Trip to Thailand!

I decided to write something different for my next adventure in Asia. The following is a story based on my experiences as I road trip through Thailand for my Christmas holiday in the year 2010. I will add a few things here and there to make it a bit more interesting, but the overall story is true. Oh and FYI, its rated PG-13. Or who knows, it could be PG with how cartoon movies go these days…

CHAPTER 1
ARRIVING IN THAILAND
Ugh! I can’t sleep on this flight… Why can’t I sleep? I always sleep on plane rides… This is so uncomfortable, only two hours left. I already watched Quest for Camelot, started my book The Diary of Anne Frank for the second time, played this addicting app called Angry Birds, and didn’t eat the nastyfied airplane food (nastyfied—a term made up by my brother meaning VERY nasty). Maybe it’s just the anxiety of returning to Thailand that’s keeping me awake or maybe it’s my music blasting on my new iTouch. It’s actually a pretty cool iTouch. I’ve never had one before. In fact, I used to hate touch screens of any kind. But as they became more dominant in teenage society, I started to like them. No matter, we are almost to Thailand.
Back in school, a friend of mine, Daniel, said that his family was headed to Thailand as well. The funny thing is that they were not only on our flight, but they had the seats in the row next to us as well. So that made for an awesome flight.
Well we arrived somewhere around ten thirty at night and headed straight for our hotel. This hotel made our small and secluded hotel from last year look grand. We had two rooms, one for my parents, and one for my sister, Marissa, and I.
Our room consisted of two single beds, a vanity desk and work desk, a TV, and a night table. The bathroom had a leaky showerhead, a toilet with already yellow water, a sink that spewed orange water, and very dirty tile and carpet floors. The curtains suggest its from the 50’s or 60’s, or at least a very long time ago and all the muck on the ground just furthers that implication.
Across the street of the hotel is an open bar, and by open bar I mean everyone sits outside late at night partying it up. Not the best place to get sleep with thin walls that allow you to hear everything.
When we arrive at the hotel we all go straight to bed.
The next morning, Sunday morning, we wake up and get ready for church. We came to church last year and thought it would be fun to go again. My mom and my sister left after sacrament meeting, because my sister didn’t want to stay longer. My mom went with her because we don’t dare send her out there alone to try and find her way back home, or in this case the hotel, especially when women are on every corner selling themselves to men. The men here are not afraid to show affection. Hmm… Affection seems too calm of a word… More like lust and desire. Anyways, it seems as though they stare through your clothes. Not the most comfortable situation to be in.
So my dad and I stayed for the rest of church and it was all right. We went back to the hotel where we took a nap, went to eat dinner at the Siam Center and came back and chilled the rest of the night.
Marissa and I went to sleep very late because we were very anxious for the next day to come.

CHAPTER 2
ROAD TRIP TO CHA’AM
“Dude! We got ourselves one pimped out limo van!” I said as we all climbed into our car that will take us on the two-hour trek down to Cha’am where we will be staying for a week. This van is an eleven-seater with big speakers on the roof in the front and back, with lights and cushions and air vents all covering the top of the roof as well. A pretty nice ride in my point of view.
As we begin our drive away from the hotel (finally…), we look out the windows and see the unusual but common pink taxis, taxi motorcycles, tuk-tuk taxis, and even pick up trucks. We rode in a tuk-tuk to go to the Siam Center, and we got a driver with attitude. It was quite fun actually, especially since everything was backwards due to driving on the “wrong” side of the road.
The road we traveled was very bumpy. Like the road was never smooth the whole way there. Marissa and I would through our hands up in the air as we rode the bumps and dips like a rollercoaster. Quite fun actually, although we needed sports bras for that ride…
It’s very nice to look outside into the nice warm weather and see palm trees rather than the dead and beheaded willows back in the below freezing Beijing.
Along the way we’ve seen many things that I am not used to seeing in Beijing or the states. There were 5-foot elephants, giraffes, tigers, and other wild animals for sale along the side of the road. I assume they were for Buddhist shrines and things. There were shrines for the king, as well as Buddhist shrines everywhere. It was quite odd actually. All of the king’s shrines and temples or buildings were next to old shacks and villages, looking all fancy and new and also well-kept. Ill let you interpret that in your own way.
We also saw something else pretty exotic that you definitely don’t see everyday, not even in Thailand I believe…
“How did the 2-foot lizard cross the highway?” asks Marissa, “by waiting in the middle of the road for the traffic to pass by.”
Ok. So that was a very lame modification of the chicken joke… And we didn’t really say that. But Marissa did jump out of her seat after seeing a 2-foot lizard in the middle of the highway waiting for all of the cars to pass by. It was legen—, wait for it……—DARY! If you didn’t know already, that’s a quote from How I Met Your Mother. The best TV-show ever.

