We went to Beijing for 5 days, and it was pretty great! We got to the train station, and realized that the person who bought our tickets goofed, and so I got to sit by myself a few cars down from my family. It actually was pretty nice! I was able to read without little children bothering me every two minutes. Then we got out of the subway station to find that BEIJING HAS BLUE SKIES!!! It was amazing! I have not seen a completely blue sky since we have moved to China, both Nanjing and Shanghai have very smoggy/sometimes cloudy skies, and the most blue you ever see is just little splotches. But the skies were completely blue, and when there were clouds you could tell it was real clouds, not smog :) I could have cried with joy, I really miss the blue skies of day, and the starry skies of night. The night skies aren't that great, but the blue was amazing :)
Walking to the hotel was interesting... It is about twenty minutes to walk there from the subway station. You do a lot of walking in China, like you would any city, but you usually don't have 8 suitcases. My dad had asked my mom if she wanted a car before hand, but 20 minutes did not seem that long until we had to actually walk it. We decided right there and then that we were getting a car to drive us to the train station when we went home.
Crowd at the lowering of the flag
We then went to Tiananmen Square to see them lowering the flag, but the crowd of chinese people was so thick, you really couldn't see anything. My dad kept saying things like "Mikayla do you have your freedom speech already? I think you should do the 'I'll lop off my arm' one" referring to a Shakespeare monologue I competed with at the Cedar City Shakespeare Festival a few years ago. And he would randomly shout out "freedom." We were all hoping no one spoke english, we kind of didn't want to get in trouble about it.
Birds Nest
ducks, ducks, and more ducks
Beijing is really famous for its duck. You cannot go to Beijing without getting duck, so we went to Peking Duck. I'm not a huge fan of duck, occasionally I like it, but I have had some not so great duck in the past so I have a hard time eating it. We did get these really yummy bird nest looking things that had some duck meat in them. a really famous dish is duck tacos, I have had some pretty good ones, and some really awful ones, luckily these ones weren't too horrid. I was lucky enough to get good meat in mine. In the past I have gotten some really fatty pieces and it really ruins your taco. It really is different in the way they prepare and present the food here, the kitchen is has a window in it, so you can look in and see them cooking the chicken, and they just have a rack with ducks hanging from it ready to cook, and then they bring you out a duck (yes your very own duck) and cut it for you right infront of your table, you even get an identification card for your duck, so you can always remember him.
Preparing our duck
We then went to a street market by our hotel, and when you first walk in there is this shop selling scorpions, starfish, and seahorses in a stick. . . yum. . . My dad obviously had to try one, and Brannon being a little "mini me" tried one too, and as a big surprise to everyone else Marissa tried one too! She is probably the most paranoid person in the world, she is afraid of everything, and makes sure everyone knows. For years she wouldn't ride on elevators or escalators without completely losing it, and if we were driving past a semi on the freeway Marissa would be having a panic attack in backseat, just to name a few of her fears. Here in china she has been pretty fearless. It has been a real shock to everyone. Everyone else was too afraid to try scorpions then. We did all get candied fruit on a stick though, that is one of my favorite street foods, my favorite is strawberry, but I don't think it is in season right now, so you can't find that. They had a bunch of other stuff there too, so my dad bartered so we could get the best prices for everything. It is great having a dad that speaks chinese and knows how to barter because they often rip off foreigners. Then as we were walking home, we saw these guys doing some street dancing, and it was pretty entertaining!
Great Wall
The Next day we were off the great wall! We rode there in my dream car, a 14-seater van (no joke, I love big ghetto vans for some reason). As you walk up to the tram you walk through this street market, and it is kind of intimidating because it is quite steep, and you are thinking "if this is how steep the pre-trail is, I can only imagine how steep the actual thing is. Then you go in the tram, and it is crazy to see how high you are climbing, I am just glad we go to ride the tram instead of walking. My dad kept telling us "Mulan had to walk this whole way." He never realized, no matter how much we told him, that Mulan never travels to the great wall in the movie.
