October 5, 2007
Man oh man! This past week has been very full! I arrived in Iowa on Wednesday, and after being back at my parent's house for a couple of days, I am slowly trying to adjust to life away from camp. I loved being in a place where there were always people around who were ready to be silly and have fun, playing games or sports, or having conversations that challenge me or help me grow. I will really miss that, and also all the great friendships that I was able to enjoy.

During the last week at camp we went out to eat several times, and a couple of them were at Cracker Barrel. We stuffed ourselves every single time!
  

   

Every time we went out to eat, a ton of people wanted to go so we often had to try to find seating for a very large group. We went to Red Robin for some great burgers last Sunday.
   

We made the most of the last week by packing it in with card games and other activities. We learned a new card game that we really loved because it was inevitably hilarious each time we played it. It was all about rules, and making up new rules, and talking in silly accents and saying silly things to each other. I tried to teach it to my family to play when I got back to IA, but it's just not the same AT ALL and they don't even like playing the game. I guess there was just something really special about the atmosphere and group of people we were playing with at camp.
  

We had a party late at night for all the people here in my group. I was hanging out in my quad with a smaller group of friends, but around 11pm I went over to see if people were still at the party hanging out. I was surprised to find almost everyone in our group playing games and jammin' to music. They had a table FULL of junk food and everyone was just having a blast. I got to take a picture with my friends that are the hard-core NERTS! players. They are really fast. I loved playing cards with people that make even ME feel slow!
  

Last Friday night a few friends and I went to check out the Virginia State Fair. I haven't been to a state fair for years and thought it would be pretty lame. I was picturing more of a small town carnival. But they had some pretty big rides and I had a lot of fun with the girls. Originally we planned on riding crazy spinning rides the whole night, but after about 6 or 7 rides I was so nauseous that I couldn't handle any more. It is possible that the deep fried pickles, deep fried Oreos, and funnel cake contributed to my upset stomach. Either way, we had a lot of fun and one of my friends met a lady at the fair who needed to just sit and talk for a while. So my friend introduced herself and they hung out for quite a while, talking about lots of important things. My friend was able to share some truth with this lady and by the end of their conversation that lady was a new sister! It was so cool to be away from camp and feel like we were taking our education into the streets.
   
Pictured below on the right is us INSIDE the "Gravitron" ride where it spins around really fast and everyone gets pushed against the walls. Our goal was to turn upside down as quickly as possible, and I was proud that I was able to get my camera out and take a picture as we were spinning.
   

We had a closing ceremony on Tuesday and I was honored to be a part of the band that led the music. There were a ton of people who attended, as many friends and family members came to celebrate the end of camp with us. The band was great and I really enjoyed being a part of it. We sang some cool harmonies and it was fun to work with such talented musicians.
   

The ceremony itself was nice, but honestly I was pretty tired at that point, so it wasn't as special to me as other moments we had during camp. I am so glad they gave us that formal ending to our experience, though. It felt good to be sent out with their blessing.
  

The last night at camp was a very late night. I went to bed at 3:30am and then got back up at 6am. We had to clean our apartments out and pack and say goodbye to everyone. It was emotional and busy. We all stayed up late playing games (big surprise) and after many people had gone to bed, a few people were out by the soccer fields looking at the stars, talking and laughing. Then we got a great treat when some people showed up with Krispy Kreme donuts. Yum!
  

This time at camp was everything I had hoped it would be. I will never forget it. I made amazing friends. I had amazing fun. I learned amazing things. And now I feel more certain than ever before that I am about to go to a new place which is the exact place I am supposed to go to. I am prepared for what is ahead and confident and excited to do what I am going to do. I have enjoyed this time in VA, and as much as I wouldn't have minded staying there longer, I know that the timing is right. I am taking the next step in my life exactly as I should. No hesitation and no regrets. I am ready.

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October 21, 2007
Wow! I am way overdue at telling you all my new stories! But I have been pretty busy and will continue to stay busy from now on, so I'll have to post blogs whenever I can spare a few hours to get the job done.

I'll tell you about my last week in Iowa first, even though that feels a bit like old news at this point. I was able to spend about 10 days in Iowa between my time in VA and moving overseas. I had a wonderful time with my parents, and I stayed very busy packing as well as doing a lot of last minute shopping for essentials that I won't be able to buy overseas. I loved getting to see all my grandparents one last time before I left. Grandma Mary was so great to drive up to spend time with me, and Grandpa Bill and Grandma Jane had a great time with us when they stopped through on their way to Wisconsin.

I was touched that my best friend and her husband drove all the way up from OKC to spend a few days with me before I left. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed singing together one last time on Sunday morning. Renee made me a great picture album / scrap book to take with me overseas. It is sitting on my coffee table in my new apartment right now. I love it!

