Church, Tianamen Square & Forbidden City- August 25, 2013

Today we went to church at the Beijing branch. It was just in this tall hotel type of building and our meetings were in nice conference rooms. I really enjoyed it. The speakers in sacrament were really good. We also went to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. You pretty much just walk around and look at it. Tienanmen Square wasn't all that much to look at, but the Forbidden City was a little better. I bet if you looked at it on Google Earth you would have the same experience that I did. Except you wouldn't have the joy of being drenched in your own sweat like I was privileged enough to experience.

We are hiking the Great Wall tomorrow (Monday) so I'm pretty excited about that. All the food we've had has been really good. Cabbage dishes and eggplant are always a good choice, and we had these lid of caramelized yam things that were so good. I haven't had any noodles yet though, and there is a dumpling place around here that I want to try.

I just emailed Lincoln and Bryton, and I sent one to Jordyn and Carly a few days ago. I haven't sent one to Donna yet but I will try to soon. Or you can just tell her about it. I wish my phone would work here and not be expensive because that's how I would prefer to communicate.We will probably get a phone when we go to our cities. Tell the girls good luck starting school!

Where the Beijing LDS branch meets 

Learning the Art of Chinese Bargaining-August 24, 2013

We didn't go to the Great Wall today. We had language training in the morning and then a delicious lunch and then we went to this huge 6 story market where we had to try to bargain with the shopkeepers. It was so weird! Everyone would try to get you to look at their stuff, and if you even looked at something for more than 2 seconds they would try to get you to buy it. I'm so glad we don't bargain in America because it's really annoying. Some vendors were really pushy, and of course they try to rip you off because they know you're foreigners. At one point I was literally in a tug of war with one lady who was trying to get Kaylee to buy some shoes, and we each had one of her arms pulling different directions. She ended up buying the shoes haha.

I bargained only 3 times. I bought some really pretty navy blue leather gloves for about 25 US dollars, which was more than I should have payed. But remember how I said I wanted some gloves like that a while ago? They feel really nice and soft, and it was my first try so I don't feel too bad about getting ripped off. On my second try, I bought some super cute aquamarine and neon green "Nike" tennis shoes. You know like those cute ones you see at the stores? Yeah they aren't technically real, but Spencer said that they actually make good quality fake ones and they are made in the the same types of factories as real Nikes just not the official outsourced Nike factories. I got them for about 20 US dollars, which is extremely cheaper than what I would pay in America. And then my last attempt was kind of scary, but I got the best deal for sure. I was looking at a little doll for Megan and the lady started the price at 85 yuan and I tried to lower it, but of course she was saying she wouldn't go any lower than 65. So I started walking away (because I really didn't even want it) and she started yelling lower and lower prices at me and when she said 15 yuan I went back and bought it. She was upset and she kind of threw it into my bag and I'm pretty sure she was cursing my name in Chinese, haha. 

It's just a weird experience to have people be so forceful and rude when they are trying to sell you things, as opposed to the US where they treat you so well and actually let you leave if you don't want to buy it. I guess here if you walk away they kind of assume that you are just trying to get them to lower the price. A big rule in China so far is don't be polite. Especially if you're a foreigner because everyone thinks you're an idiot haha. It was a really interesting experience, and I think Kaylee and I are going to go back and try to buy and few more things because we didn't bring enough money this time. 

Some people in our group got manicures and pedicures so I think we'll try that too! A pedicure and foot massage sounds so nice right now. So tonight we are going to get a few snack for tomorrow (so we don't have to buy anything on Sunday) and then for dinner we're going try to order our own food at a restaurant. I'm excited to go to church tomorrow. 

The acrobatics show last night was AMAZING. Those people are probably the strongest people on the planet. One girl was dancing pointe on a man's head and shoulders, and there was one of those sphere cages with the motorcycles in them and they had 8 motorcycles in at once! It was crazy. We had to take a subway there and back....it was packed pretty tight. But it was fun, and my first time on a subway! Well we are going to go to dinner now. I'll let you know what we get and if it's any good. I still can't attach pictures, but we are going to try an internet cafe close to our hotel sometime later and see if it works. 

