January 2, 2009
Happy New Year!
I didn't do much on New Year's Eve, and just had a relaxing day on January 1st. But I was simply conserving my energy for the night of New Year's Day. Around 7pm I went over to my friend's house to hang out with their family and play Settlers. We ate brownie mix, battled a persistent power outage, and introduced a new member into the "Settlers of Katan" Club.

I left their house around 11:30pm in order to get myself prepared for midnight, which just happens to be 11am EST back in America - at which time the Iowa Hawkeyes began their embarrassing defeat of the South Carolina team.

My parents are so awesome and willing to do things that are a little ridiculous just to show me how much they love me. In this case they downloaded Skype onto my dad's laptop, brought it into the basement, and gave it a prime seat right in front of the TV so that I could watch my college football team play in their bowl game this year. There didn't seem to be a way that I could watch the game over the internet, so we pulled up a video call on Skype and I watched the football game that way. My parents are so thoughtful to put up with all of that just to help me watch a stupid football game. It really meant a lot to me.

We made a big deal out of it too! My parents put on their Hawkeye gear and helped my nephew Kye get into the spirit of things (even though he was destined to be a Cyclone fan when he grows up). He's got the tough guy look down, as well as the sweet heart look!
              

Of course, I was representing the Hawkeyes from head to foot!
I even did my favorite cheer for them as the game was beginning.
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I made fun snacks for watching the football game. I think the bag of Tostitos was bought about a year ago, and unfortunately they do NOT last forever. I had to throw them out and opt for crackers, salsa, and spicy cheese dip. I also made cornbread later in the game. Yum!
  

My dad sent me the Hawkeye plates, cups, and napkins last year for my birthday. I'm so glad I had them because it really did feel like a mini-party here. The game started at midnight, my time, and I ended up crashing out sometime before 3am, but only after assuring the Hawks had victory in the bag.  

I had a lot of fun celebrating the new year by enjoying a football game with my parents and nephew. They made it a great start to a year that is sure to be filled with unexpected adventures, trials, and triumphs.   Thank you so much, mom and dad, for making such a constant effort to remember and include me in your lives while I'm living so far away from you. I probably wouldn't have made it without your constant support and encouragement.
I love you guys.

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January 15, 2009
I am so grateful that this winter is off to a much gentler start than last year. I remember one year ago I was driving around in the villages, staying at student's homes, freezing in the cold rain. Man, that was no fun. (you can read about it in my "archives" if you don't remember)  And this week has really given us some beautiful weather over here. It has been in the mid-50's and sunny almost every day. I'm really trying to soak it up because I know the rainy season will hit us eventually.

On Sunday I had my weekly breakfast at McDonalds with some of my dear sisters. They are growing so quickly in their knowledge of our study materials. I'm proud of them and it has become the highlight of my week to meet with them and study together.

I have been trying to do some workouts in my home lately, so I purchased a set of dumbbells. They were about $12 USD, which is good considering that I don't know how consistently I'm going to use them. But I was getting tired of lifting cans of stewed tomatoes for my homemade weight set. While taking pictures with my new weights, I came to the conclusion that I need to take down my Christmas decorations!   I was feeling goofy and started taking lots of silly pictures. These are just the highlights.
     

I packed up for another trip to the countryside and was really appreciating how good it feels to take a hot shower and be all clean. I try to appreciate those things more when I'm traveling to the countryside, because I know I sure won't be clean while I'm out there!
   
    
Sometimes when I'm having a great day, I take pictures to capture the moment.
Do you ever do that?           No?    I guess it's just me then.

Anyway, I had a special treat this week because my dear friend Lucy decided to travel to the countryside with me. I walked part of the way downtown just because it was such a beautiful sunny day.  I met Lucy at the bus station, and we got off to a great start, but after about 20 minutes Lucy got motion sick and the rest of the time she kept telling me she wanted to die.
    

It probably didn't help that the bus ride took especially long this time. Over 3 hours!

When we arrived, we met up with my friend Lisa and we all hung out together. It was lots of fun. We went out for a late dinner, and then Lisa wanted us to meet up with some of her friends at the local KTV. This is a place where people go to sing Karaoke in private rooms.
We had a blast and stayed there until just before midnight. Lisa's friends are all really pleasant people, so I enjoyed their company. They even found me a few English songs to sing for them, including "Vogue", "That's the Way It Is", "Oops, I Did It Again", and "Your Song".
   
    

Lucy and I stayed at the hotel that night, which was a fun experience.
I haven't traveled with any of my local friends before, but it went well.

This morning we met Lisa at her store and then we all went out to breakfast together. Lucy and Lisa wanted the typical local breakfast of noodles, so we checked out a couple places looking for the best. For some reason, I didn't find the white paste they use for noodles very appetizing today. But we had another sunny day so I was happy.
    

