of my friend with pasta sauce packets, pudding packets, and pictures of my family! There was a great deal of happiness going on. The pasta sauce and fabric have already been put to good use. Thank you so much to everyone who made that package possible. I am forever in your debt. I made the headbands in the pictures with the fabric I bought. Zhongshan is feeling more and more like home. I think the craft supplies may be helping with that homey feel. It was so nice to get back to this place after being in a gigantic city for a few days.

Another ILP group arrived in Zhongshan a few days ago and they live just down the street from us. There are two other groups in Zhongshan as well but they are located much farther away. I am so grateful to be in the group I am in but it will be nice to have some Americans around. We will eat dinner with the other group in Kaiyin everyday. That starts today and we are very excited about the fact that we have choices for dinner in Kaiyin.

Xiolan

2010-08-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

I am still going over the tour of Zhongshan we went on. There were just so many fantastic places we went and I want to show some pictures of all of them. None of us had any idea how big Zhongshan was until we went on the tour we went on. We live in Kaiyin, which is the very southern part of the city. Xiolan is the northern part and about an hour away. It translates to The Chrysanthemum city. They are famous for making foods out of Chrysanthemums. Every year they have a huge Chrysanthemum festival there that I plan on attending in November. Every 60 years they have an international Chrysanthemum festival but thankfully that is not this year. In Xiolan, we went on a boat ride that was sweet. The river we were on went under around about 16 bridges. There were the coolest windows, doors, and trees lining the river. I was just in awe of all the awesome things to look at. They served us tea but luckily Tina told them we didn't drink tea so we didn't have to try it because it smelled disgusting. We did, however, polish off a huge bag of peanuts while on the boat. There are ILP teachers living in Xiolan now so I am sure we will go back there sometime. The boat ride was really fun and I hope to get to go again.

Calligraphy

2010-08-30T08:24:00.001-07:00

As a part of the tour, we got to see professionals doing calligraphy. It was amazing. I love Chinese characters because I do not know what they mean so they just look like art. They had brushes and ink for us to try to do it but it turns out that I do not know who to write in Mandarin so I signed my name in English and then the millions of photographers converged on us and I ran away. We each got to pick a piece of calligraphy we wanted and then we met the artist that did that particular piece. It was awesome to see true artists at work. I ended up with two pieces of calligraphy. One of them means tree and the other is something about the Chinese National Games in Guangzhou this year. I picked it because it looked cool and everyone laughed at it when they read it. I think it is quite obvious why i chose the tree one.

I am home from vacation and very glad to be back. We had a great time in Shenzhen, the third largest city in China, but we missed our little Zhongshan with only 1.46 millions people. Wendy and I are going American hunting tomorrow because we know that the other ILP groups of teachers arrived yesterday.

Click Click Click Click

2010-08-28T08:51:00.001-07:00

Today has been one of the more remarkable days I have had in my short lifetime. We went on a tour of Zhongshan that was put on by the city for foreigners who live here. The people we work with at the school obviously really wanted us to go and we wanted to see more of the city we live in so we decided to go. There is so much I want to share about this wonderful day but I thought I would begin with one of the funniest things about the day. I do not have time to write about it all now.

The owner of the school named John, who lives in Canada, decided at midnight the night before that he wanted us to wear school shirts on the tour. It is really lucky for us that the Bond shirts they gave us are lime green polo's with sizes ranging from XL-XXXL with fabric that does not breath at all. We really struggle with standing out as seven tall, white, blonde, English speaking Americans. Today we were seven Americans wearing matching lime green shirts. We didnt blend in very well and it became apparent why John wanted us to stand out. The tour was kicking off a "Through the Eyes of Foreigners" photo contest. We knew that there were going to be professional photographers there but we did not know what their purpose was. Apparently their purpose was to follow foreigners around all day and take thousands of pictures of them. If that was not their purpose, it quickly became their purpose. We went on a boat ride in a part of the city called Xiolin. The photographers, about thirty of them, would take a million photo's of all of us in the boats and then go running to the next bridge to take more photo's. Lets just say that I saw something cool and wanted Wendy to take a picture of me in front of it, there would instantly be about 18 photographers with their huge camera's snapping photos. At first we were gracious and would smile and laugh but by the end of the day I would just walk away if I didnt want my picture taken. We had to be very sneaky if we were posing for a picture because the photographers would catch us and start clicking away. One of my favorite things was when Alex and I were taking a picture of ourselves. I held up the camera and snapped a photo of us and our calligraphy. Unfortunately, one of the photographers saw this and asked to take our picture. We smiled at him and he said, "no no, you take picture and I take picture". He wanted a picture of us taking a picture. All of a sudden there were dozens of photographers snapping photo's of us. I think the lime green polo shirts were a big draw with the picture takers too. I have no idea what is going to happen with all the pictures that were taken of us today. All I know is that I never want to wear that lime green polo again. I will post more photo's soon. I will be gone on vacation for a couple days and then I will be back with plenty of things to post about.

The real irony of today is that my camera's battery died right away so I didnt get to take many pictures. However, do not despair because I have roommates who hooked me up with some sweet photo's. All these pictures are Alyssa's and she has quite the eye.

Kung Fu Lessons

2010-08-27T05:18:00.001-07:00

Whenever you talk to someone about Zhongshan, they always bring up a man named Sun Yat-sen who was apparently someone important but I didnt know how or for what. I did a bit of research on the matter. Sun Yat-sen is considered the founding father of Republican China. He played an instrumental role in inspiring the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China. I do not know a lot about him but I do know that he is Zhongshan's claim to fame. The Sunwen Memorial Park is a park created in Sun Yat-sen's honor and it happens to be right across the street from our school. The pictures are of the park. The second picture is the view from the park of Zhongshan. We see the park everyday but we finally decided to venture inside today. We had a bit of time between teaching and our Kung Fu lessons so, even though it was pouring rain outside, we went for a stroll in the park. The park is very green and beautiful. We want to explore the park more because we here that there is a pond and some waterfalls there that we didn't run into. When it was pouring rain today, there was steam coming up from the ground because the rain was so cold and the ground is so hot. Thank heavens for daily rain storms. I hope it cools off by the time the rainy season ends. The humidity and I are not very good friends at this point.

Today we had our first Kung Fu lesson! Here are some questions that I thought you may have that I will preemptively answer, like a ninja.

Was the lesson awesome? Yes.

Will you be able to walk tomorrow? I would probably have to say no. I can hardly walk now and it has only been a few hours.

Is your teacher named Spring? Absolutely he is. Spring is 27, studied Kung Fu for 4 years instead of going to college and he now makes his living by teaching Kung Fu. He is adorable and is a good teacher. He speaks very little English but tries very hard. When he was introducing himself today he said, "My name is Spring, not like autumn or summer. Like water spring." We will be sure not to mistake the meaning for his name for the season.

I cannot picture you doing Kung Fu Tessa, do you have pictures or perhaps video to prove that you are really doing it? No, I do not have pictures but others have pictures that I plan on getting my hands on and destroying in some way. Before they are destroyed, I will post one so you know that I did indeed take Kung Fu lessons. I also have video's of Spring doing Kung Fu which, i admit, is not as much fun as watching me try to do Kung Fu but it is still pretty awesome.

Is doing Kung Fu like being a ninja? Yes. It is exactly like being a nina.

How often do you have these Kung Fu lessons and for how long? Once a week for an hour and a half. Believe me it is plenty. Spring also gave us a million things to practice doing everyday we will will be very busy. Spring said that he would be very disappointed if we didnt practice and Spring is not the type of man you want to disappoint. You better believe I will be practicing those moves he taught us and doing those crunches.

Does Spring play soccer? Yes.

Why is Spring named Spring? Apparently his name means water in Chinese so someone decided that Spring was a good English name for him. I shall not judge. They are going to give us Chinese names next week and I am pulling for my Chinese name to mean owl or tree.

Did you and Wendy wear matching purple pajama pants and black shirts for the lesson today? Yes. The pajama pants were planned but the shirts were not.

If you were to describe Kung Fu, how would you describe it? It reminds me of Yoga. It is all about muscle control and flexibility. You sweat like a pig and you feel like you are hardly moving at all.

I love our Mandarin, cooking and Kung Fu lessons. I cannot wait until our next Kung Fu lesson.

Hello Moji

2010-08-26T02:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to a new grocery store we had not been to before. It is called Vanguard. We pass it every day on the bus ride home and we finally decided to stop. It is my favorite grocery store I have been in so far. The rotten fruit smell is at a minimum in this place. Thank heavens for that! Before we checked out yesterday, Wendy and I decided to try some ice cream. We just picked the cheapest thing and, to our surprise, it was some of the best ice cream I have ever had! It turned out to be called Moji (MOACH-EE). It is a bit indescribable but I will try. It is rice dough with powdered sugar and flour on the outside with ice cream in the inside. It tastes like a marshmellow, sugar cookie, and ice cream all in one. We may or may not have went back to Vanguard today and got 2 more Moji's. They are just so cheap, about 25 cents each. In the picture, I am tactfully trying to hide my second Moji but to no avail.

I have also been eating a lot of drinkable yogurt. I do not like yogurt usually but I love the liquid yogurt you can buy here. The picture is of my favorite kind. It has chunks of peach and oats inside. It is called cereal yogurt. It is possible that I have 5 in the fridge right now. There is a mystery that has been plaguing my brain. Why do all the countries I have visited have liquid yogurt and it is not readily available in America? I just dont understand and perhaps I never will. I am just grateful I can get it here and for the next four months!

One of the hardest things about living here so far has been the food. I did not anticipate that being a struggle for me. I do really like Chinese food but I miss American food. I miss variety. We have the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. The semester starts next week and that means that we will start going to eat dinner at the other school. I think that will be good. Apparently we have options for dinner and our apartment wont be a cafeteria anymore. I look forward to that day. It is coming soon. For now, I am just grateful for the Chinese snack food that makes me very happy every time I eat it.

Hello Sam & Shine!

2010-08-25T05:01:00.001-07:00

The best part about living here in China is that we get to have the coolest job. We get to teach little kindergarten kids English by playing games, doing crafts, and activities with them. It is awesome. It is extremely hard at times but it can also be wonderful. These are some of my favorite kids. It is a little weird because we arrived here three weeks before the semester began so we have been teaching summer school. The kids are are teaching now are not the kids we will teach for the semester. I am just starting to get attached to these little kids and then they will leave next week. The good news is that we have been teaching around 45 kids per day and we will only teach 25 kids when the semester starts. That will be really nice.

The first little boy is named Haniel. I have no idea who gives them their English names but I sure love this one. He is the happiest little boy and very good. He is in the littlest group but his English is very good for being that little. We all love Haniel. He is going to go to the Kindergarten we work out but he wont be in our program. I hope we get to still see him sometimes.

