Planes, Trains and Automobiles....Cambodia!!!

YAY for sunny, blue skys and a brand new stamp in my passport!!! Cambodia here we come! We were all SOOOOO excited to get into a new place:-) After our not so welcoming visit in Vietnam, cambodia was awesome! When we went through customs the man who check our passport spoke to us in Chinese:-) He asked where we were from and we said America but we live in China! Then he asked where we lived and what we did there, all in chinese and we answered in Chinese:-) It was such a great feeling!!!

The landscape and buildings in Phnom Penh were amazing! This is the capital city...all around the city was very poor "third world country" area...but here is was beautiful.

This is just one example of the millions of Buddhist temples we saw as we traveled through the country side. There would be miles of nothing and then a massive temple. They were all very much used daily and you could tell the poor people who had nothing did all they could to have a temple on their land. It was so sad.

We only stayed for one day in Phnom Penh and then headed to Siem Reep...I loved the travel days because of the beautiful sights!!! The bus was crazy but oh well...When we arrived in Siem Reep we walked to find some dinner and found a great place!!! The food was so amazing! I loved my cocoanut juice!

The next morning we had a great breakfast on the porch of our hostel! Then rented bike and headed to Angor Wat!!!

This place was massive!!!! I have never seen anything like it!

I really wanted to ride that horse but it was the smallest little thing I had ever seen so I passed:-) It was fun to see animals here too!

A view from the top of one of the Temples...

I saw this girl walking through and noticed her SHIRT!!! ASTROS??? Like as in Houston Astros??? I just had to talk to her:-) She Is Korean and played on a company team called the "Astros"...She has no idea there was a real team..but she was super happy to take a picture with me:-)

Ok, so one of my favorite things to do in China is get my hair washed...now you may think that is strange...but thats what we do! It feels amazing! They wash your hair for like 15min! Then blow dry and fix it and it only cost about $4. So in Cambodia on our last night we decided to get our hair washed and nails painted....This was the best wash I have ever had in my LIFE!!!! Oh and the nails and hair were only $4!!!! It was great!! Girls night at its best! Next up...THAILAND!!!!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...Vietnam!!!!!!

Welcome to Hanoi...Oh Vietnam...you were such a unique place and I must admit, not my favorite country to visit. I mean, I know The USA bombed your country but you could have been a little nicer!!!! I didn't fight in the war!

This is how i felt the WHOLE time I was in Vietnam...not exactly a welcoming place towards Americans. But we made the best of it and had a good time any way!

Maybe you know this place? The "Hanoi Hilton"...I didn't get any closer...there were guards all around this place. But it was a very interesting feeling being in the place that held so many Americans captive.

Very important lesson I learned in Vietnam...No matter how much you love your daddy you probably shouldn't wear one of his fire department shirts with an American flag on the back, while touring Vietnam. Just sayin', They weren't too excited about my presence in the place that held Ho Chi Minh's body:-( In the pic you can see I am wearing my jacket...but they made us take off all our jackets and bags, sooooo yeah...never again. Apparently they thought I was walking too loudly and the guards got on to me for being too loud. I was about to crawl out of my skin...I just walked through quickly at that point. I had to get out of there. The darkness that was in that place was sooo extreme.

After the crazy experience at the body of HCM we decided to find some lunch....haha..that was not exactly what we were expecting. We walked for about an hour and a half and got turned away from 2 restaurants...and finally had to eat street noodles. I'm thinkin' that it must have been dog meat because it was about the nastiest food I have ever had. It smelled pretty bad, but I tried to smile bigger to mask the overwhelming feeling of being sick. We were all pretty shot by this point and were ready for some down time. It had been a pretty stressful morning.

Before we left Hanoi we wanted to see the Lake and some kind of special "Hanoi scenery"...So we walked along this path and found the "World in the eyes of Vietnam". We didn't realize Vietnam took up so much of the world...I mean look at all that red area!!! It was quite amusing! But at this little area as we were walking Chelsie's Camera was stolen out of her purse:-( It was just about the straw that broke us all...We were ready to LEAVE!! So that night we flew out to the south of Vietnam..to Ho Chi Minh City, used to be know as Siagon.

