The Sisters!!! And Mitch.... :)

Samantha Marie Crane

This girl never ceases to amaze me. Sam is most definitely the obnoxious, perfect older sister who her younger sister can never measure up to. Fortunately, more than resent her for it, I love her for it. I am so grateful that I have always had someone to set the bar so high for me. I really don't actually compare myself to Sam all the time, but I am thankful that I have her good example to motivate me to do the best that I can. I have always been grateful to have such a wonderful older sister to pave the way for me on all of the major things in life. Being first at everything would be a stressful job and I'm so glad that I have her to relieve me of that responsibility.

Besides being good at everything and setting a great example for me, my older sister is one of my very best friends. We have soooo many great memories and we can always count on having a great time when we're together. Sam totally gets me and we can talk and laugh for hours. Our phone conversations usually end up lasting way longer than either of us had planned on  because we just want to tell each other everything. We have so much fun and I live for those times when we are together and start laughing hysterically and literally don't stop for hours. We crack ourselves up. Sam was my very first best friend, and it was a good thing that we formed that friendship early so we could help each other cope when the other siblings showed up ;) I am so lucky to have someone as amazing as my older sister who I know will always be there for me. When I go home in just over a week, it will have been almost a year since I saw her last. And it really has been a little miserable to be so far away for so long. I am so grateful for the wonderful example and friend that Sam has been and always will be in my life. Love you Sambo! See you soon.

Alexis Ann Crane

My favorite baby sister. I absolutely love this little girl. Well, okay, to be fair she's not really a baby or little anymore....she's getting old. Lexi has always been the comic relief for our family. When she was younger, she was just a  weird little girl who never stopped talking, but she totally cracked us up. And she still does. She was my perfect playmate while we were growing up and now I love any chance that I get to hang out with her. I look up to Lexi more than she will ever know. That girl has so much going for her and I just want to take a class of "Life Lessons by Lexi" from her. She's so free and fun-loving and just seems to have the world at her disposal.

This may sounds redundant, but Lexi is also my best friend. I am so grateful for the wonderful relationship that I have with my sisters. We really have the best time together. Lexi always knows how to make me laugh. She is also insanely talented. I am jealous of her for soooo many reasons but so proud of the beautiful young woman that she has become. It has been hard on me to be so far away from this little girl, especially during these big times in her life. She probably thinks I'm crazy, but I hang on her every word and want to hear every detail of life at Burley High School. Lexi is an amazing girl and such a great example to me. I am so grateful for the close friendship that we share even when we are thousands of miles away. My sisters and I have become quite the little team and there is no end to what we can accomplish or the fun that we can have. I feel so blessed to have the sisters that I do. I have had countless moments of being so proud to be related to these great girls, and wanting to point them out to the world and say, "That's my sister!". Lexi is such a beautiful, smart, talented girl and I can't wait to see the things that she will accomplish in her life. Thanks for always being there for me Lex. Love you!

Mitchell Keith Crane

Where do I start with this kid? I liked him from the start and that definitely hasn't changed. I can always count on Mitch to do stuff with me. He will never hesitate to watch a movie, play a board game, kayak, hot tub, play video games, go for a bike ride, or go out for frozen yogurt with me. He even agrees to play tennis with me (which often involves him picking up balls for me). Almost anything I can think of that I want to do, he will be more than happy to do with me. He's going to make a great boyfriend/husband one day.

 I have so much fun with this kid (though I will admit I haven't always loved when he tries to have fun with me while my friends are over....). Once again, I am sad that I have been missing out on his growing up. Every time I go home he is taller and his voice is deeper. He is getting so old and cool. I am grateful for the good relationship I have always had with him (I am the favorite sister) and for the way that it has grown as we have gotten older. I was talking to him this summer when I realized that I was starting to see him more as a friend rather than just my annoying little brother. He is turning into a real person that I can have real conversations with. That totally freaks me out but I love it at the same time. I like to think that I have taught Mitch a lot in his little life, but I also know that he has taught me a lot too. I am so grateful for the relationship that I have with my little brother and that I know it will only continue to get better. I can't wait to get home and see how much taller he is than me this time. Thanks for being the coolest little brother ever Mitch! I love you.

Gilbert Keith Crane

I really love this man. I have such an amazing dad and I am thankful every day for everything that he does for me and the wonderful influence that he is on my life.

As with my mom, I am so grateful for the way that my dad parented us. It has always been done with nothing but love. I love that I have never seen my dad as the scary discipline enforcer (The, "wait until your father gets home...." kind). I can only vividly remember one time when my dad got really mad at me...and it was completely justified (though, let's be honest, the Nutcracker is a long play for a toddler to control her bladder through!). Part of the reason that I don't remember my dad getting mad at me very often is because I have always respected him too much to do anything that would upset him. I like to think of myself as having been a pretty good kid and I think a lot of that had to do with me simply not wanting to disappoint my parents. Because of this, I have been able to develop a much more friendship-like relationship with my dad. I love that.

I love that my dad instilled in me a lot of the same love that he has for having fun. While there are some things that my dad loves that I will never be interested in - like deer hunting or playing with people's bones and ligaments - we share a lot of the same interests. We love watching movies, playing board games, sitting in the hot tub, snow skiing, camping, hiking, four-wheeling, and eating spinach artichoke dip. I also don't think that you could find two people who love boating on the beautiful Snake River more than we do....except for maybe my siblings. I have so many great memories of me doing these things with my dad, and I love every opportunity that I get to spend a little time with him doing something that we love.

I have a lot of respect for my dad. Professionally, he is extremely accomplished and I never pass up an opportunity to brag about him a little bit. While a lot of people think that the salary that comes with being an orthopedic surgeon is the thing to brag about, that's never the first thing that comes to my mind.  There is definitely something to be said for the dedication and time that it takes to get to where my dad is today. I'm grateful for that example that he set for me. If he can get a 4.0 in his undergrad and then go on to be successful in I don't even know how many more years of schooling and training, I can certainly get through 3 years at SVU majoring in Family and Child Development. I also like to brag a little bit about what a cool job (I think) he has and how wonderful he is at it. I love when I hear people praising my dad for the good work that he did on their sister's husband's cousin's knee. He's kind of the best there is.

I am so grateful for the way my dad is able to balance his professional and home life. I can't really remember how it was when I was younger, but I know that at least in recent years he always makes time for his kids. During the summer, I can always count on him calling to see if I want to go boating the second he is done working....even if he would probably rather take a nice long nap. Even during an extremely busy day (which is mostly every day) he will find time to talk to me on the phone if I call, or go to lunch with me when I'm home, or make a patient wait for him at the hospital while we finish our board game. I never ever feel like a burden to my dad. Despite his exhausting work schedule, he always makes me feel like the most important person in his life. Not enough children can say that about their fathers and I am so grateful that I can.