The next little boys are my favorite boys. They are twins named Sam and Shine. Sam and the one with his tongue out and Shine is in the back. They are both chubby but Sam is the bigger of the two. Talk about a solid little boy, he has knocked me over a few times. They are hysterically funny and laugh at everything you do. They are ALWAYS matching. They have these outfits that they sometimes where that are red and blue horizontal stripped baggy capri's with matching stripped muscle shirts. They also have matching bedding on their little beds that they take naps in. That is what the picture is of. It is Garfield Bedding. Wendy and I have a grateful door that we put things that we are grateful for on everyday. One of the things on our door says, "Sam & Shines Matching Beds (and the people who sleep in them)" I think that pretty much sums it up. We are losing them next week. We found out today that they go to school in Kaiyin so the other ILP group is going to get to teach them. We are all bitter about that. I am sure that we will get some new awesome kids.

In two days I will have taught for 3 weeks. All the kids call me "Teacha Teesa", or "Teacher Tesha". I love being called teacher. All the Chinese teachers call me Tesha. I have no idea why. They call one of the girls in my group Jess with no problems and my name isnt much different. I think they may genuinely think my name is Tesha. I think it is funny but I never know they are talking to me when they say Tesha. I am getting used to it now.

I am looking forward to my cooking lesson tomorrow and our four day weekend this weekend!

A Day in China

2010-08-24T06:54:00.001-07:00

This is a rundown of a day in the life of Tessa in China...

6:00 am- sleeping

6:46 am -should be awake, but still sleeping

7:10 am -wake up suddenly, Wendy asks me while looking at her watch, "Tessa, is it 7:10?" Me: "Yes." We frantically get ready which entails brushing teeth, putting on a skirt and that is all.

7:20 am- leave the apartment to meet the other girls and go to the bus stop.

7:45 am- Sparky arrives in the school bus. No Michael Jackson today, but Wendy and I definitely sang 'El Scorcho' and 'Hey Ya' for all to hear. It turns out that my head phones came out of my ipod a bit so it was broadcasting for the whole bus. I did not know this until we arrived at the school of course. Also along the way we pick up two kids named Kevin and Justin. Today Wendy and Kevin played hide and seek for part of the ride.

8:00 am- arrive at school. We go directly to the cafeteria where Michael, the chef, brings out breakfast. Today it consisted of noodles and vegetables and meat... oh wait... that is what we eat for every meal! (I am definitely not complaining. I really really love it.)

8:20 am- I get ready for classes by putting dirt and leaves in bags, blowing up a beach ball and cutting paper into pieces. Sometimes my lessons are pretty creative. It's just whatev.

8:45 am- Opening with all 45 Asian children begins. Wendy and I are in charge this week. We just talk about the weather and sing songs and such. We learn today that singing "Once There Was a Snowman" is a bad idea because all the kids end up sprawled on the ground and then the Chinese teachers freak out because the kids are on the ground and much mayhem ensues. Mental notes are taken not to sing that one again. It should also be mentioned that these little Asians know primary songs better than I do.

8:55-10:30 am - We break into classes. All classes are as bonkers as usual... nothing out of the ordinary besides that fact that Haniel, Sam and Shine are not there :( They are all of our favorites.

10:30 am- I realize that 4 year old Eddie's yellow polo shirt is not just a normal polo shirt. It has English words all over it. This wouldn't be a problem normally, but phrases such as "You Stole my Lesbian Lover", "Bedroom Addict" and "David Bowie Confessions" were definitely present and accounted for. Here is the thing: Asians like anything American. Oft times, they don't really know what words mean, but they are English so its cool. Should we have told a Chinese teacher about the meaning of Eddie's shirt? Maybe. Did we tell me? No Did we take pictures? Yes. You can see some of those pictures above. I am so glad we carry around our camera's everywhere.

10:40-11:30 am- back to normal-ish classes

11:30 am- LUNCH TIME! Michael served us meat, veggies (including these delicious potatoes we love), and rice. ALSO, at the last minute he surprised us all with MASHED potatoes with corn and peas in them. I LOVE whenever he makes us stuff like that because he is just so proud of his American dish and he tries so hard to please us. He just smiles so big and brings us food especially to our table. We love Michael a great deal.

12:15 pm- Sparky is waiting for us in the school bus and we are waiting for Michael to give us food for dinner. A lot of odd things happened all within seconds of each other at this point in the day. First of all, Wendy was practicing her Mandarin with Heidi to tell Michael that his food is extremely good, but when he came to the door, she just managed to say "fei chang lei!" (very good!) really loud and in not the right tones. Next, Jess was spinning her water bottle around and let go and it semi hit me in the face. Then, Michael came to the kitchen door and threw something out into our group which just so happened to be a bird! Here is the question plaguing our minds "Why was that diseased bird in the kitchen with Michael and our food?" When we saw that it was a bird, most of us screamed, Wendy ran up to the next floor, Alex was rooting for the bird to go into the boys bathroom and Alyssa was trying to catch the bird to take it outside. Confusion central.

12:20 pm- We all get on the bus and we all say "Ni hao Sparky!" Even though we just saw him five minutes before. I also have noticed that none of us ever just say hello to Sparky. We always say his name. I do not think we can be blamed. His name is Sparky after all Sparky takes us to the bus stop where we get onto our Kaiyin bus. He is a ninja and gets us there right in time.

12:30 pm- Three of the girls and I get off at the One-Plus-One Super Market to grab some useful items and the other girls go home.

12:32.5 pm- We walk into One-Plus-One. Few things in the world smell as disgusting as this place. Rotting fruit is what we believe to be the source of the smell. However, the eels that you can get for one US dollar probably do not help a great deal.

12:32.5- 12:50.7 pm- We purchase all things that are necessary such as Pockys (delicious pretzel things dipped in chocolate), juice, and items for store (store is when the kids use the tokens they have earned throughout the day to buy sweet things). We also found some sweet Mandarin-English translation mishap notebooks that we quickly bought a bunch of.

12:51 pm- We get onto our regular bus to go home. Sometimes buses do not go their regular route. For example, Sparky takes us a different way to school every day. This time, the bus definitely took us a different way than it has ever taken us and we were scared for point two seconds.

1:00 pm- home sweet home-ish... we still have to walk from the bus stop to our apartment. It is so humid outside, we might die at any moment.

1:10 pm- we are NOW home. Our apartment smells weird and Heidi and Alyssa's AC is literally leaking buckets full of water. That is nice. We turn on the AC (We have to turn it off every time we leave.) and change out of our sicky clothes.

1:30 pm- Time for Wendy and me to eat pockies, lesson plan for the next two weeks, and check email

2:00 pm- Wendy and I play the longest game of California Speed to ever exist. Wendy had to pee so SO so bad. I kept telling her that we could pause the game but she would not have it. After the game is finally done, Wendy raced to go to the bathroom and tripped out of her mosquito net princess bed resulting in a huge welt on her forehead. It was hilarious and a bit sad.

4:30 pm- Wendy and I make some pasta and use Michael's left over spaghetti sauce for some Spaghetti Chinese style.

6:30 pm- Wendy and the other girls go to the other girls apartment for second dinner. The other girls apartment does not have a 4th floor. That is what the picture is of. The number 4 means death in China so many apartment buildings skip it and use 3A and 3B. I think that is really funny. You better believe we took out all the 4's on our calender. It is not the 24th of August it is 23'rd B. I stay to catch up on my blog, emails, and journaling. It is a good thing I did because two Chinese men come to fix the air conditioning. They did fix the AC and left all the tools and left over parts in the other girls shower for us to take to the garbage.

7 ish pm- Bad Minton with Wendy (We got two rackets and 12 birdies for five dollars! Amazing.)

9:00 pm- Finish the lesson plan that I never ended up getting too earlier and chill.

10:30 pm- turn off the lights and open the curtains because it is raining the beautiful chinese rain that I love!!! What a beautiful end to a beautiful day. I must also add that Wendy and I ended up singing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Joy to the World a few times before sleeping.

There you have it. That is a typical day for me in China. There are variations to this schedule but it is basically similar to this everyday. Next week school starts so we will go to eat dinner at the Kaiyin school that is close to our apartment every evening. I am excited for the day when we do not have to hall pots full of food home everyday and then use our apartment as a cafeteria. I love my days here. I love the simplicity of my life here. I had no idea how much I would love not having a cell phone. Looking forward to another great day tomorrow!

Walking Street

2010-08-23T06:16:00.002-07:00

Everyone from China says that Zhongshan is a little town but it does not seem very little to me. There are around a million people that live here. That is much bigger than I am used to. We live in a place called Kaiyin. There is a Kaiyin community bus that is for people from Kaiyin to ride into town and back. You usually need an ID card to show that you are a Kaiyin resident but apparently our skin, hair, height and language is our ID card. They know who we are and where we are from. That is nice because I cant misplace my nationality. I would definitely misplace an ID card. We ride the Kaiyin bus home everyday from school. We also take it into town on the weekend. The first picture is of all the people on the bus on our way to Walking Street which is a outdoor mall type place. The bus was completely full and I loved the dozens of black heads all in rows. Chinese people only have black hair or white hair for the older folks. I am getting more and more used to buses and waiting for buses. I am not accustomed to relying on public transportation as much as we have to here. However, I am so glad that we do not drive. The roads here are pure and utter mayhem. There are no rules just mere suggestions that are rarely followed. I love the crazy streets i just dont love crossing them.

Walking Street is the place to go to find shoes, clothes, and other things like that. It is also the place I am going to go when I get the gumption to finally try an octopus kabob. It is in a really pretty part of town and we always attract a great deal of attention there. It may or may not have something to do with the fact that we always go in the middle of a dance floor that is set up and dance to the techno music that is always playing. People always ask us to take pictures with them or just take pictures of us without asking. It makes me laugh so hard that they want pictures of us. It reminds me of the song "Click Click Click Click" by Bishop Allen. So many Asians are going to have pictures of me in their computer and in their houses by the time I leave. We went to walking street the other day and everyone kept welcoming us to China. I love how friendly people are to us. They always talk to us in the little English that they may or may not know. At stores, we communicate by calculator. Everyone laughs when we try to say thank you in Mandarin so I am rather sure we are butchering it. I usually resort to a big smile.

I have officially been in China for three weeks! It has been an eventful, terrifying, awesome, tiring, hysterically funny three weeks. Bring on seventeen more!

Rain Rain Come and Stay

2010-08-23T04:05:00.001-07:00

I am an Arizona girl. I know all about heat. I have been told my whole life things like, "At least in Arizona it is a dry heat." I have always replied to those statements by rolling my eyes and saying something like, "100 degrees is still 100 degrees dry or not." Well universe, you win. I miss the dry heat. There is a huge difference between a dry 100 degrees and a humid 100 degrees. I am in southern China and it is very hot right now. Instead of having nearly 0% humidity there is around 90% humidity. It is nearly killing me. I am always sweaty and stinky. I am hoping I can get used to it. I figure that I will start to get used to it by the time I leave in December. The good news is that everyday we get a small reprieve from the heat in the form of rain storms. It pours and pours for an hour or so and it is wonderful. I have never been more grateful for rain.