The morning after we arrived, the sun was shining, it was in the 80s and everyone was instantly in an amazing mood:-) It didn't matter about how much Vietnam hated Americans at this point...we were all happy. We had a pretty rough time when we arrived the night before. We had a taxi to take us from the airport to our hostel and when we arrived they didn't have the room we reserved. Oh this was NOT good. Remember, it was the same day that all the horrible things had happened in Hanoi...so we tried to reason with the woman but she wanted to still charge us for more than we were going to stay and not give us the right room...after 30 min of getting no where we told her would find another place to stay(at midnight) and to give us our money back. She had our money in her hand at that point. But she looked at us and put her hands under the table and said she would not give it to us...lol, I wish I had a picture of Chelsie's face at this point...she had remained quiet most of the time. Paul and Jacqueline had been doing most of the negotiations but at this point Chelsie look right at the woman and in an amazingly firm voice said "GIVE HIME THE MONEY!"....The lady handed the money to Paul and we walked out. One of my favorite Chelsie moments of the whole trip! She was sooooo upset but held her composure amazingly well. After we got out of their we all congratulated her and then laughed for days about this. Oh the adventures we had!

We decided we hadn't heard enough about how horrible Americans were so we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. These are the tunnels the Vietnamese made to hide during the war. now remember how small Vietnamese people are...they were like you are all welcome to crawl through the tunnels...ha...OK! i was excited...but they were VERY small!

This was an American tank...YAY we all ran over to it and had our tour guide take a picture of us:-)

One of my favorite parts of the trip was getting to shoot an AK47!!!! WooHoo...i loved it!!! We paid for 10 shots and all shared them. It was a little strange shooting this gun on a war ground but lots of fun!

After hearing about how the "Devil loving Americans came to Vietnam and shot all the women and children and even the pots and pans" we left the Tunnels....We had had just about enough fun we could have. So we ended out day at the night market and then found Tutti Fruity! AHHHH Chelsie and I were so excited! Great ending to the day!

The next morning we got all packed up and headed to Cambodia!!! This was my new backpack I got in Hanoi! Best purchase EVER! It was about $20 American dollars...it is a 75lb pack and by the time I got home...it was at least that much! lol

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...Vietnam!!!!!!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...Yangshuo and Nanning!

The Trip started great!!! We left on a bus from Wuchang to the train station! We left in plenty of time...we thought:-) We were very excited...we had an overnight train from Wuhan to Guilin.

This is us! when we were waiting at the bus stop...we had to wait quite a long time for a bus...and when we finally made it to the train station we had to run to the train:-) It was quite the adventure before we even left Wuhan! But we made it!! from left to right...Beau, Paul, Chelsie, Jacqueline and me!!

This was our little cubby in the train! We had tickets all together and it was fun to talk and visit about our adventures ahead:-)

When we got to Guilin, we took a bus to Yangshuo. We never really decided on a place to stay until we arrived in each city! We tried to travel at night if we could so we could sleep on the train and save money and time! But we found this hotel when we arrived in Yangshuo! Maybe this looks a little different for you, but it was quite a nice place for us! The people there were very kind and we all stayed in one room! It was great!

The first day we were all pretty tired and it was raining outside so We took full advantage of the hotel:-) Jacq taught me how to Knit! It was so much fun...we sat on the bed and Knitted for hours. YAY for fun times together!

The last day were were in Yangshuo it had stopped raining and we decided to take a 16 mi. bike ride. We rode all through villages and mountains. It was beautiful!!!

I really loved being with nature and riding my pink bike:-) It was soooo cold:-) I had on about 4 shirts and long johns and 2 pants. The hat and gloves were a must...even thought we were riding for hours.