I am so thankful that I can always count on my dad to be there for me in any way that I need him. I love the time that I get to spend with him and am so grateful for the friendship that we share. He is amazing.

Thanks for everything Dad. I love you. 

Lucy Ann Smith Crane

AKA: The greatest mom in the world. This is kind of a huge undertaking to start with this great lady because they really don't come much better than her. I look up to my mom in more ways than I can count. Every time someone asks, "who do you know that is a good example of (insert good quality here)?" Without fail, the first person that comes to my mind is my mom. She exemplifies absolutely everything that I want to be.

I am so grateful for the way that my mom raised me. I have such a hard time in my FCD classes when we are talking about things that our parents did that weren't so great, or things that we saw in their parenting styles that we have vowed to never use on our own children. I can never contribute to these conversations. In my eyes, my mom was and is the perfect parent and I wouldn't change a thing. I have learned a lot about parenting in the last few years and a lot of times it makes me think that my mom must have a secret PhD in parenting. She does it perfectly.

I am, of course, grateful to my mom for everything she did and taught me while I was growing up. Some of  my favorite memories of her are of when she was taking care of me when I was sick. There is no better nurse. She is the perfect paper editor, the most selfless server, and her ability to remember things and always be on the ball amazes me. Simple as it may be, I always loved those times when I would briefly mention to her that I needed something like more hairspray on my way out the door, and when I got home from school there was a new bottle in my bathroom for me. I was always grateful that I never had to be one of those kids left sitting on the grass outside the elementary school because my mom got too busy and forgot to come pick me up. In both big ways and small, she has never let me down.

More than all of the countless things that she has done and still does for me, I am grateful for the relationship that I have with my mom. I have always been close to my mom but the older I get, the better friends we become. I still need her in her mom role, but she is incredible at the best friend role as well. I can't think of a single thing about me (or my friends) that my mom doesn't know. I tell her everything and there isn't an easier person for me to talk to. I know I can go to her with anything and she will always know exactly what to do or say. We never went through a typical teenage phase where we didn't see eye-to-eye or I felt like she didn't understand me. I have always valued my mom's opinions over anyone else's and trusted her to do what was best for me; and I have never been wrong in that.

My mom has been through a lot and she is hands-down one of the strongest women I know. I am so grateful for her spiritual strength as well and its influence on my life. I am so glad that she had the faith to be baptized into the LDS church when she was 16 so that I could be raised in a family that embraces those values and will be together for all eternity.

I am so grateful for the endless support that my mom gives to me and my siblings. She never misses a game, a match, a concert, a play, a recital, a clogging competition, or anything else that comes up. No matter what we are doing she is watching and cheering us on (and, of course, thinking we are the best ones there). I don't think I would be able to go to school so far away if I didn't know that, despite how hard it can be sometimes, I have the full support of my mom. I know that no matter what I do, she will always be proud of me and want the best for me.

I could go on for hours about the endless reasons why my mom is my biggest hero. In my eyes she is absolutely perfect and I love every second that I get to spend with her. She is beautiful and loving and funny and helpful and supportive and my very best friend. She will be lucky if she finds a guy who I think comes even close to being good enough for her. She's the best and deserves the best.

Thanks for everything Mom. I love you. 

Happy Thankful Month!

On Thursday I realized it was the first day of November which is a month full of gratitude. I decided I would be really clever and write one thing that I was thankful for on my Facebook status every day for the entire month. I thought that this would be a good way to recognize and express how thankful I am for all of the blessings in my life and it would be fun to share with all of my family and friends. I soon realized that I was not nearly as clever as I thought I was. Apparently this is not a new idea. Mostly all of my Facebook friends had this same idea and my news feed is now full of people being thankful. So, rather than follow the crowd, (which I really hate doing) I thought I would be thankful on my blog instead. Okay, that's probably not actually a super original idea either, but I liked it better.

I have had a huge realization recently of how blessed I am with the people in my life. I have obviously always been thankful for my friends and family, but sometimes it hits you harder than others. The last few months has been one of those times. So, instead of making blog posts of everything that I am thankful for (which really is waaaaaay too much to condense into 30 days of blogging) I have decided that I am just going to talk about who I'm thankful for. That sounds fun yeah?

Disclaimers:
-These people will be thanked in no particular order. I can't prioritize the people that I love.
-These people will not be thanked to the fullest extent that they deserve. Once again, there is way too much to be said than what I can (or want to) write on a simple blog post.
-This will not be an exhaustive list. There really is no way for me to thank every person that I love or who has impacted me in some way. So I will do my best, but just know that this isn't everyone.

Here we go.....

Sandy

The first part of this week was pretty exciting. As you probably know, on Sunday/Monday a massive storm was headed for the east coast. Hurricane Sandy. She was predicted to be the storm of the century. She was huge, strong, slow and, with the cold front and snow expected with her, she was not your typical hurricane. So, understandably, people were nervous. Many schools had prematurely closed and government officials had declared states of emergency up and down the coast. As for us in the western Virginia town of Buena Vista, there were varying degrees of concern. For those who had been here for the major storm this summer than downed trees and killed power for weeks; there was a lot of stress. For those of us who have been conditioned to not be bothered by a little wind and have seen the minimal effects of hurricanes on BV before;  we weren't too ruffled. I was a good kid and prepared like I was supposed to anyway though. I bought some water, charged my phone,pulled out my flashlight, and got my homework done that required my computer. Monday was a really weird/eerie day. It was dark and cold and quiet. Everyone was a little nervous, not knowing what to expect. We were all bracing ourselves for whatever might come (and secretly hoping it would be good enough to cancel school). By late Monday night, it was raining a little and there was a breeze, but nothing major. I woke up on Tuesday morning to near-freezing temperatures, snow, rain, and a slight breeze. But I also woke up to every tree being perfectly in-tact, light and heat in my house, no flooding, and a hot shower. While all of SVU was grumbling about the disappointment of the century and having to go to class bright and early, I was watching and reading news reports in horror at the damage that had been done so close to me (but let's be honest, I still wished school would have been cancelled too). It's weird to be so close (literally 2 or 3 hours away) to so much destruction and yet be perfectly fine. Really nothing happened here, and yet:

I have to throw this in here too. I have indescribable amounts of respect for these men. They never left. 

All in all, we got extremely lucky here and I know that there are huge numbers of people that were not near as lucky as we were. I also feel extremely lucky because of the huge amount of love that I felt during all of this. I have the most incredible friends and family who keep an eye on me from a distance. They never miss a beat and usually know what's going on here even before I do. I didn't even know we were expecting a hurricane until my sweet Aunt Vicki text me on Saturday to see how the weather was looking for us. Even though we ended up being completely fine here, it was so nice to get those texts and calls making sure everything was okay. I have absolutely the best people in my life. So blessed. I can't wait to see them all in just two weeks!!

