Our cute little house
Monday, August 2, 2010
An amazing sunset
Last night we saw the most amazing sunset. Luckily my husband is very handy with a camera and we got some gorgeous pictures, some of which we plan on printing off and hanging up on our walls.
Monday, July 12, 2010
4th of Julyish
We spent the 4th of July pretty split up between our two families. Saturday was devoted to the Rogers and Sunday was devoted to the Young's. It was pretty nice to be able to have an entire day dedicated to just one side of the family rather than driving back and forth between them in the same day. Saturday we woke up early and went to Provo to see the hot air balloons. We went down with my mom and met up with Kayli, Heather and Doug. It was nice to have company because we had to wait forever to see a few of the balloons take off. Only 3 or 4 took off and then they cancelled the whole thing. On Saturday afternoon we had a BBQ at my parents house and then played some games and had a Boccce Ball tournament which me and McKay won! Then some of us headed down to Provo again to go to the Freedom Festival stuff going on downtown. We had fun shopping and saw a ton of cute jewelry. That night my family went to the Stadium of Fire, so we ended up doing our own thing. We debated between going down to Provo again that night to watch the fireworks there, or go to Pleasant Grove and watch their smaller, but more convenient fireworks display. Pleasant Grove won out so we watched fireworks at Grovecrest Elementary school were it only took us 5 extra minutes to get home due to traffic.
On Sunday after church we made our way to McKay's sister Sasha's house where we celebrated the Fourth of July and our twin nieces' 7th birthday. It was a ton of fun. There were lots of people at Sasha's house like always so there was a lot to keep us entertained. We had lots of good food an birthday cake and we got to have some fun with a piñata and a lot of fireworks (most legal, some not so legal). We also had some fun playing with Sasha's dog. the boys would set off smoke bombs or little flashing fireworks in the backyard and her dog would chase them down and try to attack them. It was kind of sad to watch the dog try to stick his face in the little fireworks, but it was hilarious to watch him try to attack the smoke coming from the smoke bombs.
On Monday we headed back down to Provo again to watch the grand parade with my extended family because my uncle Boyd is crazy and brings his RV to camp out before the parade every year, so we always have really good seats right near the beginning of the parade route. After the parade we went back to my parents for lunch and to start babysitting my little sister. My parents left on a trip to California that afternoon so I got to babysit. So with Jessica in tow we went to Utah lake were we played in the water for a little while and then sat on the beach area for about an hour while we watched McKay play with his snorkeling gear. That night we were naughty and went up on my parents roof with my sisters and threw poppers and a couple of fireworks off the roof. It was pretty awesome. I think I will want to do that every year from now on. All in all it was a good weekend, but I am pretty much sick of fireworks now so I am glad they are over for a while.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Life back in the USA
I haven't blogged in forever, and because of that there is a lot to catch up on. I will make it brief.
After leaving Wuhan, China we took a tour of Xian and Beijing with my parents (thanks mom and dad) and we saw some incredible things and had a great time.
Tiananmen Square
The Forbidden City
When we got home we spent a lot of time with our extended family, and then spent 2 1/2 months with McKay's super cool sister Kira, occupying her basement. We became good friends with her 2 adorable kittens while we were desperately looking for jobs.
In April, McKay and I both found jobs working for Provo College at their new American Fork Campus. McKay started working one week before me as their Career Services Coordinator, and then I came on as their Front Desk Manager. We worked long hours, made good money, and spent way too much time looking for apartments.
We finally found the perfect place to live on Center Street in American Fork. We are now the proud renters of an adorable little 2 bedroom 1 bath, yellow house across the street from a park. We moved in on May 2nd and have had a lot of fun turning it into our home.
We've also taken a few family trips since being back in the states. In April we took a trip with my family to Florida to visit the Rogers side of my family (and the beach). Then in May we took a trip to Bear Lake with McKay's family. We really enjoyed both trips. They were so different from each other, but we ended up spending time on a beach during both trips.
Eventually I had to stop working at Provo College, because Corporate decided that a husband and wife working on the same campus was a conflict of interest. So, the first week of June I cut ties with Provo College (even though I still really like them) and am searching for another job.