While my Davis grandparents and Renee and Cory were in town, my parents planned to have us all celebrate a Thanksgiving meal together. That has always been one of my favorite times of year, as we spend the day cooking and enjoying great food and time together. Gabe, Emily, and Kye came over and it was a perfect memory to share with them all. I know I won’t feel so sad this year when I’m not home for Thanksgiving because I was able to celebrate it with them already.

I helped my parents with a band instrument display they needed to work at one night. I tried to keep up with my mom as she worked with lots of elementary school kids and their parents to sign them up to rent instruments for band this next year.

I had a great time with my dad on Saturday. I was able to participate in some VERY American activities on my last day in the country. Dad and I drove to Iowa City and enjoyed the festivities of a Big 10 College Football Game! We got up early and had breakfast on campus, then worked hard to find a parking spot in someone's front yard close to the stadium.
        
We went to the pre-game show and watched the marching band, which I really enjoyed as a former member of that band. We got some tickets from people in the street, and had great seats for the game against Illinois. We drank hot chocolate and stayed warm and watched the Hawkeyes win against the undefeated Illinois team. Go hawks! It was a great game with great fall weather, even if it was a little damp. We left at half time so we could go home to play with mom when she got off work, and on our way out of town I found a good deal on some flip flops, which I had been looking to buy before leaving.
        

Later that night we went to the Griggs Music dinner party at one of our favorite restaurants. For lunch on Sunday, I enjoyed my last meal in America at Red Robin. We ate lots of french fries and a big hamburger, and drank milk shakes. It was wonderful.
    
I went home to shower and pack my luggage into the van, and had just enough time before going to the airport to go teach a Photoshop class to all my parent's friends! They had scheduled a fun S.school event for that day and I got to participate by talking about one of my favorite hobbies.

Then mom and dad rushed me to the airport before heading back to meet up with their friends for dinner. What a whirlwind day that was!

Alright, so now I'll tell you about my journey over the ocean. That'll have you caught up to almost a week ago. In a few days I'll update my blog again with tons of GREAT pictures and stories from my first week living here in Asia.

As far as packing goes; I will be the first to admit that I tend to over-pack for trips and have not yet reached a point where I can say that I travel light. Since arriving, finally receiving my lost luggage, and unpacking all of the stuff I brought; I have realized that I definitely have more than I need for my new life in Asia.
I have made a list of some things I brought that now seem quite excessive:
43 pairs of socks (why did I do that?) , 16 pairs of shoes (although I can't imagine which ones I could have done without) , and 11 decks of cards ( they sell cards all over the place here). I am sure that my list of ridiculous things I brought here will grow, but those are the highlights on my list so far. Here is what my room in my parent's house looked like as I was trying to figure out how to fit everything into 4 suitcases, and how happy I was to have everything stuffed into my bags (plus a carry-on and a back pack) to head to the airport:
   

I thought it would be a good idea to track all my flights by taking pictures of the safety speech at the beginning of each leg of my trip. It was interesting to compare the differences, and I only got in trouble for taking these pictures on two of the flights. I began my journey on Sunday afternoon. I started in Moline, IL and flew to Denver, CO. On this flight I got a personal speech and demonstration of how to buckle a seatbelt, which was awesome.
       
Once in Denver I took a much larger plane to Los Angeles, CA. On this flight they made us watch a video and it was not personal at all. Lame.
     
Once into LA, I had to rush from the LAX terminal down the street to the international terminal. (this is where they lost my luggage) The international terminal was a crazy madhouse full of people from all over the world waiting in very longs lines with lots of luggage and random stuff. My airline had to have a special person take me past all the lines so I could go right through security to my gate to make my flight. As I was in line to board the plane I heard my name shouted out. I turned at saw a married couple I had met at camp. It was so great to see them for about 30 seconds. Then they were off and I was getting on the plane to go over the ocean. If nothing else; I can say this of my flight overseas: I got a WONDERFUL safety demonstration.
      
When I left LA it was about 11pm on Sunday night (remember I had gone back two hours, so that was 1am Central Time). My flight overseas was about 16 hours and I arrived in Asia around 5:30am on Tuesday. Go figure. My flight was different than I expected. I was looking forward to a good movie marathon, but the only films they showed in English were really really dumb. I had never heard of either of them, but I did eventually watch one out of desperation for entertainment. I played SuDoku for many hours, read my book quite a lot, slept, and that was pretty much it. Oh - and I spilled a big glass of water all over my lap about an hour into the flight, so I got to sit there for much of the time with really wet jeans and no leg room. It wasn't my favorite flight ever, but whatever. I had a lot of time to think about my attitude when I face trails of various kinds. I was actually in a very good state of mind by the time I arrived in Asia.