Happy Free Confused and Lonely

Okay, this blog has been very badly neglected. I don't have a great excuse either. Fortunately I have some great (naggy) friends to keep me in line. So I will try to do better.

I feel like I probably have a lot that I should write on this since it's been so long, but I don't really know what to say. So this might be a little scattered.

I was going to write a semi-depressing post about how stressed I am with school and life in general, or about how I have been more homesick the last 3-4 weeks than I think I ever have been while going to school out here. But then, I listened to Red (Taylor Swift's new album), and she came through for me like she always does. Her song "22" is nothing deeply moving or thought provoking, but it's perfect. And it was perfect for changing the way this post is going to go and they way I feel about life right now. If you haven't listened to it, here is a little taste for you (also go listen to it!). 

"It feels like a perfect night to dress up like hipsters
And make fun of our exes
It feels like a perfect night for breakfast at midnight
To fall in love with strangers
We're happy free confused and lonely at the same time
It's miserable and magical Tonight's the night when we forget about the deadlines, it's time 
I don't know about you but I'm feeling 22
Everything will be alright if you keep me next to you
You don't know about me but I bet you want to
Everything will be alright if we just keep dancing like we're 22
It seems like one of those nightsThis place is too crowded too many cool kids
It seems like one of those nights
We ditch the whole scene and end up dreaming instead of sleeping
We're happy free confused and lonely in the best way
It's miserable and magical 
Tonight's the night when we forget about the heartbreaks, it's time 
It feels like one of those nights
We ditch the whole scene
It feels like one of those nights
We won't be sleeping"

Obviously, I'm not quite 22, but that's beside the point. It's mostly just a fun party song and it reminds me of my life right now. Sometimes I am a serious student and want to cry about everything that's expected of me, and sometimes we ditch the whole scene, make breakfast (or have pizza) at midnight, forget about the deadlines, and dance like we're 22. Despite the studying and the homework and the homesickness and the non-stop schedule and the fears about my future, I just absolutely love my life right now. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in being a responsible adult that I forget that I'm 20 years old and allowed (and expected) to have a good time. And when I do remember that, then we have some pretty good times. I have realized that I have to enjoy every moment right now, because this part of my life is almost over. In 6 short months I will be graduating from SVU and leaving this town and most of these great people, so why wouldn't I enjoy it while I'm here? I think I had this same realization my senior year of high school. As much as I was more than ready to graduate, I decided that it was silly to wish that time away, and instead I partied it up with my friends and made the most of that last year. Do I wish I was back in high school? No. But I am so glad that I made the most of that last year and made some great memories so that I can look back on it and smile rather than regret just waiting for it to be over. Which is what I am trying to do now. I have to fill my tank with great college experiences before it's over and all I have left are the memories. So far I think I am doing a pretty good job of that. Granted, we don't do lots of crazy fun stuff, but watching a movie, or baking, or taking a little road trip to get Taylor's new CD, or running around campus trying to pull together a fun Homecoming are the kinds of simple things that might not sound like anything special, but for me, with the right people, they really are. 

I'm doing pretty well in my classes right now. I'm super busy with senate and committee meetings; which I secretly love. I just finished my fall season of tennis, loved every second of it, and can't wait for spring. I have made some great new friends. I can't step outside right now without being blown away for the millioneth time with how beautiful this place is. I get to see my family in 23 days. I'm  teaching my second Sunday school lesson on Sunday. And it's pumpkin pie blizzard season at Dairy Queen. 

Mostly life is just wonderful and I am trying to savor every moment. I have a lot on my plate and things get a little hectic sometimes, but I am just going to keep dancing like I'm 22 (or 20). 

Crazy....

Hey I just got here

And life is CRAZY

But here's a blog post

So love it maybe?

Ha okay I can't believe how busy I got in such a short amount of time! That's a senior year of college for you I guess. Weirdly enough, despite having no free time and stressing about a hundred things at once, I am just a happy kid. You know when you just feel good? Life is hectic but at the same time it is just so good and I just have this happy feeling all the time. I just feel like this is going to be a great year and I just have that feeling that there are some really good things to come. It's kind of a fun feeling to have.

Classes are classes. It's still a little soon to tell how they are all going to be, but for the most part I think I will be okay. Minus my FCD capstone class. Family Life Education (FLE). It's going to kill me. At SVU the Family and Child Development major doesn't require a senior paper like most of the other majors do, but it does require a "senior capstone experience" aka, a class from....you know where.... Okay, so the class itself doesn't seem like it will be too bad, but it's all that's required with the class that is freaking me out. We don't have to write a senior paper but we do have to write a bunch of little papers and a research paper. The biggest part of the class is a presentation that we have to give toward the end. I hate presentations as much as the next person, but this isn't your typical 15-minute presentation that you make a powerpoint for and present to the class. We are required to give an hour long presentation/workshop/class to a group of people in the community. Terrifying. It's an FLE presentation so it is ideally supposed to be given to some kind of group of parents or people with family life needs. I haven't done much with it yet, but I am planning on contacting the local Head Start program and setting up a presentation for the parents of the kids at the Head Start. Now besides the obvious stresses of giving a super long presentation in which your professor is critiquing your every word and movement and determining whether or not you graduate, I am even more terrified for this whole thing because of my audience. This isn't like a presentation to my classmates in which half of them are asleep and the other half are too focused on what they will say in their presentation to listen to mine. I am going to be asking real parents with real questions and concerns and problems to give up an hour of their day to come listen to what I have to say. If people show up it's because they are legitimately interested in what I will be talking about and are hoping to gain something from it. That's some pressure. They are going to be looking to me, some 20-year-old college kid who has next to nothing when it comes to interaction with young kids, to give them valuable advice and principles to apply to their parenting. What do I know? The even scarier thing is exactly what I will be presenting about. What bigger job do people have than properly parenting their own children? None really. And I'm supposed to tell them how to do it? Ummmm......yeah you could say I'm freaking out a little bit. But I know it will be good for me. Let's try and think positively.