Wendy and I noticed when we got here that every Chinese woman carries a beautiful umbrella around with her. They use them for the sun and for the rain. We are trying to be Chinese so naturally we purchased a beautiful umbrella to carry around. We love our beautiful matching umbrella's I cannot wait to bring it home where I plan and whipping it out to shade myself from the sun at all times.

Shiqi, Zhongshan Group

2010-08-21T05:50:00.001-07:00

I would like to introduce you to the girls that I spend 70%-100% of my days in China with. There is a range in that percentage because I am with my roommate, Wendy, all the time and with the others not quite as much. I feel like a missionary sometimes because I am never alone and I walk around in a skirt with a backpack all the time. It is quite amazing how well the seven of us girls get along for being put together randomly. We are all within a few months of each other in age. We live in two apartments. Heidi, Alyssa, Wendy and I live in one of the apartments and Jess, Alex, and Gabby live in the other. The apartment I live in is by far the sketchier of the two. Our apartment has mold, cockroaches, lights that explode off their sockets, a random bed in the corner that has piles and piles of blankets stacked on top that I know has cockroaches living underneath, nasty smells and air conditioning that leaks buckets worth of water. I do love our apartment despite all its flaws though. I am glad that we get to live in it. It is a palace compared to the places the people here live in.

*Heidi is our head teacher and is the youngest out of all of us. She went to Russia with ILP a year ago. She is awesome and we are all glad that she is our head teacher. We have the same taste in movies and she can quote Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy almost as well as I can. We get along well.

*Alyssa is from Washington, goes to BYU, and is a Arabic major. She is a little energizer bunny and is so motivated that it exhausts me just thinking about doing all the things she does. She actually goes running in this heat and humidity. Amazing.

*Alex is from Utah Valley, goes to Utah State, and is a special education major. She is a twin and her twin brother is in Ukraine.

*Wendy is a friend of mine from EAC that I came to China with. I am so glad that we came together. It is so nice to have someone I know here. We understand what each other is talking about when we talk about our families and friends. We have a lot of fun together. We are both really into crafting so our room floor is usually covered in craft supplies.

*Jess is also from Utah and wants to be a dental hygienist. Jess is one of those people that laughs at everything you say and makes you feel great about yourself. We all love jess. She is up for anything and very positive except when we have been waiting at a bus stop for more than 20 minutes.

*Gabby is from California and is fun as well. She is trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life.

Fanny, the other girl in the picture, is one of the Chinese teachers at the school we teach at. We asked for one of the teachers to take a picture of us and they just kept jumping in the picture with us. I love the Chinese teachers. They are so nice to us and love to help us out. I have absolutely no idea how old they are because I am not a good judge of age here. I never know. Everyone looks very young to me.

Cooking Lessons

2010-08-19T06:38:00.001-07:00

Today was probably the best day I have had in China. This is why...

1. I had the most fun I have had teaching today. I made macaroni and string necklaces with the kids. I could see from my first group with only 3 kids that groups with 9 kids were going to be a disaster so I went and called in my Head Teacher for assistance and we had so much fun. It was still mayhem but having the extra help was amazing. I am also becoming more patient and better at teaching which helps a great deal. I really think that teaching may become my favorite part which would be amazing.

2. We had cooking lessons with Michael (Mike-coal) our school cook. He is awesome and so very smiley. He taught us how to make deep fried dumplings. The best part is that we got to bring what we made home for dinner. I love those deep fried dumplings. They smelled like a Fair. I loved being in a Chinese Kitchen with HUGE woks and pans everywhere. I cannot wait until our lesson next week. Thursdays may become my favorite day.

3. We found margarine. This may not make your most grateful list but I am pretty darn happy. We have been looking and looking and margarine or butter are no where to be found. We finally found the grocery store that we have been on a rigid search for since last week. I have been dying for some cookies or some other baked good but we could not find any butter. Our worries are now over because today we did. I am now on a rigid search for brown sugar.

4. Wendy and I bought Badminton racquet's and birds (2 racquet's and 12 birds for 5 American dollars!). There are tons of old men at our apartment playing Badminton all the time and Wendy and I want to be like them. We went out and hit around tonight and it was awesome. I am so happy about my new prospective hobby.

5. I was not attacked my ninja assassins. It is always a good day when this doesn't happen.

6. I am feeling more and more comfortable with China and living in it. I am getting in a routine and getting into my groove. That is always nice.

7. Wendy and I sang El Scorcho by Weezer at a semi-loud volume at the bus stop today. That is always a true sign of a good day.

The pictures are of our cooking lessons today and the dumplings we made.

Pocky's

2010-08-18T06:31:00.001-07:00

I was very concerned that I would not be able to get chocolate or snack foods that I would love in China. My worries on this account are now over. Wendy and I made it a goal to try something new every time we go to the grocery store. Lucky for us, Pocky's were the first thing we tried. The best way I can describe them are pretzel like sticks dipped in chocolate. They are not extremely sweet and had to grow on me a bit but I love them now. They have different flavors but the chocolate ones are my favorite. Mango is terrible and strawberry is pretty good. Wendy and I go through a package a day on average although we are trying to making the average amount of days a package of Pocky's lasts higher. I will let you know how that goes. I think you can get them in America. I have seen them in Movie theaters in the past. You should give them a try!

Today a miracle happened. That miracle was that Sparky got us to our bus stop 2 minutes before the bus arrived to take us home. It was amazing. Usually Sparky gets us to our bus stop 2 minutes after the bus arrives. We are making Sparky a card and a new Michael Jackson CD in gratitude so there may be more days like this one. Anything to help Sparky drive faster. Tomorrow we start Chinese cooking lessons! I am more excited than I can say. Michael (our cook) is teaching us how to make Won Tons and it is going to be awesome!

Bond English Preschool and Kindergarten

2010-08-17T07:28:00.001-07:00

This is the school that I get to teach at everyday! This particular Kindergarten was built just a couple years ago specifically built for the ILP program. It is the most expensive Kindergarten in Zhongshan so we teach the kids of government officials and other wealthy people. All the Chinese teachers tell us that we have the cutest kids at our school because the more money they have the cuter they are. I am not sure how that is directly correlated but I think that is how many Chinese people see it. Our school is three levels and really nice. It is nicer than any elementary school I have seen in America. We are really lucky to get to teach here. We teach kids ages 2-5 and they are adorable. They are crazy and usually out of control but I am coming to terms with the fact that it is just going to be like that most of the time. It is becoming easier. I am getting better at teaching and keeping them under control. Teaching is one of the hardest things I have ever done. My first week was really difficult and I may or may not have broke down into tears during one of my lessons but this week has been much better. They say that the first month is the hardest so I am hoping that it will get easier and better the more time goes on. There are six teachers and 6 different groups of kids with about 8 kids in each group. We teach six- twenty minute lessons a day. It is exhausting. I do, however, love the kids! Some of my favorites so far and two little twins named Shine and Sam. They are ALWAYS matching and super chubby. They even have matching sheets on their beds at school. Today Sam came up to me and said "Teacha Tesha, I be good for you today." I just love those boys. There is also a little boy named Daniel who is very smart and does everything asked of him. We all are big fans of Daniel. There are many times when the kids will just come up to me and hug my legs or come rest their heads on my shoulder when I am teaching. I am loving getting to know these adorable little people. Right now we are teaching summer school so we wont teach the same kids during the semester.

The other teachers that will be in our city are coming in a couple weeks and I am excited to hear about their schools and teaching experiences compared to ours.

Mandarin to English Translations

2010-08-16T01:17:00.001-07:00

One of the most entertaining things in China for me so far has been all the translation mistakes. They put the English translation on nearly everything but it is seldom correct. I think that some of the mistakes and very funny and take pictures of all that I can see. Most of these pictures were taken around our apartment in Zhongshan and a couple were taken in Hong Kong. I do not hold them responsible for these mistakes. I started Mandarin lessons today and lets say if English is located on the Earth, Mandarin is in a totally different galaxy. It is tonal and like nothing I have ever heard before. One sound can be five different words simply by the inflection of your voice. It is mayhem. I plan to work hard and maybe I will learn something by December! That is the goal!

Also, I run out of things to blog about sometimes so if anyone has any questions about China, what I do here, the kids I teach, the food I eat, how I am doing or anything else that may or may not be vexing your mind just let me know and I will answer in a blog post. If I do not know the answers I will try to find out! Thanks!

Hello 20th Birthday!

2010-08-15T05:41:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to get to spend my 20th birthday in China this year! Not many people I know can say that they turned 20 in China. It was easily the strangest birthday I have ever had. It did not feel like my birthday. It was only our 4th day in our new city and the 2nd day teaching in our new school so I didnt know anyone. The school bought me a cake which was really nice of them. It looked beautiful and tasted disgusting. Mom thinks that there is a lesson in there somewhere. So in light of the disgusting cake, I broke out one of my precious packages of pudding that I brought and put some peanut butter cups on top. It tasted delicious. It was not the masterpiece that the owl cupcakes were for my 19th birthday but it had to do. At school I had the kids make owls because it was my birthday and I love owls. That turned out to be a disaster but I got some cute pictures.In all, it was a good day. It is nice to not be a teenager anymore.

The Tale of Tessa's Luggage Hatred

2010-08-14T06:35:00.001-07:00

I shall begin with a preface. I have been taught to be a light packer from my infancy. When I went on a 9 day trip back east with Preston I took a 12 pound backpack and that was all. I hate taking big suitcases with me when I travel and do not ever do it unless it is entirely necessary.

For this 5 month adventure to China, packing a great deal of luggage was necessary. First of all, I had to bring enough clothes and hygene supplies for myself to last the whole time I was here. I also had to bring a suitcase full of supplies for the school that I am teaching at. I was able to pack everything I needed in two 50 pound suitcases, a 35 pound carry on suit case and a back pack. I hated having all that luggage even when I was just going down the stairs from my room in Phoenix but that was only just the beginning. We checked in my 49 and 51 pound bags at the airport and thankfully I didnt have to pick them up until I arrived in Hong Kong. I lugged my backpack and heavy carry on around the Phoenix, San Fransisco, Korea, and Hong Kong. There were 19 other girls that were flying with me to Hong Kong that all had the same amount of luggage as I did. Somehow, we all managed to get our luggage onto a huge bus and into our hotel. All of my luggage was really too much for me to handle by myself. There was about 160 pounds of it all together.

On the day of our departure from Hong Kong, we checked in all of our luggage into security. At this point, we broke up into our group so there were seven of us at this point. The night before we left, Wendy and I got a phone call at 11:30 at night that went something like this...

"HELLO, Tee-sa Smitt? this is John from Zhongshan (zhong-shawn) you head teacher?"

"No I am not the head teacher."

"Wendy Smitt head teacha?"