When you get up there, you can see the wall climbing the mountain, on both sides, off into the distance. It was an amazing sight. I can see why it is one of the 7 wonders of the world. I am sure my dad loved it, how many people get to say they have climbed the great wall for their birthday? We tried to sing my dad "happy birthday" in chinese, but instead we wished him a hot birth. . . not quite the same thing, I think we might need to practice our pronunciation and tones just a bit more!
Alpine Slide
My dad wanted to hike up the left side, and then back down and then go on the right side, which is where we had to go to get back down, but we ended up not doing that, and we are all glad of that, even before we got to the alpine slide to go down we were all way past the point of just glistening. Beijing is not nearly has hot and humid as Nanjing, but it is still way more humid than us Utahns are used to. I was glad to be able to get back to the hotel that night and take a shower. I am glad though that it wasn't as bad as Nanjing is, we would have been dead before we even started. To get down we got to go on an alpine slide, which was tons of fun! except Tiana was wearing the big backpack thing we had to carry Declan in, and she had her arms awkwardly underneath her legs, so she couldn't go very fast, and we were all bright enough to put Tiana in the very front, obviously. So we were all going as slow as snails, and yelling at Tiana to go faster so we wouldn't run into the person infront of us. Then when we got down
Chinese picture people
there are these guys in costumes so you can get your picture with them, but then you have to pay for the pictures. They don't tell you about the fee before hand, and they ambush you as soon as you get down the hill, but hey at least we got some good pictures! Then we obviously had to do some more shopping! I love going to all the street markets with my dad bartering because we can get great deals, even if I could speak the language I don't thing I would be very good at it.
We had lunch at Subway, which was amazing!! the sandwiches aren't nearly as good here as they are back home, but this was the first time I have seen a Subway since I have moved here, and it was amazing!
Afterwards we went to the Temple of Heaven, but we got there pretty late, so everything was closed, but it was still cool to be able to walk around the trails, it was really pretty. There were a lot of people there just socializing, some people were selling stuff, and others were exercising. It was kind of funny, as you were walking on the paths, we would see people running by, but they would be wearing normal everyday clothes, not any sort of exercising clothing. There was one girl wearing a nice shirt and jean shorts. It made you wonder if they were exercising, or just needed to get somewhere really fast.
We went to a hot pot for dinner that night. A hot pot is basically this pot of boiling broth in the center of your table, and you stick your meat and other stuff in there to cook it. You also have to make your own sauce. . . That was pretty interesting. We had no idea what we were doing, so we just mixed a whole bunch of random stuff together. Luckily, mine didn't turn out too bad. Hot pot wasn't the most amazing thing I have ever had, but it turned out a lot better than I thought it would, and it was a pretty cool experience! There is this guy that does a "noodle dance", that was probably the best part of the meal! It was really amazing.
The next day we went The Forbidden City which was the emperors main palace. As we were walking in there are tons of guides that just walk up to you, and ask if you want a tour of The Forbidden City. We ended up getting a guide, and his name was Jimmy. It actually was good that we had a guide because everything basically looks exactly the same, and even though it is all very beautiful, we would have had no idea what we were looking at without the guide, and he kept us going at a good pace, we would have gone much slower without him, and would not have been able to see everything we wanted to. He told us what all the different buildings were used for, and explained the feng shui of the palace. Jimmy took us to this hidden art gallery that only the tour guides know about, and we were lucky enough to be there the day that the last emperor's nephew was there. He rarely comes, so you are lucky to see him. He doesn't have any sort of title anymore, the government took that away, but he is really famous for calligraphy, so we had him draw the calligraphy for our last name. Pretty sure calligraphy will never be something that I master. My dad can't even read very well, and he has been speaking the language for about 20 years.