CHAPTER 3
MY FUTURE HOME
The two hours are up. We have arrived at the best place I will ever know. The beach. But it’s not only the beach; it is an apartment penthouse suite with a wrap around deck right over the beach! Now that is what I call a view! And on the plus side, this is the part of the beach where there aren’t many people. So we pretty much get the beach to ourselves. HOORAH!!! Party on the beach!
Marissa and I dropped off our luggage in the room (complete with TV, DVD player, balcony, and our own bathroom) and immediately changed into our swimming suits and went down to the beach where we sat and found awesome seashells and fish skeletons. Oh and can’t forget all the injection needles we found on the beach too… Someone loves getting a little “high” on the beach.
But I love hearing the sound of the waves, so gentle yet threatening to swallow you up when the tide rises if you stay too long.
I am now back in our room writing this little story off of the top of my head and enjoying the relaxing sound of the waves as I do so. There is also a rooster that coos every two minutes which adds to my “relaxed” state.

CHAPTER 4
EXPLORING CHA’AM
Later that afternoon, a lady named Amy and her husband came to take us to town. The Rajiks, the family letting us stay in their apartment penthouse suite, know Amy and her husband so they agreed to take us around.
So it took all of five minutes to drive into their version of “Wal-Mart,” as my dad likes to say. It’s just this little supermarket though, but looks to be the biggest they have. So we shop and stock up with a weeks worth of food and begin our drive home, which took much longer than driving there. That would be because they decided to drive us through the fisher’s village, so we can see some nice restaurants and little market shops and things. It was a cool little place.
When we got back to our temporary home, Marissa and I decided we would walk back to the fisher’s village and check things out, maybe grab some dinner while we were out. There wasn’t much out there, except for a littler of seven wild puppies. You can imagine Marissa’s reaction right now.
“Nat!! We need to buy some food for the puppies so they will come over and let me pet them!”
Well we bought potato chips, crunched them up and fed them to the puppies that were very happy to get some food. But, all of the dogs here are very wary of humans. So they would not come near us. After fifteen minutes of standing on the side of the road trying to pet these puppies, I finally convinced Marissa it was getting dark and we needed to go home.
I wanted to walk home on the beach, since we could walk around the buildings now that the tide was low enough. As soon as we hit the beach, well, lets just say… WE COULD HAVE DIED! Ok so maybe not have died, but we found a lot of jellyfish washed up on shore.
We also made some new friends while walking on the beach at night. Four dogs ran straight up to us, which surprised me because most dogs here are to scared of humans to come up to us. They started jumping on us, licking us, and running with us. I assume they were really hungry, because soon they started nibbling on us and biting Marissa.
Eventually we caught up to my parents walking along the beach, who now had a chance to meet our new friends. These friends followed us all the way home, ignoring their owners or who I assume to be their owners. It wasn’t until the guards at the housing complex stomped them away that they went home and stopped following us.
Well, there were some other friends we made while walking on the beach. Some nice crabs. They were crawling along in the wet sand and Marissa caught them and carried them home. She decided that she didn’t want them to die, of course after we got home. So now she wants to head back to the beach to let them go.
I am in for the night, so my mom went with her. They came back quite a while later, jumping for joy and screaming with giddy! Now this whole trip, I made it a goal to find a sand dollar. My mom and Marissa walk in with ten… But they aren’t the usual sand dollars you find dried up in the sand. They are living, and still alive! I have never seen one alive before! I was definitely amazed. I held one of them, and my mom assumes they have some sort of toxin because it makes your hand tingle for a while after. I went with her to return them to the beach, and there were THOUSANDS of sand dollars crawling in the sand! I was scared I would step on them, which I had to, to return it to the sea. But they were under the sand so I don’t believe they were hurt. But wow. Talk about money growing on trees!
There was also a forest of straws sticking up from the sand. They weren’t the kind of straws we put into a soda and drink willingly. These were straws that are again, alive. They were soft and I have no idea what they are.
One other thing we found was a school of jellyfish washed up on the sand. We definitely had to be careful of our step.
The nightlife is more than I could have imagined! It was definitely amazing. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