"No Wendy isnt the head teacher" (he later explained to us that he thought we were sisters and so he figured that one of us must be the head teacher. I dont know why.)

"Oh Teesa tomorrow I send man to pick you and group up at hotel. He speak no english. You just follow him. You follow him he take you right place."

"Okay, we will follow him."

"Good Teesa you do that. I see you tomorrow."

We toured Hong Kong all day and then waited around for the mysterious man we couldn't talk to that was to take us to our new home. At the appointed time, a Chinese man came up to Wendy and said "ILP Head Teacher?" She said "no" because she is not the head teacher and then said "yes" really quickly because she is with ILP so the man handed her a piece of paper. The piece of paper said, "Hello, my name is Candice." She was very confused by this because the man in front of us was obviously not named Candice. She kept reading and we came to find out that his name was Banker and we were told, again, to follow him. A bus comes to pick us up. The bus is a small bus that would normally fit 9 people very comfortably but we were not 9 people. We were 9 people with 21 very heavy pieces of luggage. Banker, like a pure ninja, managed to fit all our luggage between the seats on the bus. When we were pulling out of the hotel, the bus hit a huge pillar and dented it. The bus driver didnt seem to mind though because he pulled away. We had no idea where we were going. We really hoped that we wouldnt have to get all our luggage off the bus again but that wish was not to come true. The bus dropped us off at the ferry to go to Zhongshan. We unloaded all our luggage and carried to through the ferry station. I want you to picture seven American girls blindly following a Chinese man that did not speak English with 21 pieces of luggage. It was a little bit like a momma duck with all her little ducks following her. At this point I was laughing hysterically because the alternative was to cry. Thankfully, we were able to check 7 bags onto the ferry, but only 7. We had to hall the rest of the bags onto the ferry with us that was completely packed with people. We were completely exhausted at this point and somehow made it through the one and a half hour trip to Zhongshan. Once we arrived, we lugged all our luggage off the ferry and after all of this, had to have them checked through customs because of our arrival in mainland China. For one final time, we loaded all our luggage into a van. They brought one van for us to ride in and another van for our luggage. We all felt terrible for Banker at this point because he had 7 white girls with hundreds of pounds of luggage that he was in charge of. To this day he still glares at us whenever we smile at him. I do not blame him. We finally got to our apartment and got our luggage to its final home. It felt like home instantly because of how happy i was to see it. After this experience, I made a vow with myself. I am never going to go on a trip again with any more luggage than just a backpack.

Hello 10,000 Buddha's

2010-08-13T05:15:00.000-07:00

On our second day in Hong Kong we were able to roam the city as we pleased. We went on a ferry across the harbor and then we went in search of a hike on an island that is suppose to be like Hawaii. After a train and a bus ride we found out that the hike we wanted to go on would take 6 hours. There were two problems with this. The first problem is that I do not usually go on 6 hour hikes and particularly not when it is 100 degrees outside with 90% humidity. I quite possibly may have died. The second problem was that we did not have enough time to complete the hike. It was very lucky for me that there was problem #2 because not everyone in the group has problem #1. After our plans were spoiled, we saw signs along the road we were aimlessly walking on that said "10,000 Buddha's Buddhist Monastery". We had no idea what this place was but we decided to try it. We started along a trail that led up to a huge building on the top of this mountain. We found that the "10,000 Buddha's Monastery" is just that. It is a Monastery that has 10,000 Buddha replicas. While we trudged along the thousands of stairs that led to the monastery was passed thousands of Buddhas. I would venture it say it is somewhere around 10,000 but I cannot be sure since I did not count. Each of the Buddhas were different in one way or another. It is very safe to say that I have never in my entire life sweat as much as I sweat on that hike up the mountain. I am used to heat but not humidity in the smallest degree. I hope I can get used it before the end of my stay in China. The Monastery and the path that led to it were amazing! It ended up being one of my very favorite things about Hong Kong. I love happy accidents. After we got back from the mountain, dripping with sweat, we found a home goods mall with an Ikea in it that had air conditioning. Ikea saved my life that day.

Hello Hong Kong Temple

2010-08-12T05:08:00.001-07:00

While in Hong Kong, I got the opportunity to see the temple! I have always loved the Hong Kong temple so it was awesome to get to see it. It is one of my favorite temples because it is so different. It was a breath of fresh air to see the temple in the middle of all the mayhem that is Hong Kong. It is also notable that the temple is one of the only free standing buildings that I saw. It was awesome to see missionaries and evidences of the church. The Hong Kong mission home is right across the street from the temple and is really beautiful as well. After visiting, I think Hong Kong would be a hard place to serve a mission but I am sure that those that serve there love it. More Updates to come...

Hello Hong Kong

2010-08-11T05:14:00.000-07:00

Hello from China! I have been wanting to blog and I am finally getting around to it. I have to blog from my email so I have no idea what this post looks like. I would LOVE to get comments because I can get them to my email so please comment.

Early on the morning of August 3^rd I awoke at the beginning of one of the longest days of my life. It took up two actual calendar days and over 24 hours worth of travel time. It was worth it though because at the end of it, I was in Hong Kong!

Hong Kong, China was an interesting experience. We arrived at the Hong Kong airport at 11 pm at night. We were exhausted after a flight to San Fransisco, a flight to Seoul, Korea and a flight to Hong Kong. There were 20 other girls from ILP flying with me. That means that there were about 60+ bags to load and unload when we were at the airport and then when we were at the hotel. Matthew was our tour guide. He picked us up from the airport and then he took us on our tour of Hong Kong the next day. It was pure mayhem. The first sight of Hong Kong I had was at night with thousands of blaring lights. In my opinion, Hong Kong is at its most beautiful at night. You cannot see the smog at night and there are not as many people massing the streets. We finally got to our hotel and I tried to sleep. It was a semi-fruitless affair because it was around 10 AM for my inner anatomical clock but I did manage to finally get some sleep. The next day we got up early and got some breakfast at a local bakery that we ended up eating at 3 times in the 2 days we were in Hong Kong. It was the first purchase I made in China. After breakfast, we went on a tour of the city on a bus. He took us by the Hong Kong temple so we could get some pictures and forbid us to cross the street that we ended up crossing about 20 times later on that day. He then he took us to Hong Kong island which is where all the huge skyscrapers are, Victoria Peak where you can get a sweet view of the city and other islands surrounding it, a fisherman's village with hundreds of boat houses and their peeps living on the water, and Stanley market which is a huge market with really great cheap things. The tour was fun but it was a tour so it was nice for it to be over as well. We then got to do what we wanted in the city for the next day and a half. After the tour, we split off from the rest of the group and the seven of us, who live and teach together, did our own thing. We went to the temple, went on the Star Ferry, and ended up going to the 10,000 Buddha's Buddhist Monastery.

Hong Kong was very interesting for me. It is very tropical and humid but it is also a crazy gigantic city. I had a very hard time breathing there. Turns out that the humidity and the pollution is not a good combo for my asthma. Our friend John from our school told us that Hong Kong is a concrete Jungle and that pretty much covers it. I enjoyed visiting but I am so happy to be living where we are living. My favorite part of Hong Kong is getting to see the lights at night. It is very beautiful. It was an awesome beginning to our adventure. There is nothing more adventurous than 7 white girls frolicking around China among millions of Asians and I love it.

Jude's Painting

2010-06-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

Ever since my nephew Jude was born I have been wanting to paint something for his room. I finally consulted with Mindi and painted him something. I like how it turned out. I think it looks great in his room and although he does not care about it now, hopefully he will enjoy it in the future. The scarf is my very favorite part.

I also painted this little painting which is very similar to the one I painted for Jude. I like this one as well. I now just need to find a home for this one!

I made Jude a headband last week with his Superhero name 'Ninja Toe' on it. He loves it and by that I mean he does not know it is on his head. He sure looks cute with his headband on. I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to live so close to Jude, Preston and Mindi. It has been so fun to watch Jude change and grow for a couple months. I am not sure how I am going to survive 5 months without seeing him. Please excuse this picture of me. Just focus on very cute little Jude.

Weather System

2010-06-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

I finished a new painting today. This is a rather big one. It measures about 40 inches by 16 inches. It took a while but I feel that the finished product is worth it. I love that this girl is in control of her environment. She embraces something that some people think is a negative part of nature and makes it help her and things around her grow. My favorite part is the umbrella, her boots, and the highest yellow flower.

Jude was very helpful with this painting. Thank heavens he was here to help me.

Leafy Headbands & Giveaway Winners!

2010-06-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

The idea for this headband has been swirling around in my head for a long time. I finally tried it out and I would say it turned out to be quite the success. I feel one with the trees when I wear it. That is actually a lie, but I do love it. To make them, I sewed the leaves together, sewed them onto ribbon, and then put a little bit of elastic on the back so it fit tight to my head. My sewing skills need a lot of work but I do my best. What do you think of the new headbands?

I know I said that there would only be one giveaway winner but I could no resist. I have decided to give two necklaces away. The winners of the giveaway are... JOANNA & LUCY! Congratulations ladies, I will get them off to you soon!

Happy Trails...

Happy Superhero Day Square Knot!

2010-06-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

Happy fathers day to a superhero, chef, doctor, poet, humanitarian, hunter, movie lover, traveler, husband, friend, and most of all my daddy! If I become half the person you are then my life will be a success.

GIVEAWAY!

2010-06-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

Hello! Last night in the deep pathways of my brain, somewhere between being awake and asleep the thoughts of a giveaway for all my lovely blog readers came creeping into my head. When I awoke, I was so excited just thinking about it! I have had my blog for over three years now and I have received so much positive encouragement and support as I have grown in my creativity throughout the last few years. I really appreciate all the support that this blog and its readers have given me as I strive to discover who I am and what I want to be as a person and an artist. I am looking forward to my 5 month adventure in China and a little time off from all my many creative hobbies that I love so much. So before I leave the continent, I want to do a Summer Giveaway Extravaganza! I will be giving away a sweet ribbon necklace that I recently posted about to one lucky visitor of my blog.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite thing about summer and make sure that I have your email! Enter the giveaway on or before Tuesday the 22nd of June! I will pick a winner through some sort of random method that night. I am just so excited to give one of my creations away!

(this is not the exact necklace I will be giving away)

My favorite thing about summer is getting to escape the heat with a movie in a nice cool movie theater. Whats your favorite?

Beads Galore

2010-06-14T23:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome my dear friends to my newest creative obsession. I have made around 30 ribbon necklaces thus far and I do not see any signs of stopping any time soon (except for my journey to Asia which will halt most of my creative endeavors for several months). I really love these necklaces. I also love the bead store that I am forced to go to almost weekly because of the vast amount of necklaces I am making. I have no choice. It is unequivocally out of my control.My first experience with Beads Galore was memorable to be sure. It was a year ago and I was with Preston shopping for wedding supplies. At 9 AM in the morning, there was a line of quite a few people waiting for the stop to open. We did feel a bit out of place because we didnt need wheel chairs or oxygen tanks and we did not know how to shop in this crazy place. I have sense learned and re-learned the proper bead store etiquette and procedures and now it is one of my favorite places to visit. It is always an adventure, always overwhelming, and always a good time.