About half way through the bike ride we arrived at the cave where we were going to stop and enjoy:-) This was a mad cave/hot spring:-) We brought our bathing suits and all covered ourselves in the freezing cold mud...then we had to wash off in the even colder waterfall before they would let us get int he hot springs!!! It was soooooo cold!!! But it was incredibly fun!

After the caves we rode our bike to Moon Mountain. This was a beautiful mountain with the shape of the moon cut out at the top. We hike up the mountain and had a beautiful view of the countryside! It was pretty foggy so you can see as much in the picture:-(

This is "Peter":-) Is was our amazing travel guide on the bike ride. He was the sweetest man! His English was pretty good and I was able to share quite a bit with him!! It was so wonderful to hear how he already knew about the Father from some other bike riders he had taken around the villages in the past. We were able to talk about the book they had given him and about the Creator of all the beautiful nature we were around!! It was so much fun!

We found this cool restaurant and enjoyed the good food twice while there! It was a really amazing place:-)

After 4 days in Yangshuo we took the bus back to Guilin and then another night train to Nanning. This train experience was not quite as enjoyable....we had seats instead of beds. It was MUCH Cheaper but quite miserable:-( LOL It made for a good story to laugh about 2 weeks later...but we arrived in Nanning at 5am and had to walk around the city in the rain to find a place to stay. It was quite the adventure. Nanning is in a province made up of primarily minority groups. We live in Wuhan, a place made of of mostly "Han" people. Han people are the majority in China. We didn't know what a difference it would be to stay in a place like Nanning. When we tried to speak Pu tong hua, "Mandarin Chinese", the people were very hostile towards us. Many of the people only spoke the minority dialect and didn't even know Mandarin. So needless to say, our time in Nanning was very interesting. We even met some other foreigners in this city that were very closed off towards us. We had to travel here to get our visas to enter Vietnam so we had to stay for 4 days. But we tried our best to make the most of it!!

There are many things in China that I have come to grow VERY used to...one of them is "little oranges". We eat these all the time. This is a man who sells little oranges. Many people sell their goods from their cart on wheels:-) Chelsie and I went out one day while here in Nanning to see the recent movie made in China, "Flowers of War". It is the story of the Nanjing massacre. It was sooooo sad and very eye opening. Although there are many people who believe this story is propaganda. It was our first Chinese movie to see in the theater here and we were both in tears by the end. If you are not familiar with it I encourage you to look it up. It played in a few cities in America. The reviews were not very good but I think you have to be Chinese to fully understand the depth of the movie. We were both very effected by it. We had given our passports to a man who knew the lady who worked at our hotel. He said he knew a good place to get visas and could get them for cheap. We were a little nervous about this but, we handed them over and after the allotted time he brought them back and we headed to Vietnam. We took a buss there:-) It was quite a ride! Look for the Vietnam story in the next blog!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

For starters, the weekend of New Years was such a great time of fellowship!!! It was my amazing friend, Rebecca's Birthday and so we celebrated just like always...with an incredible hat...very chinese:-) It says "Black rebel"...the Chinese people wear this hat all the time:-) Sooooo funny! But it was even more enjoyable to see her wear it the whole night:-) We had the opportunity to stay at a very large house here in Wuhan for the weekend. Some friends who are in Wuhan for work live in a great 3 level house and we all stayed together like a family:-) It was so much fun! We cooked together and probably could have had our own TV show. It was so funny to live with each other for a few days. Sometimes I forget how wonderful it is to have community! My friends and teammates and such a blessing and it's great to be able to have such encouragement!!

I got to hang out with some friends I met at "Mr. Mai's" Christmas Party on the Monday after new years day. They were such sweet girls and we want to get to know each other more! After I had met them the first time we found out that one of my students was Amy's cousin!!! Amy and Miki were my friends from the party and now We even had more of a connection! So Olivia, My student, and Miki and Amy invited me to "Snack Street" in Wuhan. This is an amazing place that is perfect at breakfast! Great food!!! So we had such a wonderful time together!