CHAPTER 5
EXPLORING A GRAVEYARD
Well my parents woke up early to go to the market while Marissa and I slept in. Marissa and I dressed into our suits and went to lie on the beach. My parents returned home and my mom came to join us. But little did I know the adventure she wanted to embark.
“Alright, who would like to go search for some shells with me?” she stated. She was anxious to go shell searching because there were millions of shells all over the beach. Marissa immediately refused so that she could continue to “out-tan” me. I accepted the little trip invite and we began our journey down the beach.
This part of the beach is a long curve of which we are right in the middle. Our goal was to get to the end of one side of the curved beach. This was a much further reach than anticipated so we only made it halfway in a few hours, and by this time; we had our arms full of shells. Our bags were breaking from the weight! So we returned home.
After all of the heat and sun shining on us, it was time to get a nice dinner in. Mimi, as I found her name to be, not Amy, and her husband were taking us to a great pizza place. I have to say, it was an amazing pizza place! We came back and I went to bed while Marissa and mom went for a little night walk on the beach.

CHAPTER 6
THERE’LL BE SUN
The next morning we went into the market to do a little shopping. On the way Marissa told me of her experiences on the night walk this time. She had caught some baby jellyfish swimming in the puddles of water left over from the tide.
Apparently she woke me in the middle of the night to show me but I do not recall ever waking up. Hmm. How can people stand drinking all night and not remember anything? Its not a great feeling, and I only experienced it from be in being a blonde or just being to tired to remember. I can’t imagine what it felt like for purposely causing yourself to forget everything for a night or even a day.
Well my mom and I were determined to reach our goal at the end of the beach. So this time we decided to stay on the edge of the water and away from the piles of shells so as to not get distracted and waste time today. We walked all the way to the end and more. Only then did we start our search for rare or in this case whole shells. Most shells are either shattered or broken at parts.
We are in luck though! We find many great shells that are gorgeous. This journey took a lot longer as well, but we were expecting to be a while. We started around three o’clock and got back at around six thirty. It was a long trek, trying to walk through wet sand. It is much more tiring then it sounds when you do it two days in a row! By the end of this trip I think we will fill their entire wrap-around-patio with shells!
I think it’s safe to say we got some nice sun. We have sunburned skin to prove it too!
Some new nightlife and discoveries we have made are little 6-inch squids wash up on shore now. They are so fascinating with their eyes on the sides under the “head” and above the “legs” or tentacles. They are so cute when they are so little! We have also found some dry sea urchins amongst the shells. Unfortunately, they broke because I had to drop the bag as it began to break.
Mom and I also discovered something we aren’t quite sure of what it is… It is something very small. It rolls up in little sand balls and rolls down the sand. We have seen these little sand balls rolling but we have not been able to see what is inside the ball. That is a mystery I do not believe we will find out.
So earlier when Marissa and I were headed to the beach, we were walking along the wall. We looked into the water where we saw a bunch of jellyfish swimming around in the water (so much for wanting to swim in the ocean…). We watched for a while and I believe I witnessed a stingray catching a fish on the bottom of the coast. The water was very low so I was able to see the bottom. Mom also claimed to see something that looked like a turtle swimming in the water too as we were walking along the beach. She does not believe it was a sea turtle, because why would it be on the beach? But it apparently looked similar to one. There is too much in the water that I don’t think I will be swimming in the ocean here in Thailand, but I will definitely keep exploring it.