Here are just a few examples of the necklaces. Happy trails everyone!

New Paintings

2010-06-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

I am way behind with posting about my latest paintings. Here are several of the commissioned paintings I have completed as of late.

Among the Forest

2010-06-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

I finished a new painting this week. I really enjoyed working on this one. I must really want to become a tree somewhere deep down in my soul because I am always drawn to painting about it. This girl is not just giving life to her own tree but she is helping the trees around her grow stronger. It is a lovely idea indeed. Enjoy.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Craft Day

2010-06-03T22:36:00.000-07:00

For many weeks, Mindi, Shannon, and I have been planning a Smith Craft Day Extravaganza! I have now moved to mesa so so we decided that last Saturday May 29th would be the day! It was awesome! We crafted all day and ate some delicious food while we were at it. I wish everyday was craft day! Zach says that I am the, "walking craft day" but I dont usually have people to do my crafts with so it was wonderful. Preston, Zach, and Jude were very good sports. We got a great deal done. We did not get as much done as we planned but we had a good time and did accomplish plenty.

We made, what seemed like, hundreds of blocks. I suppose it was only 38 but it took a very long while.

This is a look at the mayhem that was the condo. I brought all of my craft supplies up from home and Mindi brought some of hers too. It was wonderful to have everything we needed right at hand.

I told Mindi about an awesome salad I love from Macaroni Grill and she decided to try and recreate it for craft day. It was amazing. I loved that salad. I dream of that salad. Mmmmmm

This is a photo of what I have now named "Happiness Triffle". The ingredients are crumbled up brownies, peanut butter cups, vanilla pudding with peanut butter and whipped cream in it. Zach's mom told us about it and Shannon and I went from speaking with her to the store immediately to get the ingredients. It was very easy and delicious. It the perfect treat for craft day.

Almost done with all of our blocks.

Jude was even helping mom. What a good little helper he is.

As much as I hate living away from Mom and Dad and the extra ten or twenty degrees that the city asphalt and lower elevation brings, I love to live with Shannon and Zach and near Preston Mindi and Jude. I have the greatest family in the world. The end.

LOST Party

2010-05-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

It is the end of an era. I have been watching LOST for many years now and it is finally at an end. I am relieved. I do not know if I could have handled it for much longer. I like the show and consider it one of the bravest and most interesting shows ever to hit TV but it caused me so much stress. It is like a big burden has been lifted off my shoulders. To celebrate, my siblings and some friends of ours had a party. We had Dharma cupcakes, Samoa Bars, hamburgers, and many other delicious things. We even decorated!

As for my thoughts and feelings on the finale, I hated it at first and now, after many hours of thought, have decided that I liked it but never plan on watching the show again. It was a nice 6 years, but I am done.

Farewell LOST!!

Mayhem

2010-05-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

It is May again. That means that another full year of school has elapsed and I am officially halfway done with college. It is mad, mad I tell you! I cannot believe how fast time goes. I have come to relate the speed of time to how long white chocolate covered Oreos last in my presence. That is a infinitely short amount of time. You would not even know they were ever there. I have already in May, passed College Algebra, graduated from EAC, moved to Mesa, and partied like a ninja and the month isnt even over yet!

Iron Man 2

I love going to movies in the theater. I find a great deal of happiness in the whole experience. I hold firm in my belief that every person, if you ever plan on seeing the films, should go to Twilight movies the day they come out because of the experience. I have gone on opening days twice but not midnight showings and I fear I missed out. The true entertainment of those films can only be experienced surrounded by hundreds of hormone filled fanatical Mormon women. I hate the books and the movies but I do love to go see them the weekend they come out. I have rarely been so entertained. It was pure magic. Judging by experience, Iron Man 2 was a medium to a large amount of good. The movie wasnt fantastic but it was worth seeing. I stand by the belief that any film RDJ (Robert Downey Jr.) is in is worth seeing. The night involved hippies, a crazy crowd, me yelling at a super annoying girl, and a large amount of food that i snuck in. Wonderful.

Passing College Algebra

Math has always been a struggle for me. I knew the day would come that I would have to take college algebra but I have been putting it off for years due to pure terror. I finally took it this semester and I not only PASSED but I got a B! I had one of the greatest teachers I have ever had. Mr. Orr is my hero. Anyone is a hero of mine that can inspire me to work hard enough in math to get a B. The important thing is, I am done done done done done done done with math FOREVER!!!!

Graduation

I hate graduation caps and gowns more than I hate Kevin Costner and Miley Cyrus combined. That is alot of hate encompassed against this one graduation outfit. I really want to know who came up with this idiotic hat. It looks horrible on everyone.

Wendy, me, and Stephenie all graduated. I am going to China with Wendy. She is wonderful and NOT taller than me. I look like such a shrimp in that photo but I am not.

There were many highlights of my graduation but I will name a few. 1) They had a West Side Story special number. We were all extremely confused. We just went with it. 2) A kid that I have known for several years turned to me during the ceremony and asked me, "were you cross eyed as a child?" I looked at him strange and then bid farewell to him and my EAC career. EAC was a good place for me but it is time to move on.

Here is a little update. More to come. Happy trails...

Bookcase

2010-04-29T23:29:00.000-07:00

Yet another semester of college has gone by and woodworking continues to be the only thing that I enjoy about school. I love to go and, although I have not done quite as much this semester, I did finish the bookcase I have been working on for sometime. I am rather pleased with the final product. I have a serious problem when it comes to normal bookshelves. You see, I have a few large books that are around 16 inches tall and then I also have books that are extremely short. There are very few bookshelves that are high enough to fit my big books and if they are big enough, they are just much too high for the little books. I kept this in mind when I was looking at bookcase ideas. I finally found the perfect idea at Ikea of course. There was a great deal of guessing and deviating, or as I like to say "tweaking", but it turned out similar and, in my opinion, even better than what I saw at Ikea. Now all my lovely books can have their allotted place. My only problem now is that my expansive Harry Potter collection requires an entire bookcase of its own, but I will have to tackle that little debacle later. For now, I have a sweet new bookcase that is living in its new home and what will be my new home in 2 weeks. In exactly 2 weeks I graduate from EAC and move up to Mesa to live with Shannon and Zach for the summer before I leave for Zhongshan in August.

In the shop

The only down side of a bookcase like this is that it takes an eternity to stain. Check out all the surface area on that thing. You dont notice until you have to cover all of it 6 times.

Finished Product!!!

My dad just bought a new X-Terra last week and really wanted to test its hauling abilities. So despite the fact that there were three of us traveling in the vehicle for three hours, he was determined to haul my bookcase with us. Was it necessary? No, but Square Knot it was a test of his hauling abilities so failure was not an option. In case you cant notice, there is very little room on that seat. I barely fit!

Flower Power

2010-04-12T21:38:00.000-07:00

Arizona has been my home for 18 years. I like living here but it is often very difficult to see the beauty of it, especially when it is hotter than hell, everything is dead, and you get frequent nose bleeds because of how dry it is. Sometimes, in this time of year, it is beautiful. We have had alot of rain this year and because of this the flowers in the desert have been AMAZING. They are rarely this beautiful. We have been doing our best to take advantage of it since we have never seen the flowers this beautiful and possibly never will again. We have been on many rides out in the desert and even went and cooked dutch oven dinner among the flowers last week. It was lovely.

On one of our drives to look at the flowers, Square Knot was too anxious to jump out of the car and get photos that he turned the car off without putting it in park. This causes a bit of an issue when you are on a hill headed towards a huge cliff with me in the backseat. I was powerless to save myself but thankfully Square Knot was able to save me. I told him that he could not count a life saved if he was the one that made it so the life was in need of saving. He disagrees.

Allison, Loren, Wendy, Me, Fabiana, and Jordon chilling on the desert. I think this photo because I feel that our outfits completely encompass our personalities. Allison the tennis ninja, Loren the super stylish one, Wendy the free spirit, and me the nerd. I think it is funny that I am in plaid pants and a button up shirt on the desert.

Loren, Wendy, and Allison are becoming cactus.

I have no explanation of these photos.

I love all of these girls immensely.

What a lovely time we had on the desert. Dads dutch oven cooking was as good as it has ever been.

Paintings Paintings Everywhere

2010-04-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy month. I have been very busy with school, painting, and my recent Robert Downey Jr. obsession. There was a time, long ago, where I would blog about a painting the second it was done but that time has passed and gone. Here are many of the latest paintings I have done over the last few weeks. I have been selling many originals and I really appreciate all the support I have been getting. China is getting closer and my money raising goals and seeming to be within my reach. I have a facebook fan page that I update frequently. If you are not a fan yet, get on that bizzle!

A Flock of Birds

I love these little birds. I am very happy that this cute little girl has so many friends with her as she leaves on her journey to new places. I want to travel places by birds. I am sure that would be a lovely way to travel. I just need to find me some bird friends. I will get on that.

Within A Cage

My dad said this one looked 'terrifying'. I am not sure if that's an accurate description but it is a little oppressive. It reminded Zach of the movie Willow. I am not sure I understand this either. I suppose I will let you interpret it as you will. I enjoyed painting it while watching Iron Man (remember that Robert Downey Jr. obsession I was talking about).

Moonscape

I love city scapes. I always want to paint them but they never turn out how I want them to. That little girl has a hard time letting go of things. In this case, she has a little bit of an issue letting go of the moon. I do not blame her, I also love the moon. I have a hard time letting go of things too.

Commissioned Pieces

A lovely friend of mine asked me if I would paint something special for her and this is what we came up with together. She said she wanted something happy. I think this is happy. My favorite part is the umbrella's. I want every single one of those umbrellas in real life. Is that really too much to ask? I think not.

My wonderful momma wanted me to paint this for her to give as a gift. It is very similar to Within A Cage that I did a couple of months ago and have since sold. It is bigger and took more time and patience. I am happy with how it turned out and am not sure that this will ever leave the house. This may end up being a gift for herself.

I did a painting like this about a year ago. A couple wonderful ladies came over and both wanted one so I had to do another so both of these wonderful ladies would be satisfied. I like the second one I did much better than the first. Pages from Lord of the Rings serves as the background.

Among Dreams

2010-03-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

It has been a very exciting week for me in relation to my art! I sold 5 paintings this week and was commissioned for 2 more! It is always nice when other people appreciate things you create. Also this week, I got my etsy shop back up and going. It is very exciting. I am trying to earn some money for my trip to China to teach English. I only have a few things up right now but I will put more stuff up in the next few weeks. Take a look at what is in my shop and if you are interested and don't see anything in there that you want, or if a painting you have seen of mine that you love is not in there, just let me know and we can chat about it. All proceeds will go directly to my volunteer trip to china so it is for a good cause.