In other (much more exciting) news, I am now a member of the SVU tennis team!!! I could not be more excited. I have missed playing tennis sooo much. I thought about trying out my freshman year, but then I pansied out and never did. This summer I decided that I might as well give it a shot so I called the coach (Deidra Dryden) and talked to her about it. We talked a couple of times but I ultimately just ended up walking on the team. We started practice on Monday and I am loving it. I'm really terrible and I don't know the other girls very well yet, but I am still having fun and can see that it is headed in a good direction. We have our first match on Wednesday, but I don't think I will be playing in it. From what I understand, our matches consist of two doubles teams and two singles teams. So only 6 girls actually get to play in the match. We have 10 girls. So I'm not 100% sure what that means for me other than that I can be pretty sure that I won't be playing in every one. But hopefully (probably) some. I absolutely love Coach Dryden. I don't know her that well yet but I can tell that she is just an incredible coach. She kicks our butts but I feel like I have gotten better in the last 3 days than I did throughout my 3 years of tennis in high school. I really wish that I would have started my freshman year because I think I could be sooo much better by now, but I also know that I probably couldn't have handled it when I got here two years ago. I'm better at managing my time now than I was as a freshman and I'm just more comfortable in everything now than I was. Even bigger than that is the fact that I physically couldn't have handled it my freshman year. I am in ten times better shape now than I was two years ago and I can guarantee you that if I was in the same shape now as I was then, I probably would have  ran walked away crying yesterday when Coach Dryden told us that we would be ending practice with a "puke drill." Instead, I saw it as a challenge and while I was absolutely exhausted by the time we were done, I felt sooo good. It's definitely a nice change. 

One last piece of news. On Sunday, Imari and I were called to be the Gospel Principles instructors. Ahhhh!!! When our first counselor text me Saturday night and asked if he could meet with me before church, I immediately knew I was getting a calling. I also knew it would be a semi-big one since it's the beginning of the semester so everything has to be redone. I thought to myself "Anything but teaching. I can handle just about any calling, but pleeeaaase don't let it be teaching." Of course that's what I got. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? I'm trying to laugh along with him, but I am freaking out. I've never taught before and Gospel Principles is generally the class for the less actives/investigators/non members. Which means I really don't want to screw it up. So yeah, I'm terrified, but it will probably end up being good for me too. 

Okay, that ended up being way longer than I planned but there it is for you. Those are the highlights of my life right now. I'll keep you updated.

Oh Shenandoah...

Oh hey there. Remember me? I kind of forgot I had this little guy honestly. But I decided I should probably get back on top of this since I have such an exciting life! Okay, that's not entirely true, but it is kind of a major time in my life, so it should probably be documented. I feel like there's probably a lot that I could write right now, but let's start with a quick rundown of what has happened since we talked last.

I finished up my summer classes at BYU. And....I passed them all!! I even got A's (well, A-'s). I was super impressed with myself considering what a slacker I was this summer. It's super hard to focus during the time of year that you have been programmed to spend playing all your life. Somehow I got through it (with a lot less boating than I would have liked).

After my summer semester was over, I had about a week before I had to leave for Virginia. I spent most of that time just catching my breath and having a ridiculously short summer vacation. It was nice to just stay at home with my family without any worries for a minute. I just love that place and those people.

On August 21st, Kenzy and I hopped in her big, white truck to begin our long trek across the country. Somehow I got roped into driving all the way across the country to get back to school, rather than taking a quick plane ride. I'm still not sure how that happened.  I wasn't thrilled about doing a 30+ hour car drive instead of a 5 hour plane ride, but I was doing it with one of my best friends which makes just about any situation soooo much better. And we did have a good time. It was a long drive and I got restless, but it was fun at the same time. It's crazy that I'm old and responsible enough (in theory) to take a road trip across the country with my best friend and no adults. We are the adults. Except I'm really not at all. We made it in one piece though and made really good time. And let me tell you, I have never been so happy to see this cute little town.

Getting back to Buena Vista, Virginia honestly felt like coming home. It's confusing to have two homes, but so nice at the same time. I leave one and go to the other, and am so happy either direction I'm headed. The first two years I was a little apprehensive and less than excited to get here, but I was so ready this year. By the time we got to West Virginia, the landscape was starting to look like my beautiful state of Virginia, and I honestly almost cried a little. It's weird how a place can grab your heart so quickly. It didn't take Virginia very long to grab me and for me to lay claim on it as a place I will call home for the rest of my life (even if I only spend 3 years here total). Sorry if that was cheesy, but I really just love this place so much!

Once we got back here, we started training to be orientation leaders for the new students coming in this fall.  This week has been crazy and exhausting with training and check-in and orientation, but it has been sooo good. I love when I get the opportunity to share my love for this university with other people. I have met some wonderful new people and have gotten to know some of my fellow classmates a lot better. I don't want to go into all the details of this week (they would probably be boring to you), but it has been a great one! I'm so happy to be back here.

Sidenotes:

The heat and humidity here are absolutely ridiculous here right now! I cannot even describe it to you. It's bad. We are supposed to get some of hurricane in the next 24-48 hours and then hopefully the humidity will die down a little bit.

The fireflies are out in full force. The early evenings are magical! I love them sooo much!

Imari and I each bought a $3 cactus at walmart the other day. Mine's name is Carlos.

When my bishop and his wife found out I was still in their ward, they were both so genuinely excited that it made me want to cry. They are the sweetest people and I know they are sincere when they tell the members of the ward that they love them. They really do. And we love them back.

Elder and Sister Crowther not being here is mostly the worst thing ever. Getting done with sacrament meeting today and not getting to walk to the back of the chapel and talk to them for a while almost made me cry (man I'm an emotional kid these days!). It's going to be hard not having my best friends here. We did get to go have one last game night with them at their house in Logan before we left. That was sooo much fun! And I won every game of Scum that we played! Whooo!

For anyone who is wondering, Willard is still alive. Love that little guy.

Okay, that's enough useless information for now. I will try to keep up with this better than I have been from now on. Have a nice day. 

Home Sweet Home!

High on Summertime

Do you know what I love? Driving home for the weekend. Okay, I don't actually love the 3 hours in the car by myself part. What I do love is that I can decide last minute that I would rather spend my 3 day weekend with my family in Burley, than alone in my apartment in Provo. And then just hop in my car and make that happen in a matter of hours (or longer if I decide to stop and spend the night in Kaysville with some girls that I kind of like). I feel like I am reverting a little bit because, with the way it's looking, I will probably see some part of my family every weekend (or week) of the summer. That's the kind of thing that a new freshman in college does right after they move out and are going through their first semester of college away from home. However, I never really gave myself that option. I went home for Thanksgiving my first semester of college. Now that going home a lot is an option, I am definitely taking advantage of it. Really though that was kind of the point of me taking classes at BYU this summer. I was going to take classes either way, but I decided that I would rather do it at BYU than SVU so that I could be closer to my family and go home every weekend. I realized that this is my first real summer away from home, and it drives me crazy to think that I am missing out on what constitutes a traditional Crane family summer. So, I am going to do a lot of driving so that I don't have to miss out on too much.

It was kind of silly for me to go home this weekend, because I am going back up there after class on Tuesday for the 4th of July and then to head to Spokane for Mikey and Corrina's wedding. That is already going to be a TON of driving, but I wanted nothing less than to sit in Provo for three days doing nothing while my favorite people were just 3 hours away. And it may not have made the most sense, but I had a wonderful weekend. I played with my puppies, baked chocolate cookies with Mom, played Life with Mom and Mitch, watched Clash of the Titans with Dad, wrote a paragraph of my paper that's due on Tuesday, went to People Like Us with Mom, went boating with Dad, Mitch, and Cheri, watched (slept through) Captain America, laid in the hot sun, and went to church with my family.