Emperor's Boat
7 lion statue
After The Forbidden City we had Jimmy take us to the Summer Palace, which was the palace for the emperor in the summer. We saw the boat for the emperor, and it was this big stone boat, I don't even know how it would float, but it was! Then we took the boat out to an island, and then walked around part of that, and walked over a really cool bridge that had lion statues on it. Each statue was actually comprised of 7 lions, and each one was different. We then took the dragon boat back to the mainland. We didn't see much else in the Summer Palace because by the time we had gotten there it was about dinner time, and we were all exhausted. We aren't used to the amount of walking you have to do in the city, that and hiking the great wall.
Us with Jimmy our guide
After that we went to a Hutong, which is basically a really old chinese neighborhood. Some of the buildings were over 700 years old. It was probably my favorite part of the day. It was amazing, there was just so much history there. Everything had so much character, and a story just waiting to be known. I would have loved to go there and just take pictures, it was all so beautiful in its own way. It was a neat experience to see the way everyone lived there too. They really didn't have much, they didn't even have their own bathrooms they just had a lot of public bathrooms (with squatters), but everyone was so happy and friendly.
chinese pancake shop
Our tour guide Jimmy lives in a nearby Hutong so he showed it to us, and showed us this really great dumpling place. That is one thing that I like about China, going to little dumpling shops like that and eating dumplings. On the way to the dumpling place we found this chinese pancake shop, and they tasted so good! It didn't taste anything like a pancake, it was more like a tortilla, but still it was amazing.
Drinking yogurt
After we ate the dumplings we went to this little shop where they sold soda, yogurt, ice cream, and such. The yogurt they had there are in these little glass jars, and like all the yogurt in China, you drink it instead of eat it. Since this certain kind of yogurt is EVERYWHERE we had to get it. This place even refrigerated it, which was good. A lot of the places didn't look like they refrigerated it, and it looked slightly sketch. There was this exercise park in the middle of the Hutong that we went to. They have them everywhere in China. They have exercise equipment for adults to work off their dinner, but it is really fun to play on too. While we were there my dad bought us some hand-cut noodles that were amazing! Not many people get an experience like that, even if they have been to China. It was all just so great.
The Bus
Jimmy told us that the bus home would be faster than the subway, so we took his advice and took the bus. Yes it was faster, but also about 10X as crowded. The bus we needed to take just happened to be the one that everyone else needed to take, we didn't know if we would make it on, but then we followed the example of everyone else in China, and shoved our way in. at one stop the bus was almost completely full, but quite a few people still needed to get on, and there was one girl that grabbed a hold to the yellow bars on the door almost like if she had a hold of those bars then she could make it onto the bus. They had to push the button to close the doors multiple times before it finally shut on her and all the other people that had crammed in. They didn't even pick anyone else up at the next stop because it was so full.
That day everyone that had not had a scorpion the day before decided that we had to have one, how many people can say they have eaten a scorpion? So of course we went back to the street market, and all ate a scorpion, it really didn't taste too bad, but the legs and stuff kind of get stuck in your throat and mouth. It took a while to get it completely down because of that. My dad kept quoting a saying "You are not a man until you have climbed The Great Wall of China." We also added, and have eaten a scorpion, so we are all men know. Trust me, it works. Trevon told me right after eating scorpions, "I want to eat another scorpion! It makes me feel like a real man, like Fa Mulan!" so if Mulan is a real man to my 6 year-old brother, then I can be a real man too.