Here is my most recent painting, Among Dreams! I am not entirely pleased about the result but I love the idea. I have always been fascinated with dreams. This girl is escaping from her life for a little while and live among beautiful trees and clouds.

Happy Trails...

A Shotrcut to Mushrooms

2010-03-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

Alice Has So Much Muchness

2010-03-12T11:50:00.000-08:00

I am not usually an Alice in Wonderland fan but.. I LOVED Tim Burtons take on it! Love...love...love... Not only was the acting great (apart from Anne Hathaway), but the story was wonderful, and it was so BEAUTIFUL to look at. It was great to see a movie that didnt sacrifice it's plot for special effects I did not see it in 3D though I do plan to. I went because I love movies and I had to give it a try. I adore Johnny Depp and I am a bit of a Stephen Fry addict so see this movie was inevidable and beyond my power to resist (although I do admitt that I wanted to). I am so glad that I went. It was pure loveliness from start to the finish. It is a coming of age movie about both growing up and the importance of not growing up too fast which I think right now is exactly what I needed to see.

One of my favorite things was Alice's constantly changing wardrobe because of her ever changing size of course. I wanted to put some pictures up of my favorites but, alas, I cannot find the ones I want so I advice you to just go and see the movie!

In approximately one hour it will be my SPRING BREAK! If that is not exciting, I am not sure what is. I have so much reading, creating, and chilling to do. Many creations to come. Happy Trails...

A Little Fall of Rain

2010-03-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest painting, A Little Fall of Rain. It was alot of fun to imagine and then paint. The girl in this painting doesnt necessarily love the rain but she realizes its importance in the world and in her life. She chooses to weather the storm among the beautiful flowers the rain helped to create. If only I lived with that perspective more than I do life would go much smoother.

I was a little nervous about the pink background. I am not even close to being a pink person. I shun it at all times but it seemed to work out in this case. I like it.

Happy Trails...

Pretty Things...

2010-03-10T11:51:00.000-08:00

I wanted to put up a few pretty things I have been looking at in my blog stalking this week...

Anna Miminoshvili's Owl Dress

This beautiful dress made me gasp when I saw it over at The Owl Barn. It combines my love of clothing with my love of owls. It makes me happy just to look at it and I assure you I have looked at it plenty this week. Swoon. I cannot say enough wonderful things about it so I am going to stop.

Vicki Ambery-Smith's Venice Ring

This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Honestly, have you ever seen a ring cooler than this? Vicki Ambery-Smith is a very talented designer and does tuns of freaking awesome stuff. This ring makes me want to be a ring.

My New Yellow Dress

I do my very best to be frugil and retain the little money I have but that is often a very difficult task. This is why I experienced unimaginable excitement when this little yellow dress I have wanted for months went on sale at Tulle. It is adorable and I am so happy that it now lives with me.

Awesome Owl Wedding Cake!!!

This is another Owl Barn find. This is the cutest wedding cake I have ever seen in the whole world. The End.

Tie Cuffs From Freckled Nest

These little darlings are so adorable. Such a great idea.

Now I am off to create some pretty things myself... posts to follow very soon. Happy Trails.

Uprooted

2010-02-17T18:53:00.000-08:00

What a lovely day it has been today! I love Wednesday's. According to Mr. Orr, my amazing algebra professor, Wednesday is the day of the week where the most people commit suicide. He congratulates us every week on surviving until Thursday. I have never considered surviving an accomplishment. Today, along with surviving, I got alot accomplished. I finished a new painting! For some reason I have been obsessed with umbrellas lately. It may be because I have had to use an umbrella only one time in my entire life. I love this idea. I love that the houses and the umbrella's are the same colors. She is breaking free and leaving what she knows while still taking her roots and bits of home with her.

In other news, I am an auntie! Last week we welcomed an adorable new addition to our family. Mindi and Preston had a beautiful baby boy named Jude Redding. He is the first grandchild in the Smith family. He is the cutest thing in all the world. We met this weekend and I am quite sure that we are going to be great friends. One thing that I guarantee is that this little boy is loved. I cannot wait to watch him learn, grow and become his own person. He is going to be awesome!

Happy Trails...

Within A Cage

2010-02-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

I finished a new painting! I love all the colors and the idea of it. I have a hard time translating what is in my head to a canvas, (I admit that there are some things in my head that should never be put on a canvas) but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. This is one of the first paintings that I like much more in person than in the photo's. I just could not get a good shot. You get the idea anyway.

Today has just been the loveliest of days. I am so content. I am only taking 8 credits at school so that allows time to bake and craft. I am really enjoying my last semester at home.

Happy Weekend! It is a long one for me.

It's Mine!

2010-02-08T14:17:00.000-08:00

The day has finally arrived! After months of waiting, the Crowded Teeth Owl Bag is finally mine! I have posted about this little beauty before. I knew it was going to available for purchase sometime this spring but I had no idea when. I was very surprised when Preston text me a lovely picture of it at Frances, a boutique we love. I have been waiting for it for so long that when the time came to buy it I had a little bit of hesitation. Thoughts like, "I dont need this" and "why do I have this owl obsession?" were going through my head. I told my mom, "Well, I guess I can live without it." I figured she would agree with me and tell me that would be the responsible thing to do. To my surprise she said, "No you cant, your soul will die without that bag. Buy it now!" Needless to say, I obeyed. I think she was right, my soul would have died.Here's to my soul still being in tact...

In other news, we are all still waiting for Jude Redding Smith to make his grand appearance on this little planet we call Earth. He is a Smith, after all, so I am quite sure he will come when he is good and ready, and not before.

Happy Trails...

Happy Saturday

2010-02-06T21:55:00.000-08:00

It has been a wild weekend full of thrift store shopping, cupcakes, jesterz, and lots of fun with family! Here are some lovely flickr pictures of buttons that set my imagination on fire. I love buttons.

Adventures with Miken

2010-02-06T00:18:00.000-08:00

My friends, Miken and Allison, are taking a Photography class this semester. I am jealous. My creative mind is always yearning to explore new avenues. I love taking pictures and would love to really learn how and mainly how to use Photoshop. But, since I am not in the class Miken enlisted me to be her model for one of her assignments. It was alot of fun. We went traipsing around downtown Safford all over the back alleys searching for good places to take pictures. Shockingly, there were a lot of great places. I see a bright future for Miken in photography.

Clothesline Chaos

2010-02-04T00:15:00.001-08:00

This idea has been floating around my head for a long time. I have wanted to paint it but just never got around to it, until now. This is a part of my Chaos concept. I love the idea that these houses are on a rope or a part of a tree with no logical explanation. I am not completely happy with it. I am going to play with the idea more because it is not exactly like I pictured it in my head. It is a good start and it does feel very good to be painting again.

I just realized that I forgot to put something on it. A very important detail that is a large part of the whole concept. I will post an update! I think it is time for bed! Happy Trails...

Domination

2010-02-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

I have known that College Algebra would be in my future for a long while now but, like any good procrastinator, have put it off until the last possible moment. This semester I am taking College Algebra, an English class, and Woodworking! It is nice that I can really concentrate on algebra. On my first test I got a 93% and I am so excited! I have never done that well on a math test in my whole exsistance. My goal is to pass with a C and to beat the annoying kid that sits next to me on every test. I am doing well on both goals so far.

Happy Birthday...

2010-02-01T16:11:00.000-08:00

... Langston Hughes!

Another year has come and gone and I love Langston Hughes even more than I did last year. I read some of his poems every night. The more I study literature the more I understand and appreciate him as a writer. He continues to be a comforter, a voice of reason, and a great friend to me. One thing I love about the written word is that what is written goes on long after the author is dead. This is why I have celebrated and continue to celebrate Langston's Birthday every year. He may be dead, but for me, and everyone that reads his poems, he is very much alive. So happy birthday my friend!

This is one of those times where "I AM A NERD" is tattooed across my forehead. Now that I think of it, that tattoo is a permanent fixture on my forehead, and I suppose I would not have it any other way. Happy Trails...

Why I Live In Arizona

2010-01-31T13:21:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine that I work with is from Colorado. She has lived in Arizona for over 20 years now but still has a hard time living here sometimes (particularly between the months of may and October but I am not even going to think about that right now). This last semester she was working on figuring out and writing down all the things she liked about Arizona. She thought it may make her a bit more optimistic about her life here. I dont know if it worked but since then I have thought about some of the things I like about Arizona. Arizona sunsets are definitely on my list.

I just do not think you can get much more beautiful than that.

I took these photo's last night when I walked out of a friends house, who lives in the middle of a cotton field, and was greeted by this beautiful sight. I just really wish any picture could do it justice. Happy trails...

Head Bands!

2010-01-30T20:08:00.000-08:00

When I craft, I often get obsessed with certain types of things (thoughts of the Duck Tape Debacle of freshman year are running through my mind). In the latter part of last year I began making flowers out of fabric. I made slews of headbands. I also made some brooches for those in my acquaintance who think they are too old for such girly accessories. I suppose my time may come where I feel that way but not yet. I gave tons away for gifts. In fact, everyone I like at EAC (all five of them) got a headband that is very similar.

For the headbands on the right, you can use any man-made fabric that has some sort of plastic in it. I used an array of colors but it seems that I only ended up with a black and gray one. I cut circles of varied sizes that fit inside each other. Then comes the fun, you run the edges over a flame. I use a candle. Then all you have to do is thread a bead or a button through the middle of all the toasted circles of fabric. To attach them to a headband or a pin I put hot glue on the flower and the headband or pin and put a little circle of felt on the other side.

For the headbands on the left side, I just cut a circle of any fun cotton fabric. I then, not masterfully, fold the edges into the middle. I used some hot glue to keep all the edges together and stuck a button in the middle. I am positive there are easier ways to do this I just dont know of them.

I love how my hair is a different color in every one of these pictures. I am not even sure what color my hair really is. Hmmmm, it is a mystery! Happy Trails!

Red Velvet Cake

2010-01-29T16:49:00.001-08:00

The first cake I ever made from scratch was Red Velvet Cake a few years ago. After trying many different types of cakes, all of which are much more difficult, I have finally decided that, for now at least, Red Velvet Cake is definitely my favorite! It is simple, rich, and delicious. Today I made Red Velvet Cupcakes. I make them out of this recipe. For cupcakes, I half the cake batch and make a normal size batch for the frosting. I cant ensure that the universe is always fair but I can ensure that, in my baking universe at least, their is fairness and happiness. I also have figured out that cooking them at 325 degrees at 20 minutes/ dozen cupcakes does the trick.

The recipe is pretty straight forward. Please give it a try. Do it yourself, it is always better that way!

I used my amazing new cupcake decorating tips but there are many different creative ways to decorate the tops. I just cut a round hole in the corner of a ziploc bag for years and decorated them that way. There is always the kitchen knife standby.