CHAPTER 7
ELEPHANTS AND TIGERS AND MONKEYS…OH MY!
So this has to be my favorite part of the trip. We road tripped another hour to Hua Hin in another pimped-out van (I am not supposed to use pimped-out in front of my mom, so don’t tell her). We were going to ride some elephants. I was so excited to ride some elephants. I mean, how cool would it be to say you went out and rode elephants in Thailand? Pretty cool I’d say. But I got more than I bargained for.
As we walk up to the hut to sign up for an elephant guide, the tourist guide walked up to us and said, “We have some baby tigers over here for you guys to feed.”
“Say wha??” I giddily asked.
“Tigers, would you like to come feed them?” she replied with a calm voice.
We see the baby tigers and run straight for them with no fear whatsoever. All we can think is how cute they are and that we actually get to hold one! One of them was a boy, slightly older and larger, about the size of a middle height dog.
This tiger loved to play and would bite rather hard, but never drew out its claws at you. He wouldn’t get the chance to bite me because I wrapped my fingers around its teeth so they couldn’t wrap around me. We rolled and played with that tiger for quite some time. The smaller tiger was a month and a half old and just a little bit smaller than the older tiger cub. I am unsure if this one is male or female, but was a lot gentler so I assume a female. She, if in fact that’s what the tiger was, didn’t mess around and would just lay on your lap drinking the milk from the bottle and then sleep. They were adorable! One thing that did surprise us all is their fur was not as soft as it looks. It is actually rather course fur.
When we finished with the tigers we looked around the little hut that was a resting place, shop and petting zoo all at the same time. There was a monkey wearing a diaper that people were holding and a big macaw bird as my mother assumes it was. The bird was a bright blue with some yellow and orange and I believe some green around the head and under the wings. It was a gorgeous bird. There were also goats in a pen to go and pet as well.
Finally we reach the elephants. There is an elephant circus show, a little elephant petting zoo where little kids can go ride them and pose and there is riding the large full-grown elephants. We only did the hour ride across the Thai terrain.
The way it worked was there was a large bench strapped onto their backs that hold two people. The “driver” would sit on the head and lead the way and off into the wild you go.
Near the end of the ride, the driver would hop off of the elephant and say, “your turn!”
Marissa went first in learning to drive an elephant and my mom was first on the other elephant. My mom complained that you had to be very balanced to drive one of those, but it was just because she was sitting on the elephant’s shoulders rather than it’s head that she kept flopping back and forth. After about five to ten minutes I got a turn at driving the elephant. Wow, talk about someone needing a shave… They are so fuzzy on their heads!
After another five minutes the guide wants back on the elephant, so he hops on the elephant’s leg and the elephant lifts him up. That was cool. I want to try that! So he hops back on and then sells us some necklaces made from elephant tooth.
Our guide was very nice. He spoke a lot of English and held a lot of conversation. We asked him the elephants name, but it is way to hard to pronounce let alone type, so don’t ask me that one. But I do know that he has worked at this place for four years, and worked with his elephant, who was female, for about eight years. He brought her down from Northern Thailand.
We got back to the hut and they had fresh coconuts and pineapple waiting for us. This was my first time trying coconut milk, let alone the coconut shavings from inside the coconut. It is not the usual sweet coconut flavor you taste in cookies. It was a bit bitter, but very refreshing.
Now its time to head back so we say goodbye to our tiger friends and go to a shopping center where we did a little Christmas shopping and chowed down on Auntie Anne’s Pretzels.
That night we went for another night-walk again. My assumptions on seeing a stingray became reality because we found a stingray washed up on shore when the tide went down. That was cool. We showed the guards what we found and they had a lot of “ohs” and “ahs” about it. They were really fascinated. They kept poking their hand and saying, “ouch, ouch!”