The Beijing Branch was a very interesting experience, we left kind of late for church, plus we didn't take into account the time it would take to run from subway to subway (we only had 6 subway stops, but we had two subway changes, so we had to ride a total of 3 Subways to church) so we got there about 30 minutes late, and sat in the Foyer. But it was the weirdest thing! the building (well floor of the building) was completely permanent! There was a bulletin board with all the happenings in the ward, and placards for the different class rooms just like in a normal building!!! and there were 200 something members!! It was amazing!! our branch in Nanjing only has about 20 members, and nothing is permanent at all, we have 3 rooms total to meet in, and one storage closet to put everything in. Our rooms are used for different things all week long, so every Sunday we have take everything out of the closet and then put it back it. Our branch also only meets for 2 hours right now because there isn't enough members in the summer to have the full 3 hours. And the branch in Beijing has YOUNG MEN!!! our branch has one young man, but he only speaks chinese, and rarely comes. the young women's here only has 5 girls, and my two sisters and I make up 3 of the 5. It was sooo weird to go to church there because it was so normal! other than the fact that there wasn't a young women's leader there that week, so one of the girls kind of did like a 15 minute lesson, and then we talked the whole time. I also got to meet my seminary teacher! because there are so few members, and we all live so far away, seminary is done over phone (or you can do independent study) every morning before school. The class only has about 10 kids, and other than the one girl in my ward who is old enough for seminary, I might never meet any of the kids in my class. It definitely will be different! I am so thankful that I will have a seminary class though! I know we would try with independent study, but without someone pushing me, I know I could easily fall behind.
Trevon eating a 1 RMB popsicle
They sell these popsicles all over Beijing that are just 1 RMB, so of course we bought them all the time. However, it was illegal for them to be selling them, so if a cop came they scattered. They tasted really good, and for 1 RMB why wouldn't you buy it! my dad asked one of them what would happen if they got caught and they said they could be fined 50-100 RMB which is really all they would make in a day.
Beijing really was a great trip! We saw some amazing stuff, and I really had a great time. The only thing that could make it better would be if this was actually just a short trip, and I would be back for school in the fall. Oh well a girl can dream!
So I figured after being here for a month (almost down to the day) I should blog! well china is extremely different. You realize what your history teachers meant when they say that America is a melting pot. I am beginning to adjust, but there are definitely things that I will never get completely used to. One thing that makes it hard is that most the foreigners go home for the summer, and no one else speaks english. I met one girl named Emily right when school was ending here. We were taking a tour of the school, and her mom was there, and heard us speaking english, so she asked if we were new, and where we lived, and it turns out they live in our compound just down the street from us, so she brought her kids over to meet us, and she has a girl (Emily) that is my age. So Emily showed me some places by our house, and then I got to go to the last day of school with her, and out to lunch with a lot of the other kids so that I could meet some other people. It was really great to meet people, but it also was a huge reality check for me. Saying Utah is a bubble is an understatement. They are all very nice, but their standards are all a lot lower than what I am used to. There is no age limit for drinking here, so every weekend all the kids go out drinking. Looks like I am going to have lots of weekends spent at home! As long as they respect me and my standards and keep that kind of stuff away from me I should be fine. But everyone has left for the summer, so it doesn't even make a huge difference that I met people. for once I cannot wait until school starts! Oh and I love going to church! Our young womens leader got us these notebooks, and all our handouts and notes for the lesson go in the notebook, it is super cute! I love it!
So we actually celebrated the 4th of July! until the day of we didn't quite know what we were going to do, or if we were going to do anything for it. My dad got a new grill just a few days before, and if you know anything about my dad, you know he was so excited to use it :) my dad is like a kid in a candy store when he talks about grilling or smoking meat. The burgers were a huge deal because you have to go all over to get all the supplies for a burger that you would take you 15 minutes to get in walmart. You have to go to about 3 stores, one of which is about 40 minutes away. The guest list was unlike one you typically have in Utah, we had a handful of Americans, a Brit, a Canadian, a Japanese, and a Malaysian. We had an amazing fireworks! They were the kind you only see in a firework show! We had HUGE aerials :) our driver, and Bran were so excited about the fireworks :) it was pretty funny to see Bran, he would set one off and just go running. we also had a roll of 8000 fireworks that took about 1 minute 30 seconds to go off completely, it was amazing! We even played 'Stadium of Fire' to complete the experience. It was super depressing not being able to go to Stadium of Fire, especially with Scotty McCreery, but I surprisingly was not disappointed! You really appreciate the freedoms you have in America when you have a lot of them taken away. I couldn't even be posting this in China without a VPN.