Did anyone notice that I am using a Kitchenaide? Yep, Preston and Mindi let me borrow theirs to see if I liked using one and to help with the mass amounts of baking I plan on doing. Thanks Preston and Mindi! I think I am going to have to have one!

Nothing like some Friday afternoon baking to make it feel like the weekend. I survived my first full week of school!

Craft Swap!

2010-01-28T16:27:00.001-08:00

Recently, I participated in a craft swap! I follow this wonderfully talented girl and her plushy wonders, Skunkboy Creatures. She decided to organize a little craft swap. There were no set rules. All you had to do is send a craft to your partner. I have only been in one other craft swap so I decided to give it a try. I was immeasurably lucky to be partnered with Allie. She is an architect from San Fransisco and amazingly talented. I loved being in contact and making something for her! I painted this painting for her and some little flower brooches. I feel really good about what I made. It was immense fun! I am rather sad it is over.

She was so thoughtful with what she made for me! I told her I love owls, traveling, and bright colors. She made me a passport cover and other amazing things with owl fabric! I was so excited to get them and even more excited to use them.

The swap was a success! I am very happy that I got to participate!

Cupcakes Galore!

2010-01-12T21:40:00.000-08:00

I have simply had a million reasons to bake lately. If I don't have a reason, I make one up! Cupcakes are my newest obsession. I recently got the Martha Stewart Cupcake Book! I read it over and over a million times salivating more with every page. I love the idea of cupcakes. I mean really, you get all the goodness of a piece of cake in your very own individually wrapped container. For Christmas, I got some FANTASTIC cupcake decorating tips. I am so happy to have them. I am not quite sure how I am managed baking all this time without them. They enable me to make all the cupcakes I make beautiful. It is all about the tools not the talent.

My Christmas Eve dessert this year were Mint Chocolate Butter Cream Cupcakes pictured in the bottom right corner. I made chocolate mint leaves. They took me several tries, Mindi can attest to this, but I eventually was able to make a few. I will admit that not only were the chocolate mint leaves disgusting but not at all worth the 4 hours I took to make them. So if you ever think, "Those chocolate leaves in that picture really looks beautiful, I want to make those," don't do it! You will regret it.

There are Snickerdoodle Cupcakes in the top right corner. The rest of the cupcakes are all Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate or white chocolate icing.

Don't you worry, I am just getting attacked by my own cupcake.

Want some of my cupcakes? Come visit and I would be happy to share!
Happy Trails...

My wardrobe, born again!

2009-12-29T23:16:00.000-08:00

The holidays are zooming by at a rate that is simply uncanny. I am not okay with the fact that there is only a week and a half left of life before College Algebra. I hope it doesnt turn me into something terrible and nasty, like a particularly feisty garden gnome. I expect that I will be very similar to what I am now, on the other side of college algebra, just with less hair and a stronger hatred of math. Time will tell...

On a happy note, Christmas was wonderful! I loved every second of the holiday. I got a ton of wonderful gifts. Among all the goodness was this little beauty of a book. It is a do-it-yourself guide to transforming old clothes into different useful things. It gave me alot of ideas and got me thinking about things I could do to some of my clothes that I dont like or wear anymore. I decided to give some of the ideas a try and see what I could come up with. I would suggest the book but I will warn you that one of the models in utterly terrifying. She reminds of the White Witch in Chronicles of Narnia just slightly more albino. Other than that, a great little guide.

Skirt/Dress

I took a old long skirt I had that I got in Scotland, and made it into a cute little dress. I apologize that I had to be the model. Since I made it to fit me, and none of my clones were around, I had to be the model. I simply made some holes in the skirt, four to be exact, two on each side right under my bust line. I wanted to make sure that the ribbon would be very secure and would not randomly slip off. Life as a young single adult is awkward enough as it is. I then took some ribbon laying around the house, and TADA I have a cute new dress. This long old skirt that did really fit me is now transformed into the newest and funnest item in my wardrobe.

Sweater Leg Warmers

I first saw this idea at the Crafeteria early in December. I loved the idea of transforming old sweater sleeves into cute leg warmers. I desperately wanted to buy a pair for 'research' but they did not have a pair that fit me. There is not much use for leg warmers in Arizona, of course, but when I saw them again in the Born Again Vintage book I really wanted to give them a try. Here is my attempt. I have to admit that I love them even though they are pink. They were so easy and really fun to make. Here are some directions if you are interested. I am now on a quest to find some more awesome sweaters...

There are some of my holiday break projects. I love the non-stop creation time. I found out about a week that I have been assigned to Zhongshan, Guangdong China for the fall! It is a city very near to Hong Kong. It is feeling more and more real. Happy Trails...

Kipling

2009-12-19T18:25:00.000-08:00

This past semester I decided to take Wood Working. I have had some old wooden molding that I have wanted to make into frames but I have not had the equipment to do it. I signed up, and with a little bit of convincing, Square Knot did too! For the last semester we go to the wood shop at the college one a week for about 3 hours. I was really nervous at first. I have never done anything with saws or power tools before and I am kind of a pansy when it comes to dangerous things, so I was apprehensive at best. Let me just say that to my surprise, I LOVE IT! Wood Working Tuesday (besides Taco Thursday) is the best day of the week. I love using all of the power tools and saws. The teacher of the class is this awesome little 80 year old man who has been wood working his whole life. He has taught me a lot and is quite the inspiration.

I was not quite sure what to make so I decided to make myself a desk. I have needed one for quite some time. It took me half the semester but I finally finished my solid oak drawing desk named Kipling! I am more excited than I can even describe. I am very proud of myself and very happy that all my appendages are still in tact. I wish I would have taken more progress pictures but I always forgot to take my camera to the wood shop. You will have to settle with shots of the finished product. I am taking the class again next semester and have a lot of new projects I cant wait to start on!

Square Knot is very happy to have someone to do wood projects with. He helped me pick out the stain and taught me how to stain! We used Red Oak stain and I love the color.

Me with my new friend Kipling

Kipling in his new home!

Wood Working really saved me this last semester. I took really difficult classes for me and It was nice to get my mind away and have some time to create something that wont make me gain 20 pounds. On related news, I passed all my classes and only have one more math class to take! Thank heavens for that!

Happy Trails and Merry Christmas! I love this time of year! Break time! I can now finally get to my pile of books that has been mocking me all semester.

China, Here I Come!

2009-12-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

The ever present question in my mind for the last few years has been, "What do I want to do with my life?" and "Where do I want to go to do it?" I do not have an answer to either of those questions but I do know that I love to travel and create. I will graduate with my associates degree in May and so, instead and running off to a university to pursue my degree, I decided to take some time off and go to China! That will at least satisfy my love of traveling and I will find a way to sprinkle some creativity in there.

A friend of mine, Wendy Smith, told me a couple of months ago that she was signing up to be a volunteer English teacher in China to little kids with the ILP Program. In the process of telling me all this she said, "Tessa, you should come!" I thought about it for a few seconds and then said, "Okay!" So, it is settled, for the fall semester of next year I am doing to go teach English in China to children ages 4 and up. To answer some frequently asked questions up front, No, I do not know Mandarin. I am not sure how I am going to teach the kids exactly, but they are young and pick up the language fast. I am sure the system they have set up works. I will live in dorms and will be living at the school I teach at. There are six different places I could go in China and we are not assigned yet. If anyone has any input on where I should go please let me know. I am going to have plenty of opportunities to travel while I am there so if you have been to China or know about some great places there, I would love your input.

I am very excited and also terrified. I will leave sometime in August and will post more details as I know them. I have been accepted to the program so off I go.

I heart Crowded Teeth

2009-12-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

It is no secret that I am a shopaholic. I love to shop. I love to find adorable things, and buy them. I have tried very hard to revert my shopping to thrift stores but when it comes to Crowded Teeth Products I have lost all of my self restraint. I LOVE THIS BAG! It does not actually hit stores until March. Although I am a little disturbed that I have become a woman who is counting down the days until a new bag becomes available, I am so excited. I have a bag that is similar in the same line and it is the best purchase I have ever made. The bag I have, however, does not have an owl on it and is falling apart. My question is, does this count as a responsible purchase if I am planning on buying and saving for it because I cant actually buy it yet? I am not sure, but I am sure that it doesnt matter because come March this little beauty will be mine!!!

I am telling you all this so you will check out this womans blog and website. She is extremely talented. I really love when artists like her succeed so check her out!!!

Thank You!

2009-12-01T14:59:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend! I love Thanksgiving. I have recently come to appreciate football so I dont even mind that being part of the festivities! Go Bronco's! I was in charge of most of the desserts this year. No one will trust me with any part of the food. I dont blame them. I took advantage of this oppertunity to make a recipe that I have been wanting to make for a long time. I made Ginger Mango Butter Cream Cupcakes. They are divine. I also made Ancho Chili Chocolate Cake and Pumpkin Turtle Cheesecake. Imade cake truffles and made a few of them into little turkeys. I would have liked to put more time in them but I ran out of time and energy. I have to admitt that I am not a fan of any of the really traditional Thanksgiving desserts so I did what I wanted. No one really complained.
I have a million and seven things to be grateful for... let me just tell you a few...

My Testimony of Jesus Christ
My Family
My Friends
School
Wood Working
My Talents
A Working Toilet
Pillows
Harry Potter
My new boots that I wear almost everyday
Desmond, my computer
Thrift Stores
Sugar
British Mini Series'
Douglas Adams
Bishop Allen

I hope your Thanksgiving was great as well. Happy Trails...

Wedding Cake

2009-12-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine asked me to make her wedding cake. So, a couple weeks ago, I set to work and made a three tiered Red Velvet Cake. I think it turned out perfectly fine. I just made the cake. The decoration was not me and I shall not take the credit for it. It looked beautiful and I am told that it tasted good too. I am not a pastry chef yet but maybe someday I will be...

Thrift Tour October 2009

2009-10-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

After a two month hiatus I am back and ready to electronically display my creations and activities for the world to see. I will start with the thriftour October 2009.

One of my favorite things to do is to shop. Whenever I am stressed or distraught about one thing or another my first reaction is to grab the nearest sugar saturated goodie. Then, of course, get online or run to the store to buy something that will make me feel pretty for a day or so. However, being the poor college student that I am, I dont really have the funds to supply my ever increasing need for new clothes and other beautiful nicknacks. This is why I love Thrift Stores. It satisfies my craving to shop without demolishing the little supply of cash I have. Phoenix in chock full of fabulous thrift stores. So, due to our adequate and punctual performance in Intermediate Algebra thus far, Allison and I decided to make a trip down to the valley for the sole purpose of Thrift Store Shopping!
Preston was our tour guide and he created this wonderful map for the thrift tour. There were 15 thrift stores on the list. We made it to about 7. It was a full day. We went out thrifting at 9 AM and were done around 4 in the afternoon. We purchased clothes, books, and army garb. Me, Allison, and Preston were the main participants but Darby, John, Mindi, and Shannon made some appearances on different spots on the tour. We also made some stops at Frances, Smeeks, Zoes and Urban Cookies. Thriftour October 2009 was a success to be sure! Thank you to everyone who made it so. Now on to the Used Bookstore Tour!