The Night Market in Beijing

Skylar, Danika, and Kaylee outside acrobatics show.

Danika Meets China-August 23, 2013

I haven't blogged for 2 years, but I decided it's time to get back on the wagon. I wanted to post some of Danika's semester in China since it's almost been a year since she left on her adventure. She's been back now for seven months. Here is her first e-mail from Beijing:

Ok so it's about 9:00 AM right now, and my roommate and I are sitting in our hotel room. Are we supposed to be at the Forbidden City? Yes, yes we are. Did our group leave us? Yes, yes they did, Everyone sort of separated to get breakfast before leaving this morning, and I swear my roommate and I didn't take very long at all, but we could not find anyone anywhere. We walked up and down the block looking for a while, but no cigar. So we then tried to get a bus ticket to get ourselves there, but again, no one could really help us. After that we just decided to explore and shop around for somethings that we needed to buy. We found another China Horizons kid who got left behind, and the poor kid was all by himself just pacing down an alley, so he joined us and we all went exploring! We walked all around the streets surrounding our hotel. There's so much stuff to take in, I can't really explain it all right now. It looks just like the movies. I felt like I was the Ramen Girl. Everyone stares at us, especially at me. There's only two other girls with blonde hair in our whole group. I've seen some other Caucasian-looking people around, but I think they're from Europe because they were not speaking English. 

It's not too hot, but it's SUPER muggy and sometimes you get whiffs of really bad smells. I've seen probably ten people spit big loogies on the ground. Some of the stores were really tiny and stuffed with crap, but there were some really nice stores too. It will be easy to find clothes and shoes and a coat and everything from what I've seen today. I definitely could have bought all of my shirts here, but that's ok. We went into this way nice jewelry/gift store and there were cats just walking around in there. It was awesome. We found a nice bakery, and a cute little candy store. I bought a little purse that's the perfect size for my money and passport and chapstick. I bought a little spiral journal to write in, and it's hilarious. I'll attach a picture of it. Customer service isn't really a thing, but they are pretty nice to us. There are ASIANS EVERYWHERE. The little kids are so stinkin cute. We walked into a squatter toilet public bathroom....I will not be doing that unless it's absolutely necessary. I don't think I could even physically squat that low to the ground. My favorite place today was this really nice little bakery we found with amazing cakes and pastries and all that. You can go upstairs to this loft/hangout place with couches and tables and a little workshop where you can make your own cakes and stuff. It's seriously cute. And they all they play is Phil Collins and Elton John so that's good. I took pictures of it. They have dairy stuff here. I had yogurt and an ice cream bar today so that's good. I only want to eat cold things right now because it's so hot. 

Things to be grateful for in America:

1. Air conditioning

2. Clean air that doesn't smell like sewer

3. Safe roads (people drive crazy!)

4. Drinkable tap water

5. You can flush toilet paper

6. No-smoking laws

7. Soft mattresses

Anyway, I have met 3 people that are teaching in Suzhou so far. I know who the others are, but I haven't had time to really meet them yet. We have been really busy today, and I feel too tired to write emails, and it's too hard to include everything in them. Now I know how missionaries feel. I have about 90 mosquito bites on my feet from standing outside with Brandon, and they are not fun. But I'm glad working at Yogotogo made me used to having sore feet from standing all day. We just got the air conditioning in our room to work!! Ok well, China is awesome. I can't wait to go to my school and see all the cute kids. I saw some little kids today and I almost died they were so cute. Literally I almost died ;) Why are Asian kids the cutest kids on the planet? I don't know. So apparently we are going to go to do the stuff we missed today on Sunday. I think Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City are mostly just big open spaces where you walk around a see the few things there are to see. So that will be good. We just have a group dinner and an acrobatics show tonight and then SLEEP. On my brick of a mattress :) 

I don't know if you've already done it, but keep me updated on when you register me for classes, please. And if you hear anything about Garrett. I did not see the Google Doodle because I can only access my email with this hotel internet, but happy birthday Claude. Also it's not letting me attach pictures so maybe I'll try that in another email. Even though we got left behind, today was so awesome, and I'm really glad I got to know the area a little and just become friends with my roommate. She's a really cute girl. Her name is Kaylee and she goes to BYUI. But from now on we know to never lose track of the group haha OK peace out for now!