In the process of being unemployed I decided to take up one of my favorite hobbies and I am decorating cakes. I have also been lucky enough to start selling my cakes. I am definitely not making much money off of the cakes I sell, but I make just enough to be able to pay for my hobby. I have also started a new blog just for my cakes because I hope to turn it into a business over time.
So those are the major events of the last 4 months. Now that I have this post out of the way I will try to do better at blogging.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Goodbye Wuhan
It is our last night here in Wuhan. Tomorrow morning we are flying to Xian and spending a week touring Xian and then Beijing. I am excited and a little bit anxious about leaving Wuhan. I am very excited to get back to the conveniences and normalcy of living in America, but I can't help but feel a small sense of loss at leaving China behind. Living in China has been really a really interesting experience. I don't think I ever want to do it again, but I am glad we have had the chance to live the last 5 1/2 months here in Wuhan. We have had some interesting life altering experiences and I am a little bit sad to see this chapter of our lives close. Oh well, were on to bigger and better things. Goodbye Wuhan!!!!!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Red Tourism
This week we were able to get out of the apartment and experience the last bit of sightseeing that we could here in Wuhan.We had already been to all of the tourist attractions in Wuhan with the exception of the stone museum and Mao Zedong's Villa and the accompanying "museums". We still don't plan on going to the stone museum because the idea of looking at 2,000 + rocks doesn't thrill me like it should. So, we spent the day at Mao Zedong's old Villa and the old buildings around it.
The Villa was pretty cool. Mao used in back in the 1920's so it was neat to see how a fancy home would have been built at that time. The outside walls of the villa were extremely tall gray brick walls, and the inside walls were lacquered wood panels. We were only able to see the bedrooms and the office type area of the home because the back section and the upper loft of the villa were locked up. One thing that we have found very interesting about old buildings of interest here in china is that they always use a portion (sometimes a large portion) of the historical building for living quarters. It is quite frustrating to go to an amazing old chinese building and want to see more, but then see the bed and the chairs and the boiling water and the laundry strung across a number of the rooms. For some reason it really bothers me that they have the workers staying in and trashing these amazing old places. It seems like such a waste to me. Oh well, I don't have any say in the matter.
After going through the portion of the villa that wasn't being lived in, we visited 2 old schools, one of which was across the street from the villa and the other which was just down the street. The old school at the end of the street was used to give peasants military training right before the peasants revolt in China back in the 1920's. My knowledge of Chinese history is not very broad so that wasn't as interesting to me as the architecture and seeing the living and teaching conditions. The building used for a barracks at that military school was a beautiful European looking brick building. I found out that the England used to have quite the colony here in Wuhan, and part of the revolt at the time was kicking the British out! So once they got rid of the British they had some really pretty buildings to take over and turned them into military bases, which is what they did with the second school that we visited.The whole upper floor of the barracks building had been turned into the hall of Mao. The entire top floor was row after row after row of pictures of Mao. There was no English anywhere so I had no idea what was going on in the pictures, but some of them were interesting to see anyway.
The second school that we visited was taken over by the communist government and turned into a military headquarters. They don't use it much anymore, but they built a pretty cool museum in one of the buildings all about the rise and current reign of the communist government. They actually had some English translations in that museum, so even though there were some major translation errors, I learned more about the rise of the current Chinese government than I ever wanted to know. As we were leaving on of the schools we happened to stop at the tourist information desk and read that we were viewing some of china's "Red Tourism" and decided it is a pretty fitting name for all the tourist sites dealing with the rise of communism. I don't much care for learning about communism and reading (and then laughing at) some of this country's crazy propaganda, but it was nice to get out of the house for a day.
Here are some pictures from the trip:
The Villa was pretty cool. Mao used in back in the 1920's so it was neat to see how a fancy home would have been built at that time. The outside walls of the villa were extremely tall gray brick walls, and the inside walls were lacquered wood panels. We were only able to see the bedrooms and the office type area of the home because the back section and the upper loft of the villa were locked up. One thing that we have found very interesting about old buildings of interest here in china is that they always use a portion (sometimes a large portion) of the historical building for living quarters. It is quite frustrating to go to an amazing old chinese building and want to see more, but then see the bed and the chairs and the boiling water and the laundry strung across a number of the rooms. For some reason it really bothers me that they have the workers staying in and trashing these amazing old places. It seems like such a waste to me. Oh well, I don't have any say in the matter.