When I got there I had a McMuffin sandwich at McDonalds (that's right) and then took a taxi to meet my new roomie in the train station across the city. I had a moment of "you know you're in Asia when....." while I was waiting for the cab driver and saw a man riding a bike with a oversized load tied to the back of it. Only in the past few days have I discovered that this man's load is NOTHING compared to the couches, beds, or 20 1-gallon water tanks that I have seen many times on the backs of bikes in my new city.

Before leaving the airport I received some unfortunate news by means of standing in front of the baggage carrousel and realizing that my luggage was never going to come through that little opening in the wall. I kept expecting it to come so I just stood there appreciating how patient I was being, and how calm I was staying in a moment that might be stressful for other people. So I guess by the time I realized that everyone else was long gone and I was really not going to get my luggage, I was in a deep, deep state of denial, which made it much easier to handle. I filed a claim and they told me that my luggage would come on the next flight over the ocean, which would be in two days. Then they would send my luggage on another flight to the city I was traveling to, so I would receive it in 2-3 days. So with that news tucked away, but not really sinking in at a conscious level, I overpaid a cab driver to take me to the train station across the city, which was about an hour drive away. I saw many strange and different things along that drive that are too much to explain at this point. (I did end up receiving my luggage on Friday morning, so all's well that ends well.)

When I got to the train station, I promptly found the Starbucks, which was our agreed upon meeting place, and seated myself in the back corner with one of my favorite drinks. The Starbucks people spoke a little English, so I was able to order and pay them with ease. I got there around 7:30am and knew that my roomie wouldn't be arriving on her train until about 11:10, so I settled in for a long wait. I played SuDoku and read my book for many more hours. At one point I thought about using the restroom, but it was full of squatty potties, which I had never used before, and I was afraid to try them out in a very dirty, wet, public restroom. So I chickened out of that and returned to Starbucks, where I spent my morning.

Well, my roomie didn't show up at 11. She didn't show up at 12. She didn't show up at 1. At this point I began to feel a bit of stress taking over all rational thought. The wonderful Starbucks people, who I now considered the most valued friends of my life, allowed me to use their phone to call my roomie's phone. It said it was turned off at that time. I called another friend I know in my city, and he promised to keep trying to reach my roomie to let her know I was waiting for her. I kept waiting and kept impressing myself at how calm I was staying through all of this. Eventually, a little before 3pm, she walked into the Starbucks and I think I about drew a crowd as I quite enthusiastically greeted and hugged her in welcome. I have never met her before, but I have rarely been so thrilled to see someone as I was to see her beautiful, white, American, English-speaking face.

She and I took a taxi back to the airport together and she paid a much more reasonable price to the cab driver. My roomie speaks the language quite well, and is also a very skilled negotiator. Our last flight from the international airport to the small regional airport of my city was only about an hour long. I stayed awake long enough to take a picture of the safety speech and then fell promptly into a deep, peaceful sleep.

Here is my plane that took me over the ocean:

Here are pictures at airports on both sides of the ocean. Can you guess which is which?  

We arrived in my new home city at about 9pm and a friend of a friend of my roomie's picked us up in an old rickety van entirely absent of any shocks. We drove about 45 minutes home from the airport, and then the gentleman friend of our driver helped carry the bags up to our sixth floor apartment. We do not have any elevators.
      

I entered my apartment late Tuesday night, after travelling 2 days straight, with nothing in my possession but my computer equipment, one extra t-shirt, one extra pair of underwear, and only the most basic toiletries. I didn't care. I was so glad to be HOME!
     

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October 26, 2007
Well, I'm eventually going to get all caught up on my adventures,
but I keep having new ones all the time and they get ahead of me!!!

I arrived here last week on Tuesday night. I spent the rest of the week shopping and exploring my city with my roommate. I got a bus pass and lots of other essential things around the city. I have gotten to know my new roomie and am growing to appreciate many things about her. She has been so gracious to pretty much devote all of her free time to helping me buy the things that I need in order to live here. She is a GREAT negotiator and gets me great prices everywhere we go. There are hardly any places here in the city that won't negotiate on price quite a bit. It's fun! Here are pictures from my city and my first days of exploring. I have some other Americans in my apartment complex that I have met and we will be good friends too. We all have many common interests and can enjoy time together.

Here I am at the place to get my bus pass, and then riding the bus.
   

Here is a friend I met when I asked her to take a picture of me and my roomie. We ended up shopping together all day! And I am at one of the many parks in the city.
   

Here is my apartment building. Also - people ride bikes everywhere here, and they find them useful for hauling large objects from one place to another. This is a normal sight:
     

There are many pretty palm trees here. But most trees downtown have these crazy hairy roots hanging down from them. Hope you can see in this picture:
   

This is the front gate of my apartment complex. The mountains are all around us.
  

Here is the view from the center of town, on one of our many bridges going across the river into downtown. They have beautiful lights along the river at night for people to walk and enjoy after they eat dinner. That seems to be what many people do each night.