CHAPTER 8
WHO WANTS A NEW BOYFRIEND?
This morning I got to sleep in. I woke up to my parents talking to my siblings on skype so I joined in and told them all about our adventures. A very chill morning.
My mom has a new goal. Since we have a plethora of shells on the patio my mom decided to collect miniatures of all of them. So we head down to the beach to start our trek of collecting mini shells.
The other day we made a “friend” on the beach who kept talking and talking to us, and he came again today. The first time we met I didn’t have a good feeling about him, and I was given a reason why today.
At first it was all in good fun, we were teaching each other Thai and English. But then he started to “open up” more. He would rest his hand on my leg or put his arm around me. I would gently scoot away or move my leg to be nice about it. He became more and more desiring though. He would sit so close to me he was basically sitting on my lap, and kept putting his arm around the lower part of my back and sliding it down saying, “I lob you.” AKA, I love you. My mom was too occupied with finding shells that she did not notice. So I bluntly asked her if we could leave and go eat lunch. Finally, I get her to look up and see what he is doing and she agrees to go.
We kindly tell him we are going to eat lunch and start to leave so he shakes our hands. I start to walk away but he wont let go of my hand.
“Man good to woman, I good to you. I am your friend. I take care of you. I lob you.” He would say to me over and over. The funny thing is, he is married with kids too by the way… they were here the other day as well. He would not let go of my hand so he goes in for a hug. I think, ok a hug isn’t bad. I hug him but a distant hug. All of a sudden he brings his head into mine for a kiss… I turn my head but his lips still reach my cheek. I shake my head and say, “No!” out loud and walk away. My mom starts to laugh and is laughing the whole way home. She finds it funny how “clingy” he was to me… Ugh. This guy was a creeper. Now I lost my good spot on the beach and have to go somewhere else because he wants me to come back there later. No way!

CHAPTER 9
CHA’AM BEACH
This morning we had to wake up rather early, eight-thirty, to get ready to head down to Cha’am beach. This is the beach where everybody goes to, so figured what the heck? Why not? There are jet skis, banana boat rides, tubing, horse rides, lounging chairs, shops and massage parlors. Something for everyone down there. My dad was excited for the massages, Marissa and I were excited for the water activities and horse rides, and my mom was excited for the shops.
Today is also Christmas!! Merry Christmas
We keep forgetting that it’s Christmas because its warm weather, with nothing Christmas about it. There aren’t even any Christmas decorations anywhere. It is definitely a different feeling to be having Christmas in shorts and a swimming suit. Quite nice actually, but I think I prefer snow filled Christmases.
When we arrived we wandered around the streets for a little while checking out whats there. We found a great restaurant where we sat down for an early lunch so we wouldn’t have to worry about it later. When we finished lunch we went down and sought out the banana boat rides. They also have these couch tubes that looked like a lot of fun but only three people could fit on those so we stuck with the banana boat so that we could all go.
Wow, what fun that was! The guy pulling us from a jet ski loved to spike the turns so we all tip off and fall into the water at high speed. We were all laughing and trying to stay on the boat when we knew it was coming. We never succeeded in beating him at the turns. Even my dad was laughing quite a bit and enjoying it! Lately he has been so busy and stressed that I rarely see him smile, let alone laugh. The only other time I’ve gotten him to laugh lately was when I had a blonde moment in public the other day… We were in a restaurant with Mimi and Bruce (our friends here that have been taking us around). There was a sign talking about all these places to visit and at the top it says: BOOK HERE. My mom said we should go buy some and my reply was, “but they are only books. We don’t need to go buy books.” My dad laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair. Apparently that is where you book the tickets… I became extremely red…
Anyways, he laughed a lot again today. My mom was also hysterical with laughter on the banana boat. I had tried to spit out all the salt water that splashed up into my mouth and it flew right behind me onto my mom’s face. Now THAT was funny.
We continued to wander around after that and go to shops where we bought a couple of tops and things then we went to get a massage. A Thai massage… I do not recommend it unless you like aggressive, un-relaxing, painful poundings to your body. I usually don’t mind a harder massage from the Chinese, but this was insane! I have a couple of bruises on my legs already… she just loved to dig her elbows and knuckles into your muscles. So painful. You are also bended and pushed into the weirdest positions that are supposed to be impossible. Never doing that again. Ill stick to my Chinese massages.
My mom didn’t go get a massage because she doesn’t like them. So she got a manicure on the beach. Lucky her!