Danika and Kaylee outside a restaurant in Beijing.

"Awaken the great stone dragon..."

You could say Beijing has a slight pollution problem.

In China you can find food like this...

...or you can find food like this!

Yao Ming

2012 Re-Cap: Missouri Trip, Mar. 31- Apr. 6

Every year I start with a new post stating how I'm going to do better at blogging, mothering, cooking, church, life, etc. And then by June I quit posting.

Not this year! Nope. Not gonna do it. I know I'm a slacker. I'm not even going to pretend I'm going to try harder. I've realized that it's better to just lower my expectations, and then I'm happier. I'm embracing mediocrity whole heartedly. I realize now that, no matter how hard I wish, I will never be one of those blogging moms that writes semi-weekly posts sprinkled with gorgeously, well-lit photos. Not. Gonna. Happen. E-VER. (And beside, my kids are well past the "cute" stage. Scrapbooking and blogging was way more fun when they were cute.)

Whew, I feel much better now. 

So here's a post I should have written almost a year ago. How's that for being fashionably late? Like I said, I'm embracing the fact that I'm okay with being mediocre. You know how some families have a motto? Well, ours is: The Jensens are always late, but we show up eventually. So at least I'm staying true to the family motto.

I neglected to blog a very significant trip we took to Missouri to see Grandma and Grandpa during our Spring Break. I took a LOT of pictures, all of which I will not share here. But here are enough to give a good idea of all the fun we had.

We flew into Kansas City and rented a car to drive to Jefferson City. We arrived one day before the Kansas City Temple open house. So even though we couldn't walk through, we stopped by to see it on the way to Grandma's house.

We took the girls to Nauvoo for the first time, which was a neat experience. I lived there the summer after I graduated from high school. My parents were serving a mission there, and I hadn't been back since before I got married. It was really special to go to the temple (which didn't exist the last time I was there) with Danika, Brooke, and Mike to do baptisms for some of my ancestors. Megan wasn't quite 12 when we went, so she wasn't able to go to the temple with us.

Some of our favorite sites were the Webb Blacksmith Shop, where we got a horseshoe nail ring.

Lucy Mack Smith's home--it's tiny and adorable.

The stairs are really steep!

Mike's favorite was the Browning Gun Shop. It was pretty cool to learn Jonathon Browning was a member of the Church and came to Utah with the Saints.

I found the Print Shop fascinating. Did you know that "dingbats," "stereotype," "coin (quoin) a phrase," and "cut to the chase" all originated in the printing industry?

The girls also liked the brickyard, where they each received a Nauvoo brick as a souvenir.

And on our way back home to Grandma's we stopped at Carthage Jail.

Other fun things we did during our stay in Jefferson City:

Ate ice cream at Central Dairy (twice!)

Visited the State Capital and the Lewis & Clark Monument (my kids are goofy and slightly irreverent).

Started making Danika's prom dress (see the finished product here).

Took a hike along the Osage River (beautiful, but humid).

(This is why I like living in a dry climate--nasty, creepy bug things love humid places.)

Dyed Easter eggs and had an Easter egg hunt (glad my kids aren't too old for this yet).

It was a very busy, but fun-filled trip. It was so good to visit Grandma and Grandpa. They have a beautiful home, and basically have a forest behind their house. They are so good to us, and always make our visits so enjoyable. They are awesome, and we love them!!!

There it is...finally in print. Better late than never, right?