We walked around my favorite small town all morning. I noticed a dentist office as we were walking and thought I'd shoot a picture incase you've never seen what it looks like here.
    
    

After breakfast we went to the local high school to do some studying of our own. I'm not sure why Lisa wanted to go to the high school, but it turned out to be a fun place to sit down for a while. We had a good time of studying together, and I'm excited as Lisa learns more and more. I visited her two weeks ago and she made an important decision. I have been looking forward to meeting with her again.   Lucy was reading her book while I taught Lisa a new lesson. Lucy was coming up with some really good questions, and was also pitching in to help Lisa when she didn't understand something. It was a great time for all of us to dig in together.
     

We had a quick lunch together at a place I often go to. Then Lisa headed back to work and Lucy and I went to visit BinBin and her family.

BinBin's family looked better than I had ever seen them. Apparently they had all just washed up, because their hair was down, which rarely happens. Her dad had on a suit and her mom looked well dressed too. I really didn't know what was going on, but fortunately Lucy was there so they were able to use her for a translator. They just had the day off from work today and wanted to look nice for this time with the family. It was so sweet and I was glad to visit them. The kids were on their typical rowdy behavior, but they always love to have their picture taken. I sure do love this family. Lucy was glad to meet them too.
   

Lucy and I caught the mid-afternoon bus back home. Lucy took some medicine to help with her motion sickness, but she was still miserable for most of the trip. She told me not to talk to her because she had to concentrate on her stomach. I loved having her travel with me and Lucy loved it too. She told me she definitely wants to come again soon.

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January 25, 2009
Happy New Year's Eve !!!    No, I'm not confused on my dates. Tonight is Lunar New Year's Eve, and boy do the constant firecrackers make it noticeable!

This week had some highlights worth mentioning. Last Sunday, my group of women that meet at McD's to study together added a few new members. That was really fun, and we happily got distracted from the lesson plan many times in order to answer questions from our guests. It was really exciting, especially for the ladies who brought their friends.

My classmates at college are all heading home for the New Year holiday. Unfortunately one of them will not be returning. My dear friend V, who has been instrumental in leading her peers to study together and dig into the Word, is going back to her own country after spending three years studying here. She will be deeply missed.

To say goodbye to my fellow foreign students, one of my teachers took us out to have "hot pot" for dinner. This is the favorite dish during winter time. You have a ton of raw meats and veggies and place them in a pot of spicy boiling water until they're ready to eat. It can be pretty tasty. During this particular meal I ate some octopus, which was a first. They also had some "black chicken", which you can spot by it's bumpy black skin. Not my favorite. In the first picture below you'll see a tray of ingredients another table had for their hot pot. The jello-mold shaped brown stuff is congealed blood. They enjoy putting that into their water to flavor everything with blood, which is apparently good for your health.
   
   

A couple of days later I had dinner with the foreign students again, at a different teacher's house. Surprise! We had hot pot! It was a lot of fun.
    

I received a care package from my grandparents this week. This is always immensely exciting, seeing as I have received about 5 the entire time I've been here. So it's obviously a big deal. This care package was full of my favorite things, and some things I didn't expect. One thing I got was half a package of Almond Bark. This is basically white chocolate squares used to melt and pour over foods to make them delicious. The Almond Bark was one of my mom's contributions to the package, and she also included a package of Mint Chocolate Chips. I began eating the chocolate chips as soon as I opened the care package, but when I spoke with my parents later, my mom INSISTED that I mix the chips with the Almond Bark, which was her intent for sending them to me. Although I really enjoyed the chips as a stand-alone snack, I agreed to follow her wishes. Here are the results:
     
  
       
       

I hope these pictures bring joy and satisfaction to you, mom! Thanks for the chocolate!

Today is my last day in this country for a while. I'll be doing a great deal of traveling over the next month. I'll post pictures along the way, and will watch for opportunities to have crazy adventures so I can tell you interesting stories about it later. To prepare for my trip I decided to get a manicure. Normally I get a French manicure. In fact, that is what I have ALWAYS gotten. I really like the natural look. But my friend Christin told me I should get something crazy, in the style of people in this country. I told her no, but once I got to the nail salon I decided to go ahead at get some BLING. Of course, now I'm afraid to touch anything because I'm sure my bling will fall off within 24 hours, but until then I think my nails look cool!
     
    

In retrospect, I don't really think I went as crazy as Christin suggested. Everyone else in the nail salon had many bright, bold colors with lots of glitter. I could only get one lady to let me take her picture, but trust me, my nails are super tame compared to the "norm."