Shaved ice with mango
On Saturday we went to Shanghai for the day. It was a lot of fun! We rode the "fast train" there, which goes almost 200 mph. It take an hour to two hours (depending on the amount of stops) to get there by train, and 4 hours to get there by car. We ate at a dumpling place for lunch it was pretty good, I have definitely been having a hard time with the food though. We did get a really good shaved ice thing with mango on it!
Pear TV Tower
See that building back there
with the hole in the top? That is
the tallest building in China
We saw the tallest building in china, it is huge! and towers over all the other buildings, but there is another building right next to it that almost looks taller depending on your perspective. Then we went to the Pearl TV Tower, and that was really cool! The line was forever long though. We had to wait in line to buy the tickets, then wait in line to go through security, then wait in line to go on an elevator then wait another line for another elevator, it felt like ages! But when we got up there it was totally worth it! we were 350 meters up in the air at the highest point.
Tiana and I on the observation deck
I've got to say the last floor we went to was my favorite! they had a glass floor that you could walk out on and stand above the city. It was amazing!! I didn't think it was scary at all, but both my mom and my dad were freaking out. It was really funny. My mom was holding on to Tiana and I's hands so she could make it on to the glass, and she is taking baby steps and at one point yells "Let go of my hand! let go of my hand!" I wasn't even holding on to hers, she had a death grip around mine though. My dad was trying to take baby steps out to the railing, and then this little chinese boy reaches out his hand to my dad to help him out, so my dad grabbed it. It was hilarious! Even Marissa who has the most unreasonable fears about everything was completely fine with it. It was actually pretty funny, some of the Chinese do really funny poses in their pictures, so Marissa would watch them, and then run to me and say "Mikayla! take a picture of me!" and then do one of the poses she saw the natives doing. It was amazing up there!!
A lady trying to get her little boy to take
a picture with Declan. You can't tell here,
but he is wearing split pants.
Everyone loved Declan. It was super funny! We all get a ton of people coming up to us to take pictures, but people ask to get their picture with Declan more than anyone else. It takes about twice as long to get anywhere because of everyone wanting pictures. I am pretty sure that more pictures were taken of us than thing else in Shanghai the whole day. We have people walking up to us asking to have our picture every 20 minutes, and virtually the whole time we have people snapping pictures from a far. . . or not so far away in some cases. Occasionally you would see people get right up in Declan's face and snap a picture. Everyone always wants their kids to get pictures with Declan. There was one group of about 3 people that came up, counted us, looked at our parents in shock, and said "leo ga hai za?!" while giving us the 'hang loose' sign, which means "6 kids?!" and the 'hang loose' sign is 6 when you are counting on your fingers. Then they started looking at Declan, who was asleep in his stroller, and start waving and saying "hello" (one of the only words most Chinese know) and she started pinching his cheek trying to wake him up! my dad told her that he wanted his baby to sleep, so then she left him alone. surprisingly enough that isn't the first time that has happened. I am pretty sure "Leo ga hai za" was one of the first things I learned how to say since moving here. It does get really old after a while though. I don't like going out much unless we are sight seeing because of it.
We were going to go to the aquarium there too, but because it took so long to go through the tv tower we didn't make it. Instead we walked through this mall that is all like top of the line stores, everything way out of our budget, and everyone is just staring at us it is so funny!
Then we had reservations at the Shangru la buffet, which is like the buffet of all buffets. They have food from all over the world. You eat like a king there. I've gotta say the desert was my favorite :) it was heavenly. I have also realized after this and when I came to China for spring break that I really like Indian food, except for the spiciness. I love nan with curry, but I have to mix A TON of yogurt in with the curry so it isn't too spicy, but after that, it is amazing! They had so much desert it was unreal, there was fondue, crepes, sorbet, little servings of different deserts like pies and cakes and creme brulee and things like that. It was all amazing!! then you got a box of candies to take home with you.