Sam and Lexi are both out of the country right now, which I'm not a huge fan of. It was weird for me to be the one at home with neither of them there. Lex has only been gone for 4 days and I am already so sick of her being gone. It will be a long 3 weeks. Sam has been gone forever and will continue to be gone forever. I hate that. I'm excited for when (if) we all get to be together for a second.

Well, that's about all I have for you. I'm enjoying trying out this school close to home thing. I may be slowly losing the independence that I have gained the last two years, but I'm not too concerned about that. I just like my family.

Getting There

Today was better. And so, due to yesterday's post being such a downer, we are going to focus on the positives of today.

-I discovered that during the summer, students with "Y" parking passes can also park in "G" lots. That was super exciting for me.
- I didn't fall asleep in Biology and I did pretty well on the iClicker questions that we had today.
- I e-mailed and got an e-mail back from my sister. I really like and miss that girl.
- I finally went grocery shopping. I definitely spent too much money, but at least I should be good on food for a while now
- I bought some M&Ms
- I talked to a cute black kid (not a BYU student) in the parking lot today who, after accepting the fact that I wasn't going to buy a magazine subscription from him, settled for my phone number and the possibility of a date in the near future. Who knows what will happen there?
- I watched last night's Bachelorette (my guilty pleasure)
- I read my chapter for Abnormal Psych tomorrow and found it to be not too long, not too boring, not too hard to understand, and a lot of stuff that I already know
- I went to tennis class. I have decided that that class is going to be my silver lining of this summer semester. How much better does it get than getting to play tennis for two hours every Monday and Wednesday and getting credit for it? Plus I'm going to learn how to get better! I decided  it's probably a good thing that I am taking beginner because Coach Whipple never really helped me too much. I pretty much taught myself how to play so my technique isn't awesome. It will be good for me to start from scratch and make sure I have the basics down. Also, the people in my class are super nice and I had a good time with them today (plus one of those nice kids also happens to be super attractive!).
- I had a picnic of a Zupa's Ultimate Grilled Cheese sandwich, a Diet Coke, and a chocolate covered strawberry under a tree on the grassy park area right in front of the temple for dinner. I have decided that I am definitely okay with having a temple in the same city as me. I should probably actually go inside it sometime, but for now I go out of my way to drive by it as often as possible (or picnic in front of it).
- The Sox won tonight

Okay, that's it for tonight. Now I am going to go watch some Modern Family and go to bed. Hopefully today was the turn-around and things keep getting better from here. I'll keep you posted.

(P.S. One negative of today: my room is a sauna and my M&Ms are melting!!)

We Are....BYU??

Well, after a two week long break, I have now started my next adventure.  BYU.  I got here on Sunday night and went to my first two classes yesterday: Microbiology and Tennis.  Then today I had my first Abnormal Psychology class.  They weren't too terrible.

Microbiology is Monday through Friday from 9:00-10:30 am.  That kind of feels like a lot of Biology for me, but it means by Biology requirement for SVU will be filled in 6 weeks so I can't complain.  My teacher is a PhD student so he's super young and super chill.  That's kind of nice.  I was worried he would be old and intense and scary.  So far I haven't understood hardly anything that we have read or learned about, (I'm an FCD major not a Science major) but the way the class is set up I don't think it will be too hard to do well in. Plus, as much as I like to get A's, it's not super important for me this summer because when I transfer my credits back to SVU they won't affect my GPA at all; I will just get the credit for taking them.  So that's fun to just need to pass and not necessarily get the best grade possible (thought I promise I will still do my best, Mom...don't stress).

I have my Beginning Tennis class on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:00-6:50 pm.  Two hours is a long time for a class, but because it's a tennis class I don't think that will be bad at all.  It will just feel like tennis practice in high school.  Anything less than that would probably feel really short.  My tennis class is taught by a girl who is working on her Masters I believe.  So she is also really young and chill.  The majority of the class has played tennis once or twice, so it's going to be very beginning.  When she was telling us how the class would go, I was tempted to switch to Intermediate Tennis instead because I really am looking to get better and not just get an easy PE credit.  However, Beginning is a pass/fail class and Intermediate is graded.  I really don't want to be graded on how well I play tennis. So I will just stay in Beginning and hope that it is still beneficial to me (I kind of decided that I want to play for SVU next year depending on how this class goes....I have a lot of work to do before then).

Abnormal Psychology is Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00-6:30 pm.  Yes, you read that right.  Two and a half hours of psychology folks!  I have a thirty minute attention span.  This one is going to be a struggle for sure.  My teacher is, once again, a PhD student (Is that a common thing? It seems weird to me.) So, young and chill. Today we did an introduction activity thing and then talked about the syllabus for an hour and fifteen minutes. Then he said, "Okay, let's take a ten minute break and then we will come back and start class."  Start??? I was done 45 minutes ago! That was super discouraging for me.  We ended up getting out at 6:00 because he forgot what time we were supposed to get done.  Then he sent us all an email telling us his mistake and assuring us it wouldn't happen again. Great.  I think it will be an interesting class, but he is going to have to be suuuuper entertaining if he wants me to listen to him talk about Abnormal Psychology for 2 1/2 hours every other day. Ugh. Also, for this class we are required to do 11 hours of service at the Utah State Hospital (apparently "state hospital" equals "mental hospital" who knew?) When he first sent us the email telling us this, I kind of freaked out a little bit. But now I am thinking that it actually might be pretty cool. I really need some hands-on experience in this stuff, and it will be cool to be volunteering with people who have the mental disorders that we are learning about. We will see how that goes.

In other news, BYU is really big and really different than SVU. It's definitely a new experience, but I think it's a good one.  For some reason I was afraid that I would get into my classes here and be totally freaked out because the professor and everyone in the class would be so intellectually above me.  I kind of thought I was going to have a Legally Blonde experience and that my first class would go a lot like Elle Woods' first class at law school went. I'm not really sure why I thought that. I guess because SVU is so little and different from most other universities, that I assumed our classes were easier or less scary than a place like BYU.  At SVU they are always telling us how rigorous our classes are, and how prepared we will be for grad school by the time we leave, and how much smarter SVU kids are then everyone else.  I may have kind of rolled my eyes at that. I believe it a little more now. Not that any of these things are true about me by any means, but I have realized that I have not been getting a baby education from the baby school that I go to. I feel just as comfortable and competent in my BYU classes as I would in my SVU classes.  It's also nice that it's Summer semester and I'm taking kind of random classes because my class sizes aren't too much bigger than they would be at SVU. And that's my analysis of my universities.