CHAPTER 10
FINAL DAYS OF CHA’AM
The next day was our last day in Cha’am. Jeannie, Indie, and Kara came over for the jam session they had promised the night before at dinner. They all sing and Jeannie and Indie play guitar as well. So we were all rocking out to songs that we knew. It was a lot of fun! They have amazing voices; I will never be as good as they are at singing songs. My problem is my voice is very quiet, so while I have a good singing voice, it cannot project very much.
We hung out for a good few hours! We didn’t sing the whole time though. We also looked up awesome youtube videos. My tops are harry potter literal and assassins creed literal. They are AWESOME! (You’ll get the whole awesome thing if you watch the assassins creed literal).
One last thing I saw in Cha’am was a new sport. I have no idea the name of it though. It is volleyball but with your feet. I don’t know too much about it but I saw a tournament in a market parking lot. Yeah, I know, weird place to have a tournament. But it was three a side and you were only allowed to use your feet and head.
So I decided my favorite dessert. It is Mango on sticky rice. It’s a Thai dessert. The sticky rice has some milky glaze on it with sliced mango to eat with it. It is AMAZING! I had it so much on this trip.
Well time to travel back to Bangkok, another road trip through Thailand! But this one wasn’t as exciting as the drive to Cha’am.
We now arrived in Bangkok. We are back to the fifties hotel… Didn’t do much except go eat at a really good Mexican restaurant for dinner. Loved the chimichangas!
The next day, Monday, we went to the JJ Mall. I got presents for friends and for myself. It was a fun day. That night we were going to go to the night market, but I got extremely sick… So Marissa and my mom went to the night market, which turned out to be closed already… at seven oclock… So much for night market. My dad stayed back at the hotel and was taking care of me. I kept trying to fall asleep, but my migraine would not allow it. I finally fall asleep when the hotel phone rings.
“Hello ma’am, I am sorry to bother you. I was wondering if you would like your room made up?” asks the front desk lady.
“No thank you.” Is what I replied, but it is not what I was thinking…
I was thinking, “I have the do not disturb sign up and it’s 8 at night. I am sick so follow what the sign says! It’s there for a reason!” Man, that lady needs to learn to read!
Well I finally fell asleep around eight and woke up at one in the morning. I lied in bed for an hour and could not fall asleep due to nausea this time. So I woke up, packed my bags since we would have to depart at seven in the morning. When I finished packing my bags I went on Marissa’s laptop and caught up with the latest season of Chuck. At six I took a shower then got ready and we left for the airport.
I am now back in Beijing to enjoy the rest of my vacation and to watch Marissa in her love life, and see friends again. Time to party it up for New Years! Happy New Years all