19 Years...

2009-08-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

Monday was my 19th birthday. I am almost 2 decades old. I feel so much older than I am and I cannot determine if that is good or bad. I guess time will tell. In all, it was a great birthday. Mom and I went and partied it up the weekend before with Shannon, Zach, Preston, and Mindi. Square Knot was not able to go and we missed him severely but we still managed to have a little bit of fun without him. We went to eat many different delicious places, went to Julie & Julia, Jesterz, Frances, and thrift store shopping. Just an utterly fantastic weekend.

The highlight of my actual birthday were these adorable little owl cupcakes. I decided that my birthday cake this year was going to be an owl. I looked at many different pictures and did a lot of research. I made family and friends vote on what cake they thought I should make. I finally determined that these little guys were the winners. They turned out great. They are also delicious. I felt a bit cannibalistic eating them because I have always wanted to be an owl but I managed to eat a few anyhow. I used oreos for the eyes and ears, M&Ms for the eyes and runs for the noses. I used a wonderful chocolate cake and frosting recipe. If you are looking for a great chocolate cake recipe let me know.

Tasha, Allison, and I

These are all the people that showed up to my house on my birthday night. I do not know half of them but so it goes with single social life.

My good friend Jessica shares a birthday with me so we celebrated together. I love her.

I got some awesome presents. I love every single one. I appreciate and love everyone in my life. I would not survive with out each and every single one.
Great Year... now onto the next... happy trails...

Fragil Exuberance

2009-08-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

Ive done it! I have finally started and finished one of my big canvases. A couple years ago Preston gave me two very large blank canvases to create on for Christmas. I was so excited to use them but I never thought I had the right idea and was worried I would mess them up. Finally last week I finally decided it was time so without a set plan I started painting. This is what I ended up coming up with. The trees are made out of The Two Towers and a lot of pain. I am really pleased with how it turned out. It is suppose to represent the four seasons. You can try to figure which season is which. I, myself, don't know so there is no correct answer. The canvas is 4 ft. by 2 ft. so it is rather large. The biggest one I have done to date but I have an even larger canvas waiting for me in the garage and this time I am not afraid!

Happy Trails...

Taco Thursday

2009-07-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

I used to be like Douglas Adams who said, "I could never get the hang of Thursdays." I mean really, Thursday is just a dreadfully situated day. It is the fourth day of the work week so you are tired and ready for the weekend, but, it is not yet the weekend. The weekend is a day away. So there Thursday sits mockingly close to your weekend goal but still managing to keep it away from you. Now, however, I relish in all that Thursday's have to offer me and that of course is----tacos. A couple months ago some friends from work asked me if I wanted to get tacos with them because tacos were the special of the day at the local bowling alley. I decided to give it a try. Tacos are usually not my culinary preference but a taco from a bowling alley was intriguing to me so I went along. Let me just say that since that day of enlightenment there has not been a Thursday go by that I dont eat these glorious tacos. Not only are these tacos magnificent but cheap. For 4 bucks you get 3 tacos and a drink. Taco Thursday has brought back my love of tacos and in fact Thursdays in one fantastic swoop.

Before

After several months of my raving reviews of the bowling alley tacos I finally got to share them with some of my family and friends. Here are some photos...

Loren being very smiley!

Square Knot with his "I am terrified that another minute of my life may go by that I have not had some of these amazing tacos!" face.

Allison also very happy.

After

Anyone and everyone is welcome to come eat tacos with me any Thursday! I will be here and so will the magnificent tacos!

Happy Trails...

New Mexico

2009-07-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

I am a little behind on posting but I am doing my best to catch up. I shall start with my first road trip of the summer.

On the Road------New Mexico.

I decided to go spend some time with my cousin Dylan and his family before his mission. So off I went to Belen, New Mexico. We ate, slept, watched Psych, talked, went to the zoo, and of course played a vast amount rock band. I had a fantastic time and I loved getting to spend time with Dylan before our two year absence!

Dylan took me to the Albuquerque Zoo. I had not been to a zoo for years and years. I loved it. I felt like a little kid ogling at all the animals. I told every animal hello and I think everyone at the zoo, including Dylan, thought I was a crazy person. I couldn't resist taking pictures so here are the highlights!

We had a little mini birthday party for Dylan since I was not going to be around for his actual birthday.

I am so glad that I got to go to Belen to visit Dylan and the rest of the Detlors. I love that family and will miss Dylan immensely but I will see him again... but not yet, not yet.

Happy Trails...

The Passing of Archie

2009-06-11T09:47:00.001-07:00

Somewhere in the deep expanses of time and space I feel that a soul mate was created for me. I am afraid, in my case, it was in the form of a car. Archie, the 1990 Oldsmobile was indeed my loyal friend for the years that we had him and that I drove him. He went on my hormone driven high school adventures with me, protected me, and was always there when I needed a place to sleep or a dash to cry on. This car will always be very special to me because he was my first and because we are the same age.

As with all things my ownership of Archie had to come to an end. I got my car Daisy almost a year ago and since then my cousin has driven Archie. He is going on his mission so it was time to sell him. Our good friends the Montierths were interested in buying him so that their highschoolers could drive him when they came of age. It all worked out and Archie is now in their care and ownership. We went to deliver Archie to them the other day and it was a very neat experience. All the Montierth kids were thrilled with the car. They squealed, laughed, and begged for rides. They said things like "this is the coolest car I have ever seen in the world." I am glad that Archie is going to be loved and used. He is a great car and I am going to miss him. I am glad he is in capable hands. Goodbye Archie.

Nathan, the oldest Montierth, standing by Archie.

Three of the kids sitting in the back testing the comfort level. It got very high marks.

The littlest Montierth Zach "dwiving cwazy".

Satan lets me keep my morals?

2009-06-02T22:31:00.000-07:00

I have been taught many things in my life about Satan but this certainly isnt one of them. On my weekly drive to the Montierths I encountered this sign and had to share. I really feel like I am missing something. All I want to know is if you think this was on purpose or a tricky prank by a bemused teenager. Hmmmm...

Juneau, not to be confused with Juno!

2009-05-31T22:17:00.001-07:00

IMG_2615, originally uploaded by considertessa.

There are some trips that I go on that I have alot to say about them. You cannot get me to shut up about them really. This is not one of those trips. It was beyond words. I believe that it is important to explore and understand your own country and ours is so large that it is sometimes difficult to do. I got to explore places I had never been before in my own country on this trip. I went on an Alaskan Cruise with Mom, Dad, Shannon, Zach, and my friend Tasha. I am so full of food that I am pretty sure I could hibernate for several winters, I have played so many card games I dont have any desire to play any games at all which is strange for me, and I have had enough fun to last for a while. It was a fantastic trip. There were chocolate buffets, glaciers, awesome folk art stores, and beautiful weather! Alaska is a beautiful place and I will definitely be exploring it more in the future. The only bad thing about the trip was that it made Arizona seem like a very very depressing place to live and this time of year and it is, but being reminded isnt always fun.

Click on the image for more pictures.

Happy Trails...

What A Hoot

2009-05-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

After much adding of kitchen creations to my creative arsenal as well as my physique I have finally had time to do a bit of painting again. Most of the time I like my paintings better in the pictures but not this one. This one is better in person. You will have to settle for a picture. I have so much to blog about but I am exhausted so it will have to be another time. Enjoy the painting.

Happy Trails...

Dylans Going On A Mission!

2009-04-24T15:28:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite people in the world, Dylan, is going on a mission! He has been called to serve in the Chihuahua (or as Dylan said CHI-HEWUH-HEWUH), Mexico Mission Spanish speaking! He has lived with us this last year while he has been going to school and I have loved every second he has been here. I am going to miss him dearly but I am excited that he gets to do this. He is going to help so many people and particularly himself. He reports to the Provo MTC on July 29th. That is all I am going to report on that for now because if I write too much more I will start crying and it is way too early before he leaves for that. Congratulations Dylan, I love ya man!

This is Dylan and I after we took his missionary photo's!

In the middle of one of our Alias Marathons!

Tree Project

2009-04-21T23:24:00.000-07:00

This semester I have been taking an Environmental Biology class. I needed another science and this seemed much better than taking Anatomy or some other class that I would wade the rough water between passing and failing. No No, learning about Global Warming seemed a small price to pay for an easy science class. It has ended up to be one of my favorite classes. For labs we go on field trips around the valley and that is much better than doing experiments in the lab. Our last project of the semester was to teach third graders from a local school about resources we get from the environment. My group was assigned to teach the kids about forests and why they are important and what we can do to protect them. I was thrilled, of course, because of my tree obsession. There were five girls and one guy in our group. Immediately all of us girls thought, "oh great, this guy is going to be no help at all." Much to our surprise though, Ammon our 6th and only male group member is now one of our favorite people. Taking the initiative he created this person sized tree out of fencing material and fabric. He painted it and everything. It is a great tree and the kids loved it. I am still in awe of it. I love its Afro. Our presentation went really well and we all had a good time. I garbed the group with tree shirts because my vast amount and I am pretty proud to say I can do that.

Happy Trails...

Three Decades...

2009-04-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

Stacy had a birthday! She is now three decades old! It has been a lot of fun to have Stacy home for the last few weeks and I am glad she got to celebrate her birthday with us! Everyone came home for the weekend to celebrate! There was a pinata, sidewalk chalk, great food, hat decorating, and of course a tun of cake (3 to be exact, 1 for each decade). It was a great time! Thanks Stacy for having a birthday so we could all celebrate!

See Tessa... Create!

2009-04-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

I have decided to start a creative journal. I can 'art' (my cousin Dylan thinks it is hilarious that I use art as a verb) about anything I want with any medium. It can be completely repulsive and that is okay because it is my journal with no expectations. The goal is to put alot of myself into it and learn how to create without any inhibitions. Hopefully I will end up with a lot of different pages that reflect my thoughts, feelings, and happenings in my life visually and creatively. If that doesn't happen; that is okay too. I will post entries on here from time to time when I am so inclined. Here is today's entry...

Happy Trails...

Feeling Good

2009-04-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

In the vast array of my enjoyments there are very few that beat a good beautifully decorated cake (a good Christian Bale Movie is the only thing that comes to mind). Stacy is here visiting from Boston and came equipped was a plethora of cook books. She picked a recipe that has been tempting and mocking her to the edge of insanity lately. It has been begging to be created and thus devoured. So the time had come and the Hazelnut Torte finally made an appearance in the kitchen. Stacy made the Torte and I decorated. So this is the celebratory dessert for Easter. MMMMMM...

My creative and blogging hiatus is over and I am back in the swing of things. My poor little blog was in a black hole of sadness...