All in all it was a really good day! and I am looking forward to Thursday because we are heading to Beijing. Probably the only thing my dad has ever wanted more than moving to China is going to the great wall. He has been trying to get to the great wall the past 6 years that he has worked here, but every time he has planned to stay extra long in China so he could make it to Beijing the ended up needing him for one thing or another, so finally he is making it there, and he is super excited because we are going for his birthday. My dad has gotten the ultimate present, first we move china, and now we are going to the great wall (hey dad my birthday is only 5 months and 8 days away. . . approximately).
Oh so today we had our Chinese tutor over and we were learning beverages today, and so we were telling him different drinks that we wanted to know, and we were asking about root beer, but they don't have root beer here (which is basically the saddest thing ever) so we were trying to explain it to him, but there really isn't any soda that they would know that tastes anything like it. He was also confused about the beer part in root beer because it doesn't contain any alcohol. It was kind of funny! I really do miss root beer though. occasionally you can find it at grocery stores, but my mom has never thought to buy it when she has seen it.
I am still struggling majorly in China, and there are not words to describe how much I want to go home, but maybe it isn't so bad? I think that if I keep saying that China might get a little more bearable. I definitely have my days, some are better than others. I think days where it is more of a touristy day, and we have our dad to translate are a lot better. The days that are like "hey you live here whether you like it or not, so have fun struggling!" are hard. Really hard.
So we are in China its 12:33 am wednesday here, and 10:33 am tuesday in utah! it's weird, everything is different. I knew it would be different, but it is still shocking to see everything! I used a squatter for the first time ever! It's like a hole in the ground that you go to the bathroom in. After the 4 hour flight to Detroit, then the 14 hour flight to Shanghai we had a hour and 40 minute train ride to Nanjing. When we got to the train station I had to go to the bathroom, and so I told my dad, and he just laughed at me and handed me a little package, I asked what it was and my dad said toilet paper, so I gave him a confused look, and my mom says its a squatter. Squatters take talent let me tell you . . . After the 18 hours of flying you are really done with traveling, so the train, even though it is the shortest travel time we had is just torture! It was also on the train ride that I realized that my ankles are extremely swollen! my knee also isn't thanking me after having to sit for so long. It also hit me that everyone speaks Chinese, not English. Obviously I already knew that, but it really hit today at the airport when they made an announcement in Chinese then English, and my mom said this is just a taste of what the next year will be like. I don't know what to think yet. . . I just have to have an open mind. Tomorrow we get to see our house, and the school, so that will be really nice! I am really looking forward to registering for classes, seeing the school theatre, and talking to the drama teacher. We also have dinner planned for every night, apparently people want to meet us. I also realized today that blogger is blocked in china! I already knew about Facebook, and you-tube, but not blogger. Luckily because of working for Best Buy my dad can access everything, so I am just using his computer. Oh you also cannot drink the water here either. . . that's weird. The people that work at the hotel seem very nice though! They met us at the door, and they seem willing to help us with anything we need.
I have some pictures, but they aren't transferring to my dad's computer, so they will go up when I get home. Well I better get to bed! I have a long day tomorrow!
Wish me luck!
Today we had ward conference, and for young womens we had the stake young women and young mens presidents come and talk to us about the mutual theme for this year "Verily I say unto you all: Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations;" D&C 115:5. When we first heard the theme we didn't know if we were moving yet, but as soon as I heard it back in January, It was an answer to my prayers, I knew that we were moving. We are definitely going to be a "standard for the nations". There was an expo at the school yesterday, and my dad went to it. He said that there was 33 countries represented there, and there is a total of 44 countries that the students come from, and that he really realized that we are going to be a standard unto the nations.
This is the sign my dad saw on the drama room door
This is good because at least I know that they have actual shows at the school, and that it is SHAKESPEARE! I just hope that the director is good, and the quality of the school is good, and that they have more than just one show (and that there will be shakespeare shows next year)
School theatre
He also sent us a picture of the school theatre. It looks really nice. I cannot wait till I get to come see it in april, I will be going in about 3 weeks. This should be a good experience, right?