CHAPTER 11
FINAL NOTES
Well that is all that went on in my trip to Thailand. Sorry for the less and less attractiveness to the story as it progressed. It was a great trip and one I plan to repeat next year! I hope you all enjoyed reading this
NOTE: It is a rough draft. Not expecting it to be a great story, just tells about what happened
Oh and sorry for the length… it was in a period of ten days and includes almost EVERYTHING that happened.
Thanks for the few who read it! Happy New Year of 2011! <3

Lovin' Life :)

My senior year is off to a great start. Chill classes, rugby, great friends, little drama. What more could I ask for? Its all finally pulling together and Im enjoying life every day :)

Rugby is over now. We came in 5th in a Varsity tournament, and being the only JV team that is pretty good! We didn't get last place :) But we gave all the varsity, except our own varsity, a run for their money. They had to really fight to get their wins. So it was a good end to the season, and sports awards is tonight.

Well, I think I've pretty much decided where to go next year for college. UVU. While it is not final and wont be for a few months, I feel really good about UVU. Its a great school!

My classes are all chill. Nothing much going on, so I get to read a lot of my own books :) Right now Im reading the Hunger Games series. Wow. SO intense!! I just finished the first book of the 3, and starting the 2nd one. Cant wait to finish it and go on to the 3rd!

Well I dont have much to say. I am debating whether or not to do the musical next semester, because I want to have time to spend with my twin sister before we part for college :( I do NOT want that day to come... Life will be so different without her. Believe it or not, its the first time I will be doing something this big on my own. Whenever Ive moved places or gone to new schools or had to try a club or something, Marissa has always been there with me. I do not want to let that go yet :( I mean it will be good to be independent, just different. It wont be like most people who usually do things on their own.

Well, life is short, goes by fast. So live it to the fullest! Thats what Im doing :) And it sure makes life a heck of a lot better!

Where I be...

My life has been very casual these past few days. My mom is finally home, and Im loving having her back! It makes such a difference to have her here... Her being gone for 4 months is SO not ideal... Also, school is very easy going! Such a blessing... I would shoot myself if I had to do the same amount of work I did last year. It is so much easier to pace yourself... I recommend it! Don't try to get everything done at once. Take note to that whole cliche saying: "Take one step at a time." I really believe in that now :P

Well, it is exactly 3 months to my 18th birthday. I will finally be considered an adult! That is the legal age for chinese drivers too, so maybe I'll get a chinese license. That would be so cool! I feel so old saying that I'm going to be 18, let alone being a senior. But man, it feels good to move on in life. I cant wait to get out of here and start a new life, where my past wont haunt me every day...

中文是不好。很难！我不喜欢我的老师。。。我要我的古老师！他很好！我想他！但是，我最喜欢说中文。所以，我还在学中文。(Chinese is not good. Its very hard! I don't like my teacher...I want my old teacher! He is very good! I miss him! But I really like speaking chinese. So I am still studying chinese.)

Well, tata for now!

A Beautiful Day in Beijing :)

So I realized I have only written pessimistic stories on here... How could I?? I really am not a pessimist. I promise... I am a happy person :) And I am going to prove it!

Today was not only gorgeous, it was Friday, the day that is always counted down to for 4 days at the start of the week. I had study hall first so of course I got to sleep in, and I woke up to the sun shining into my room with bright, clear blue sky and the wind blowing in the trees. I dont know about you, but I love the wind blowing aspen leaves. It is so gorgeous the way they glisten as they flap back and forth. Aspen leaves are an example of a whisper in the wind. That is really what it sounds like if you close your eyes and listen to leaves waving at you, trying to get your attention. This is what I woke up to this morning, and that is a great start to the last day of the week :)

I cleared up my fight over college with my dad, and things are good again. We are still looking at all options. Classes were great today, because we just worked on projects in literally all of my classes today. I also really love English class, and I had that today. Rugby was after school, and in this great weather, it was hard to not enjoy!! I then played some more rugby with my sister, Marissa, Stephen, and Matthew. We got tired of that pretty quickly, and went to eat at the Iron Horse Saloon. Great place to get some mexican food, just for future reference. After, went home, watched a movie and "sleeping over" in Marissa's room :P Such a great day! Gotta love life.