It's only been two days, but I think that being here has already started to help me realize that SVU was probably the right choice for me. Maybe just because that's where I feel comfortable now, but even with all the stores and restaurants and people and equipment and facilities that are a hundred times nicer and more abundant here than at SVU, I still feel like I could never pick this place over my baby SVU.  The other thing is that two years ago when I was finally left alone in my dorm room on the other side of the country for the first time, I was totally fine. I was sad to be away from my family and nervous about classes and making friends and stuff, but I never cried and I just transitioned really smoothly and easily.  I haven't had quite the same experience here the last two days.  It's weird to me that I can feel so much more homesick and alone when I am 3 hours from home than I did when I was 36 hours from home.  I don't know what it is but I feel sooo lonely (probably because I am alone) and it's kind of killing me. I really don't have anyone here.  There's a few people in town that I kind of know from high school or through Sam, but no one that I am really close to. I have one roommate, but I'm pretty sure that relationship isn't ever going to evolve into anything more than being roommates.  She just graduated so she has lots of friends here already, and she has her mom. Living in our apartment.  Which I'm 99% sure the landlord doesn't know about and also 99% sure that it's definitely not allowed. They mostly just stay in her room with the door closed except when they come out to cook. They are Chinese (ironic right?) and her mom doesn't speak any English. The whole thing is pretty awkward. They are both really nice, but it's just a weird situation. Also, I'm not sure what she's doing now that she's graduated, and I don't know what her mom is doing, but they definitely don't have a lot going on because they never leave the apartment. It's weird. I should probably ask the landlord about it, but I don't really want to.

So yes, I am kind of struggling with the loneliness thing. I saw this quote on pinterest today that said, "I think it's very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person." I think this is definitely true. I am a pretty big advocate for alone time. I have always enjoyed having a little time to myself once in a while and I'm not one who needs to be surrounded by a huge group of friends before I can do anything. I'm pretty independent. Everything is more fun with people you love, but I have always thought that I was pretty good at the alone thing too. I may have been wrong.  Maybe I am defined by other people. Or maybe it just depends on the quantity of the time alone. I can do a few hours or even a whole day completely on my own, but to have only opened my mouth a few times in the last 48+ hours because I literally have no one around to talk to; that's tough. And the hard thing is that tomorrow probably won't be much different. I know that's a terrible attitude, but most people aren't going to walk up to a stranger on campus and say, "Hey! I have no friends down here. Do you want to help me out with that?" And I especially am not one to do that. I hate how shy I get when I am around people that I don't know, especially when I don't have anyone that I do know with me. But I just don't really know how I could ever change that. I'm not saying that I am going to spend the entire summer all alone. I will meet some people and hopefully make some new friends. I am just saying that the whole thing is turning out to be harder than I was expecting.

Wow sorry. That was kind of a less-than-uplifting post. That's just where I'm at right now. It feels good to get it out there. Now I am going to go to bed so that I can do a better job of staying awake in Biology than I did today. Hopefully I start getting to know some people down here but, until then, I will just keep holding out for the weekend when I get to see some friends again.

CHINA: Day 1

May 16/17 2012

Good news…..I’m in CHINA!! I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that whole thing. So crazy. It was an intense process getting here yesterday which makes being here even more exciting. All of our travelling went really well and we didn’t run into any problems; it was just a loooong day (or two days).

                At 2:30 in the morning we all squished into the SVU vans and headed up to DC. Then we hung around the DC airport until it was time to get on our 6 hour flight to San Francisco.  6 hours is a long time to sit on a plane friends.  When we got on the plane, I was thrilled to see that while a lot of my group was sitting together, I got a middle seat in between two people that I didn’t know. I don’t love middle seats too much. Especially when I don’t know either of the people I am sitting next to. I was less than excited. Luckily, Casey, a guy in our group, was in the middle seat a couple of rows back in between Kenzy and Melissa.  He was more than willing to switch seats with me. That was suuuper nice. We were super cramped and cozy the whole flight, but it wasn’t too terrible.

                Once we landed in San Fran, we walked straight to our gate and boarded our next plane…..the one taking us to CHINA!!! Once again I was in the middle seat in the middle of people I didn’t know.  And, once again, Casey switched with me so I could be in the middle of my friends rather than random people.  The plane was a pretty big one, but we were still really cramped.  Ever since signing up for this China trip, I had been dreading the plane ride.  I really hate sitting still for long periods of time….especially on planes.  But, between Kenzy letting me have her aisle seat, my iPhone, going to the bathroom a bunch of times (because I needed to stand up more than because I needed to go to the bathroom) and some Benadryl that knocked me out, I survived to hear those words over the intercom, “We are now beginning our initial descent into Beijing…..” 

                If we are being perfectly honest, I had a hard time being super excited and enthusiastic about being in China the moment we stepped off the plane.  Obviously I was soo excited and so happy to be off that plane, but I was a little tired and grumpy. It took us a while, but we finally made it through the airport and got on the little subway thing that took us from the airport to the real subway system.  The subway thing was pretty stressful for me.  I had two suitcases, a giant backpack, and my purse that I had to carry.  I was in flip flops and sweats and it was 90 degrees outside.  There were tons of people and to get up and down from the street to the subways you had to go up and down stairs (not escalators….don’t forget the luggage part).  Once we finally got to our subway stop, and dragged our suitcases up the stairs, we had a pretty good walk along the crowded, narrow sidewalk before we made it to our hostel.  Joe (the guy in charge) was walking super fast and I definitely struggled keeping up while my suitcases kept getting stuck and tipping over.  Let’s just say, by the time we made it to our hostel, it was probably best for no one to talk to me.  I was grumpy. 

                So that wasn’t the ideal way to start out this little adventure, but it gets better from there I promise.  Once I got a cold bottle of water, a shower, and some clean clothes, I felt much better.  Then I started being able to enjoy China.  Our hostel is in the middle of this long, super narrow street….kind of more like an alley if we are being honest.  The street is lined with little shops and restaurants, people’s houses, cars, bikes, fruit stands, and lots and lots of people.  It’s hard to describe and my pictures will do a better job, but at first glance this street is a really scary place.  Our first encounter with it was last night on our way to dinner.  It was dark and super dirty with all kinds of people sitting around cooking or smoking or just staring you down.  Also, people ride bikes and mopeds and sometimes squeeze their cars down this street and, when they do, it’s a really good idea to stay out of the way.  I hadn’t been outside for 5 minutes when I was almost run over by a moped.  They don’t look and they don’t stop, they just honk and hope you get out of the way.  Our little street really is the epitome of sketchy.  But somehow, it doesn’t scare me or make me nervous.  But we will talk more about that later.