My dad has been doing some house hunting the past few days, and we think he might have found the one! it has 5 bedrooms (and we were only expecting 3 or 4) which means I'd get my own room! It is right across the street from the school, so we could walk there, it has a backyard (which a lot of the houses don't) and the back yard looks really nice, even if it is tiny. It has a washer, a dryer and a dishwasher, which many houses don't have. It has two bathrooms both of which are kinda small, so we would need to work somethings out for getting ready in the morning. But my dad sent us some pictures, and it seems really nice! I hope it works out!
So I found out we will now be moving end of may. . . We were planning to leave in june or july. Ya that was a bit of a shocker! It does make it a little harder to move because now instead of almost no summer, I will really have no summer with my friends. I am going to miss everyone sooo much when I move. I have such good friends here, people whom I have known for such a long time, and now I just have to leave them all. They are all such amazing people with such good standards. I have such a strong support system here, and now I have to leave it sooner than I was expecting. But I will manage. I have to. It will just take a lot of tears and time on my knees. I can do this. . . Stay positive!
So I found out last night that in our ward in china there is a family with a 15 (16 in July) year old girl named Mikayla (but she goes by Bella)! I am soo glad to know that I will not be completely alone there. It is a huge blessing to know there will be one other person my age. She is home schooled though, so she won't go to my school, but still it is really relieving to know I'll have some one there who will get me, and know my values and standards, and who is in a somewhat similar situation. Maybe China won't be so bad? I've just got to look at it as an adventure. . . I will have experiences and memories that most people never have the opportunity to have. I guess, in a way, I am super lucky.
So a lot has changed, and will be changing. as Thomas S. Monson said "The most common thing is change." That couldn't be truer than true, but China wasn't a change I was expecting. . . It will be hard, it will be different, it will be almost no drama, church will be different (but at least there is a branch) It will be a "whole new world" It definitely will be an adventure, and a great opportunity even if it is one of the hardest things I will probably ever have to do. I am just so glad I have my Heavenly Father on my side throughout all of this. I don't think know I wouldn't be able to make it through with out Him. I have found so much strength through reading my scriptures and praying. It has really been a testimony builder, one that will be needed in China. The branch meets in a hotel, and the two times my dad has been they have just watched videos. You are only aloud to bring set of scriptures for yourself, and your not aloud to share the gospel with anyone. A large majority of my conversations with friends have something to do with religion, and my faith influences my choices everyday. It will be different to not be in the bubble I call Highland. even if I cannot come right out and say it, I will try to teach through example. I really think there is someone there who we need to help in some way or someone who needs to help us. Why else would best buy hire a guy with a family of 8 knowing they have to pay to move all of us out there when there are other qualified people who could do the job? Everything happens for a reason, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for us.
I am still having a hard time digesting the fact that I might not have drama for a whole year. theatre is my life. If you know me even slightly, it is not hard to figure out. and from the things I have heard the drama program does not sound very promising. drama classes cut off at 10th grade. They do have a drama club, but it doesn't sound very promising. they do have a "really big theatre" though (It is about the size of Lone Peaks. . . ). but who knows I might be a part of something amazing there.
Even though I have a lot of negative feelings about moving to China, and I often voice those, I am excited to have this experience. It will really help me grow and know who I am. It will give me a big dose of reality to leave the "bubble".
My dad leaves tomorrow. The rest of us do not leave until June or July. . . It still doesn't seem real. I know I keep saying it but it doesn't seem real when I say my daddy is leaving, or I am moving. . . It just doesn't. It's like some dream, or a story we invented, but it's not. It is reality. Even though my dad and I often disagree on most everything, it doesn't change the fact that I love him, and I am going to miss him.
Change. . . a word that never had much meaning until now . . .
Wish me luck. I might just need it.