After going through the portion of the villa that wasn't being lived in, we visited 2 old schools, one of which was across the street from the villa and the other which was just down the street. The old school at the end of the street was used to give peasants military training right before the peasants revolt in China back in the 1920's. My knowledge of Chinese history is not very broad so that wasn't as interesting to me as the architecture and seeing the living and teaching conditions. The building used for a barracks at that military school was a beautiful European looking brick building. I found out that the England used to have quite the colony here in Wuhan, and part of the revolt at the time was kicking the British out! So once they got rid of the British they had some really pretty buildings to take over and turned them into military bases, which is what they did with the second school that we visited.The whole upper floor of the barracks building had been turned into the hall of Mao. The entire top floor was row after row after row of pictures of Mao. There was no English anywhere so I had no idea what was going on in the pictures, but some of them were interesting to see anyway.
The second school that we visited was taken over by the communist government and turned into a military headquarters. They don't use it much anymore, but they built a pretty cool museum in one of the buildings all about the rise and current reign of the communist government. They actually had some English translations in that museum, so even though there were some major translation errors, I learned more about the rise of the current Chinese government than I ever wanted to know. As we were leaving on of the schools we happened to stop at the tourist information desk and read that we were viewing some of china's "Red Tourism" and decided it is a pretty fitting name for all the tourist sites dealing with the rise of communism. I don't much care for learning about communism and reading (and then laughing at) some of this country's crazy propaganda, but it was nice to get out of the house for a day.
Here are some pictures from the trip:
Outside Mao's Villa
Inside Mao's Villa
At the school used for military training
The students barracks
McKay with the 5 founders of the Chinese Communist party
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Missing Students
The semester here at Wuhan University of Science and Engineering ends on January 29th, but we have been done teaching classes since the beginning of January. It has been about 3 weeks without teaching now and I am finding that I miss some of my students. The students who tried hard in class and who really wanted to improve their English are what made our move to China worth it. There were a few students who went the extra mile and tried desperately to be our friends outside of class. I am finding, and I am sure McKay is too, that I miss some of their happy faces and their broken English. Hopefully we can stay in touch with some of them over time through email. So this post is a shout out to Day, Alice, Yolanda, Stefanie, Candy, Miracle, Sharen, Amy, Carina, Molly, Rocey, Disrose, Roman, Moor and Jack Yang. You guys are the coolest and made my experience in china totally worth it.
Do you know how to use a toilet? Because Chinese people don't.
One thing that I have found very interesting and very frustrating here in China is the inability to use a western style toilet properly. When I am lucky enough to find a western style toilet when I am out and about, chances are pretty good that a Chinese person used it before me, and chances are also pretty high that the person who used it was unfamiliar with how to use it correctly. It is not surprising to see an absolutely filthy public toilet here in China, or anywhere for that matter. What is surprising is seeing foot prints on the toilet seat! The Chinese people try to stand on and the rim of the toilet seat so that they can squat over it like they do their little squatty potties. Not only does it gross me out to find footprints, it amazes me. You would have to have pretty good balance to stand on the rim of a western style toilet like a chinese person. I think I would fall off. Anyway. I got a good laugh in the other day when we went to Wuhan's fancy concert hall. I had to go to the bathroom and when I went into the stall with the western style toilet I saw this lovely sign.
I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I absolutely love that (a) they had this sign and (b) they needed this sign. There were not any foot prints on my toilet seat that night so I guess the diagram was good enough to get the point across to the chinese folk using the restroom.
I cant wait to get back to a place where images like these are a thing of the past...
I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I absolutely love that (a) they had this sign and (b) they needed this sign. There were not any foot prints on my toilet seat that night so I guess the diagram was good enough to get the point across to the chinese folk using the restroom.
I cant wait to get back to a place where images like these are a thing of the past...
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