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?

March Madness

March began with a big mess, a necessary mess, but a mess nonetheless. The flooding problem in our basement window well needed to be fixed, so we had to have the concrete jack hammered and removed.

Underneath we found that the the dirt had settled and created a big cavern where the water would collect and flood into the window well. The contractor that back filled our foundation did not compact the dirt as he should have (i.e. not at all), and thanks to him we had a huge problem on our hands. He has been doing the work of removing the concrete, replacing the window well, and refilling the dirt for free since it was his fault, but he is doing it at a snail's pace. (We are now in June, and he is still not finished!)

This picture shows the airspace between the concrete and gravel base. There had been about a foot of settling.

Here you can see how far the dirt settled in the corner where the window well and foundation meet. It was a good 18 inches down. That was where all the water was flowing into the window well.

 

 What a mess!

On a fun note, Megan had a biography project due in March. She chose to read about Claude Monet. They had to write a monologue and create a puppet. They had to memorize the monologue and use the puppet to say it in front of the class. It was a lot of fun creating her puppet together. She did a great job on her performance and enjoyed learning about Monet's artwork.

St. Patrick's Day quickly approached, and Megan kept reminding me about the "Magic Treasure Box." This is a box that we have had since the kids were little that they put out the night before St. Patrick's Day. Then the "leprechauns" fill the box with treasure and hide it. If the humans can find it the next day, the treasure is theirs to keep. However, unbeknownst to the leprechauns, they leave a trail of green wherever they go. They leave many false trails, so the seeker has to try them all. I think it's cute that Megan still loves all the holiday traditions we started when they were little, and insists on continuing them...so what's a tired, old leprechaun to do?

 Those sneaky little guys hid the loot in an extra dresser we are storing in our basement!

Brooke had a group assignment in Health Science to create an amusement park with a theme of the digestive system. I was thinking how crazy their teacher was for making that dumb of an assignment, but I was pleasantly surprised at how creative Brooke and her group were. They had to make a map of their attraction--"Gastro World Fair"--with descriptions of all the rides and stands.

Here are some of my favorites...the "Mastication Station" where you could board the train and go to all the attractions...

 ...the rides "Esophogeal Wheel," the "Ruginator," and "Intestines of Insanity."

Liver on a Stick (like Hot Dog on a Stick) was one of their food stands (gross!). Another was IHOP--International House of Pancreas. I thought they did a great job and were extremely witty with all their names and descriptions. Of course, they got an A!