Then we went to The Wuhan Revolution Museum! It was quite an experience!!! Very interesting...most everything was in Chinese so i just enjoyed the pictures:-)

After hanging out with the girls I met my friends back in Hanyang(my part of town) at the local Arcade!! Chinese people LOVE to play at the arcade! We also have a skating rink inside the arcade! Some of our friends from Aloha met us there and we all played together! The guys were getting their dance moves on:-)

I love DDR:-) It was so much fun to play with FanFan...She and I are normally in the kitchen together when I work at Aloha! I love her:-)

Hanging out with them is such a blast!!! They are a blessing to me! My friend Karen also came and played with us!

This was quite a fun New Years!!! 2012 started with a wonderful time of fellowship and it has only gotten better! Next Blog will be the first of my Vacation Blogs!!!!

Merry Christmas Chinese Style!!!!

Christmas time is here..well, it was:-) It was defiantly The MOST Wonderful Time of the Year!!! There were so many opportunities to share the REAL reason for the Season! I enjoyed telling ALL of my classes exactly what the Holiday was about and even teaching them Joy to the World!!! They loved it! We learned about 3 songs and I almost forgot I was teaching English...I was dreaming I was teaching music again:-)

One of my friends had a Christmas Party at her house and we invited many of our Chinese friends. We played games with them and all of the foreigners told their Christmas traditions:-) It was such a great time of sharing and reading the REAL Christmas story! There were lots of questions after this party! I was pinning the nose on rudolph:-)

This was my friend Cynthia and then our friend from Starbucks! They both go to my school! Karen is on the right next to my friend LiPing! It was such a blast...oh and we served them Christmas desserts:-) and Hot Apple Cider:-) It was quite the American experience!

This was the Christmas party at "Mr. Mais" Coffee House in Wuchang. I went to volunteer for the party and met these two awesome girls! We have loved getting to know each other since then!

This was our group that helped at the party! We are quite the bunch...it was so much fun to go to a different part of Wuhan for the night and serve with others on my team! Loves these peeps!

After the Party at "Mr. Mais" we had a sleep over at Adam and Becca's house. It was like our family Christmas. We all slept in the living room beside the tree and watched a Christmas movie. Then "Christmas Morning"(it was actually Christmas Eve..but we pretended!) we all woke up and ate a wonderful breakfast together and opened gifts! it was so special...they all went in together and got me a plaque for my kitchen that is shaped like a chicken:-) It says "Chicken Kitchen"...lol Oh the fun we have together:-) Each person had a gift from the team...it was awesome!

I left early to head to Aloha and start helping with their Christmas dinner! But before I left I had to get a Christmas Picture with Sophia, Adam and Becca's oldest! She is such a sweet girl and I love having her in my life:-)

Diane and I were getting ready for the big dinner!

Nathan, Ing and I played for the Dinner:-) It was so much fun to play carols together! It felt like We were in America...almost...

Christmas morning we all went to fellowship and Anna, Inga and I had to have a picture with the coats we had made here! We all went to the Fabric market and designed coats for the winter! It was so much fun!!!! Of course, mine looks just a littl eon the blingy side...I love it:-)

After fellowship some of us went to Bruce and Donna's house for Christmas Dinner! We invited friends to come with us and it was such a great time!

Bruce and Donna are our small group leaders:-) They are such a blessing to me and Donna is an incredible cook!!! Her food was perfect! i don't know how she manages to make it tast so great:-) LiPing and I decided we would be the red family:-)

Christmas night I went with LiPing to her fellowship. I invited 2 of my closest friends...Yola and Linda. The service was incredible! I didn't understand much because it was all in Chinese But I understood...in my heart:-) It was such an overwhelming experience to be with so many Chinese people who were so genuine and committed! I wept...

Yola is on the far left...she made the biggest decision that night:-) It was amazing. We were all crying and so happy...Linda was moved by the music and asked many questions. I know the Father has her....it will just take more time. This was the best Christmas gift I could have ever been given...to know that I have another sister:-) It was truly "The MOST WONDERFUL time of the Year"!!!!!