                For our first Chinese meal, Joe took us to a more upscale (it’s all relative) restaurant down the street.  They seated us in a private banquet room around a huge round table with a big lazy susan in the middle.  Since none of us knew what we were doing, Joe mostly ordered for us. Usually Chinese meals are done as a group and you just order a bunch of food that everyone shares.  That was a relief to me last night since I didn’t have a clue what was on that menu (even with lots of pictures).  There was definitely a lot of weird stuff though.  We got tons of food brought out and I took a couple of bites of  everything (minus the raw seafood stuff that the boys ordered).  It wasn’t too bad.  Some was pretty good, some was pretty weird.  Joe tried to go pretty normal for the first night, so it will probably get a lot weirder in the next two weeks.

                After dinner we went back to the hostel and sat in the lobby and used the wifi for a while before heading up to our lovely little rooms.  Our beds are hard as rocks, we can’t even think about drinking the water, and the shower drains right onto the bathroom floor and makes a nice big puddle.  It’s a lovely place, but it definitely could be worse.  Luckily, we were completely exhausted so the hard bed thing didn’t phase us at all. 

CHINA: Day 2

May 18, 2012

Wow. What a crazy, amazing, exhausting, wonderful day! We met in the lobby at 9:30 this morning to head to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  On our way, we stopped at a little street vendor and got some sort of dumplings for breakfast (an interesting thing to have for breakfast, but they were really good).  We also stopped at a cute little fruit stand and the Chinese lady running it made bank off of all the fruit we bought. Then we had a walk and a couple subway rides until we made it to Tiananmen Square.

We LOVED this kid!

Tiananmen Square is literally just a square.  It’s a big open place with a pretty flower garden on one end and then a few monuments on the other side (pictures obviously to come later).  There’s not much to do there, but it’s a major part of Beijing’s history so it was cool to go see.  I can’t tell you all the details about what happened there, but there was some kind of major youth protest that happened there that ended in a brutal massacre.  I need to do more research on it; we just got a quick summary.  Seeing the square and monuments was cool, but the really cool part was the people.  Joe had told us before we got here that we would feel like celebrities in China.  He was right.  When we got to the square we all got together to take a group picture.  As soon as we were all standing there together smiling, there were suddenly cameras taking pictures of us from every direction.  Then there were people asking to get in our picture with us.  We quickly pulled them into our group and put our arms around them, and they were SO excited! The rest of the time we were there, we had people creeping pictures of us or asking to take pictures with us.  It was so funny and so much fun.  The girls decided hanging around Tiananmen Square everyday would be a wonderful way to boost our self esteem.  They just treated us like we were something sooo special. Loved it!

After Tiananmen Square, we walked across the street to the Forbidden City.  The Forbidden City is this HUGE palace that the emperor built in lived in in the 13^th Century BC.  That place is RIDICULOUS!  It’s more of a city than a palace.  It just goes on forever in every direction.  It’s gorgeous too.  Everything is so detailed and…..royal.  It really was incredible and even more so when you think about how long ago it was built.  And it only took them 15 years which seems really short when you look at the size of that thing.  Also, it mostly reminded me of Mulan the whole time we were there.  You know at the end of the movie when the whole country is at the Emperor’s palace celebrating and then Mulan comes in a saves China?  Yeah, the Forbidden City is where that happened.  It looks just like it.  So cool!

After the Forbidden City, we just walked for a really long time.  We kept being promised food right around the corner, but it just didn’t happen for a while.  As we were walking down the sidewalk, we passed lots of people begging.  That was an interesting thing to see.  Lots of them were missing limbs or looked like they had been badly burned or something which was really sad (It also made me think of Slumdog Millionaire when the guy blinds the kids so they will make more money begging. That made me really sad too).  It’s hard walking past people like that, but it just makes me that much more grateful for what a blessed life I have.

We eventually made it to a little restaurant to have some lunch/dinner.  We ordered some kung pao chicken, rice, and salad which ended up being really good.  The best part of that meal was our waitress.  She was this really cute, smiley little girl who spoke no English and was just totally amused by us.  She would just stand off to the side and look at us with this huge grin.  Then she would just crack up when we tried to talk to her with the minimal amounts of Chinese that we know.  She was adorable.

The place that we found dinner was this long street/shopping district.  On one side is a bunch of outlet stores, and on the other are tons of orange tents with people selling all kinds of things….mostly food.  It’s the coolest place.  After dinner we spent a long time wandering around that area.  I am so intrigued by all of the food booths.  I love to walk past them just so I can see what everyone is cooking.  Most of it looks super scary, but it just fascinates me. 

We ended our day with a Chinese acrobat show.  That was so cool! Those people were crazy strong and flexible.  Unfortunately, I realized how ridiculously tired I was when I sat down at that show, and ended up sleeping through most of it.  The parts that I saw were really good though.

When we got back from that, a few of us wandered down our alley a little bit and Kenzy and I found our first Diet Coke.  That was super exciting.  Once again, the alley at night seems like it should be a terrifying place, but I really feel pretty safe.  For the most part, Chinese are just good people plain and simple.

Some sidenotes that I have learned about this culture thus far:

-There are no such things as lines in China: just masses.  People don’t line up to get on the subways or to get into an acrobat show, or anything.  They just push through in a giant mass.

-Because there is no such thing as lines, there is also no rule about people who get there first having priority.  I was waiting for my turn to scan my subway card, and I thought I was next in line to go.  No.  Another guy pushed his way right in front of me without a thought.  It was kind of a weird thing to experience.  The people who are the best at pushing their way through are the ones who get priority, not the ones who got there first.  We experienced that at the acrobat show too.  We were all standing outside a row that we were going to sit in, and waiting our turn to get into the row and sit down.  Then this couple just pushed right past us and sat in the middle of the row we were sitting in.  It’s not really a big deal, but just different than what we are used to in the states.

-Apparently, when the Chinese are getting ready to kill a dog to eat it, the shave the whole thing except the head.  We have a dog that is shaved like that in our alley.  It makes us super sad every time we see him.

-Branden saw a little boy and a little girl just doing their business right in public when we were at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City today.  Apparently that’s acceptable.  We have seen lots of little kids with pants that are open in the back with their little bums hanging out so they can just go whenever and wherever they need to.

It’s a totally different world over here, but I am loving it! 

CHINA: Day 3

May 19, 2012

Well I started off today by blowing the power in our room.  I attempted to straighten my hair and apparently our outlet didn’t love that too much.  Oops.  I was afraid that that was going to be a bad sign of how the rest of the day would be (like breaking a shoelace), but it definitely wasn’t.  Today was incredible.