College...?

So excitement was running through my body as I was filling out an application for ASU. I was excited because it was easier than I thought, and I was finally getting something done for my college life, and early too. I go to fill out the last page and pay the application fee (which I needed my Dad for) and that is when my excitement dissipated.

I told my dad the application fee, around $50 ( I think? ). He goes into his lecture mode, as usual of course. I usually don't mind, but it really irritated me this time, because my "dreams" or anticipations were no longer right there.

"Community college is so much cheaper, and has the same education and classes. It would get rid of your general education for cheaper and then you can transfer to ASU." While that is all true and completely understandable, it's not what I wanted. I know we are told that what you want isn't always what is right... But I always imagined as a little girl that I would grow up and go to college with my friends. I also toured 6 college campuses this last summer (including Chandler Gilbert Community College), and narrowed my choices to ASU and UVU. No where else interested me. These two places felt right. Community College didn't seem like a place where I would fit in let alone enjoy myself. It isn't a good argument for why to not go to community college, but I just don't want to go there. Im usually the one saying not to spend so much money if there is an easier and cheaper way, but this time Im doing exactly the opposite...

So as my dad and I go back and forth in this little argument I start thinking, well I guess I just wont apply there at all. UVU is my top choice anyways, and so Ill just apply there and go there. But my dad crushed that opportunity as well. We had it all figured out this summer for if I attended UVU. I would take first semester off and work (due to out of state prices) and then start up second semester and take a summer semester, where I dont have to pay out of state. That way I would only have to pay one semester out of state, and have some work experience in before college to get a little bit of cash on the side. Now he changed his mind and said, only because now he is set on going to community college, that that might not even be attainable. Wow. Talk about having no choice...

It looks like for college I will be attending where my dad wants rather than where I want. His argument is more logical than mine and more attainable than mine. Here I come community college.

Studyhall

Yo. So today is the day of my first rugby game. I've only been playing rugby for 3-4 weeks and finally have a chance to show my new skills. I have played volleyball for the past 3 years, and it was time to try something new. My twin sister, Marissa, was a rugby goddess and the legend of their team. She has been trying to recruit me to play for years. I finally listened after she doesn't attend the school anymore, due to health problems. I regret not playing it before! It's the best sport ever and I recommend it to everyone!

I guess you might be wondering what day it is and if I have a life other than rugby now. Or not. But today is Wednesday. That means a short day of school. I had chinese first, and don't get me wrong, I love the language and love speaking it, but I hate taking the class... I think my teacher hates me and she has no mercy. I guess I am just used to all my chinese teachers being chill and letting me get away with things here and again. But not this years teacher. She is strict. Right now I am in senior privilege, which is study hall. Originally it was my spanish class, but I could not work with that teacher in that class. So I switched out after a year and will pick up spanish again when I go back for college.

Anyways, enough of complaining about my schedule! Its yet another polluted day in Beijing. Nothing new there... Its rare that you ever see a blue sky or sky at all. It is the most polluted place I've ever witnessed. Life is different this year. It is...empty? All of my friends I have made have moved away. (That's the life of an international student. You always have to make new friends.) You never know the true meaning of "friends come and go" until you live internationally and it happens every year. But then you get to know who your real friends are. They are the ones that stay in touch and ask "how you been?" every once in a while. I think living internationally is the best life for a kid and a teenager. Great experiences!

Ive been to Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, all around China, Hong Kong, and so may cities in places I never thought I would go! Its amazing! I love going to different places. I didn't have culture shock going to China, but I know I will have one going back to the states. I am so used to different cultures around me and what not. It will be differnet. I will be an outcast in my own country. Oh well, it makes for a new adventure :)

Well, my studyhall is over. Until next time, whenever that will be!