We met in the lobby of the hostel at 7 am for our trip to the Migrant School.  We first took the subway to the part of the city where the US Embassy is.  That is definitely a different part of town than where we have been.  It felt really Americanized over there (because that’s where all the Americans who work in the embassy hang out).  We stopped at a building there that became our new favorite place.  The bottom floor was a little grocery store/bakery/deli with all kinds of American foods.  That was so exciting! Kenz and I bought a warm ciabatta bread and some juice.  Best breakfast ever!  The rest of the building had lots of other American restaurants like Papa John’s, Fatburger, and Starbucks.  We loved that.  After only a couple of days, some of us we already pretty done with Chinese food.  So that was fun. 

After our little snack we met with a guy who works at the embassy who was going to take us to the school.  He told us that we would be dividing up into pairs and taking over a classroom of 8-16 year-olds and teaching them English.  None of us were prepared for this so he suggested just playing games and singing songs that would help them practice the little English that they already knew.  The school is one of several started by a Chinese man trying to help the kids outside of town who, without schooling, really have no chance to improve their very poor quality of life.  The schools are technically illegal because the government doesn’t love anything that will give the people of China the chance to better themselves and get out of here or put themselves in a better place than they are right now.  Nice huh? But that doesn’t stop people.  Which I love.  The kids that we were teaching were super dedicated too because it’s all volunteer and to go on a Saturday is something that only the kids who really want to learn do.  It’s easy to forget how blessed we are in America with our school systems.  I would so much rather be forced to go to school than have it be illegal.  This trip is so full of eye-opening experiences.

We had about an hour bus ride to the school out in the countryside.  This was the first time that we had actually been on the roads, since we have just been taking the subway.  Holy scary!  Chinese people are TERRIBLE drivers! We were mostly terrified for our lives the whole ride.  Luckily our bus driver was just as crazy as the rest of them so he could handle it. 

When we made it to the school, the kids were all lined up in perfect lines outside.  The school and grounds outside of it were soooo ghetto and sad looking.  We got into our pairs and our kids led us into our classrooms.  Kenz and I had 8 kids in our little class who started off kind of quiet but warmed up to us pretty quickly.  We didn’t really know what we were doing or how much English the kids knew so we decided to start with introductions.  I couldn’t repeat a single one of those kids’ names or hometowns.  Which I felt bad about.  But they just called me teacher so I guess they couldn’t remember/pronounce my name either.  Our kids were all about 16 and absolutely adorable.  Chinese kids look a lot younger than they are.  We decided to start with playing hangman.  They loved that.  We tried to start easy with just doing colors and words that we thought they would know.  Pretty soon they were doing whole sentences and guessing the answer before even a single letter was guessed.  They were super smart, and I felt super dumb.  It was fun though.   At one point, Kenzy left the room for a second and the little boy on the front row looked at me and said, “Dance!”  It took me a couple tries to figure out what he was saying, but when I did I just cracked up.  I tried to get him to come up and dance with me and then he just cracked up and shook his head.  Pretty soon the whole class was stomping their feet and clapping their hands “We Will Rock You” style….and I was dancing.  Too funny.  After we played a zillion rounds of hangman (they seemed to be enjoying it so we just kept playing), Zach and Avery asked if we wanted to combine our two classes and go outside and play a game.  First we attempted to play Red Rover, but we couldn’t pronounce any of the kids’ names so that made that pretty impossible.  Then we attempted to play baseball but the kids had no idea how to play and with the minimal English that they spoke, it was pretty tricky to teach them.  So, instead, we played run around and do whatever you want.  All the other classes ended up coming out with us and we played ping pong, badminton, hacky sack, basketball, and little sit in a circle hand games.  It was kind of cool how much fun everyone had even though we couldn’t really communicate with each other.  Kenzy and I ended up falling in love with three little girls from our class (mostly because they fell in love with us).  At one point we were all getting together to take a picture and one of the girls threw her arms around my neck and kissed me on the cheek.  It was totally out of nowhere but I just loved it (and it made for a super cute picture)!  After we took the pictures another girl grabbed the camera and held it up to Kenzy and me and said “Beautiful!”  It was so cute! After a couple hours we gave our kids lots of gifts (which weren’t much, but the kids were so grateful for them) and got back on the bus.  It was so much fun and I was pretty sad to leave.

From the school, we took the bus back to Embassy area and got Papa John’s there from our favorite American building.   We were definitley excited about our pizza. Also, there wasn’t actually anywhere that we could eat our pizza inside the building, so we ended up sitting on the curb across the street.  The big group of Americans sitting on the sidewalk eating pizza definitely got some crazy looks from the people walking by.  We get those a lot actually. 

After lunch we went back to the hostel and a group of us did some shopping in the area down the street.  We stopped at one store so that Kenzy and Zach could look at purses (Zach needed one for his wife).  Part of the bargaining process includes walking away when you aren’t getting the price that you want.  The people in this store would have none of that.  They literally grabbed onto Zach’s arms and dragged him back, and they even chased us down the street a little ways.  It was super intense.  But Kenzy got a really cute purse for a pretty good price so I guess it worked.

The best bargaining happened at a bigger store down the road.  Zach and Branden had bought some Nike shoes there yesterday for a really good price so they brought us all back there so we could do the same.  There ended up being nine of us all wanting Nikes for super cheap.  The poor lady helping us was running around like a crazy person trying to get us all the right shoes and colors.  Once we all had the shoes we wanted, the bargaining process began.  Zach and Branden have this down to a science.  They absolutely love bargaining and they are soooo good at it.  So, the rest of us stood back and enjoyed the show.  And it was quite a show.  The lady would tell us a price for all of our shoes and Zach would yell “WHAT??”  Then Branden would suggest a different (much lower) price and the lady would throw her hands in the air and yell “NOOOOO!!!”  It went back and forth like this for a looooong time and, finally, after lots of yelling, laughing, getting down on one knee and fanning the lady, flirting, a moment of real anger, and a whole lot of drama, we all walked away with a pair of $15 Nikes.  I am super happy about that little purchase.  Plus they are super cute! (P.S. they aren’t real Nikes, but nothing here is the real thing.  They make some great fakes though)

After our successful shopping trip, we hopped in the vans and headed to the Kung Fu show.  The show was cool but, once again, as soon as I sat down I realized how tired I was.  I was passed out for the majority of the show.  The best part of the evening was really the van rides to and from the show.  Mostly I just love the kids that are on this trip with me and we were a little crazy tonight.  We cranked the radio and jammed all the way to and from the show.  The van driver didn’t speak any English and he just didn’t know what to do with us.  We had a good time with him.  It was one of those things where you had to be there, but it was so much fun.

To wrap this up, here is your Chinese culture moment of the day: Today we saw a little boy hanging around butt naked in the alley, and no one but the Americans thought a single thing of it.  He was cute though.  We took pictures.

P.S. We have discovered that Fruit Ninja and Ninja Jump are so much more fun in China! I’m so excited to see a real ninja.

I love my girls!