I went out to eat with some American friends that live in my apartment complex.

Here I am with my roomie on a shopping day.       Here is the downtown ped-mall area.
 

Last weekend I was able to travel to a small town a few hours from my city. It was so beautiful. I want to go back as often as possible. I love the mountains and the people there! I met lots of nice people and made some new friends too. It was great!

Get ready for a ton of pictures coming at ya!
We ate an authentic town meal when we first got there. This is what their restaurants all look like. All the shops and restaurants are in street-side alcoves.

Here are some shots of me in the town square. Everyone in the town seems to hang out there at night; singing, playing games, or doing group exercise dances. It's really fun.
 
   

Here are some pictures of the town. The streets, the motorcycle-taxis, the people.
  
  
   

I met one of my roommate's friends and he invited us to hang out with him all day. We saw where he works - putting meat on sticks. And we went to his family's home for dinner. The homes in this town were a totally new thing to me. This one was very narrow, and had different sections that you walked through consecutively to get to each room. First we went through a storage room with lots of tools and a dirt floor. Then we went through a courtyard where all the cooking, bathing, and laundry is done. Then we came to a living room with a solid (mostly) roof overhead, a collapsible table they brought out for dinner, a couch, and an entertainment center for watching TV. I didn't ever go in further, but my roomie said the next room was a garden. It was so unique! The meal was great, and we ate family style - like all meals here in Asia. Lots of plates of food and everyone grabs with their chopsticks from them, one bite at a time. We each get our own bowl of rice - which I learned is rude not to completely finish.
 
 

We visited a Buddhist Temple where my roommate knows some of the monks who live there. They are two of the sweetest ladies you could ever meet! Both over 80 years old, and both really love getting their picture taken! They thought I was extremely tall.
  
     

We stayed in a local hotel, where I got to try out the squatty potty for myself - finally!
Also - You'll notice that there is no seperation between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. This is how it is in my apartment as well.
          

The next morning we ate at a bakery with swinging benches inside to sit on. Cool!
In the afternoon I saw many people carrying chickens home for dinner
- which were still alive and flapping. That makes me nervous.
   

We took a tour of the high school. Some of the kids were out playing ping pong. I think I would be totally humiliated if I ever tried to play these kids. They must all do their laundry on Fridays because the dorms were filled with clothes drying on each balcony.
  

We met some friends who speak English really well and hung out with them for a long time. They were great and I loved being able to participate in the conversation! As we were walking around we saw a crowd gathered on the sidewalk. In the middle of the crowd was a man putting on a show with his monkeys. I guess this is a pretty regular thing in town.
 

Here are some other pictures I took while in town:

The rest of these pictures were taking from a moving bus on the way back to my city at the end of the weekend. Something I learned from watching the scenery pass by during that drive home is; when you have a tree, the best thing to do is tie a water buffalo to it!
  
   
 
  
  
  

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October 31, 2007
Happy Halloween! For some strange reason, it's like EVERYONE has forgotten that it's Halloween today. I haven't seen one single person in a crazy costume. What's going on?

Well, here is what I have been doing as I have completed my second week of living in Asia.

I have been working, since I got here, at setting up my living situation. I am finally done! I got some shelves, new sheets, and a painting for my wall. I bought a guitar, pictured below, which I'm putting to good use. Yesterday my roomie and I went out and negotiated a great deal for new couches and they'll be delivered this afternoon. I have pictures of the old ones below, but the new ones are really cool and comfortable. Definitely an appreciated upgrade. Here's my bedroom, kitchen, and living room.
   

          

   
Here is my bathroom. We stand in front of the sink and right next to the toilet to take our showers. I am demonstrating in a picture below. The bathroom is quite small.
          

I went on my first trip to the open market last week, as we shopped for vegetables and eggs. I have been around hunting and butchering often in my life, but I must say that this place had me unnerved as people slung animal parts around with no concern of it touching me!
Yuck dude! Seriously! There were live chickens, ducks, geese, fish, turtles, etc. in cages - all making noise and moving around. People were chopping pigs apart all around me. There were so many hot peppers that I will never have to eat any meal without lots of great hot spices again! It was a good experience for me to go here.
   

   

  

  

    

We were shopping in the market because we were helping our other American friends throw a birthday party for one of the teachers at our college. She was turning 23 and we threw her a pizza party! It was so fun. We had them make pizza's - which was hilarious because they were incredibly excited about the whole process. Our local teacher friends brought some food to the party to share. Food like duck feed in a bar-b-q sauce. Yum! Actually, I didn't try any of that. I'm just not to that point in my cultural growth yet. We ate chocolate birthday cake - also a novelty for them - and then we played Jenga over and over again. What a fun night with my new friends!
  

  

   

    

This past weekend I went back to my favorite small town, where I had an unforgettable time! We started out by having lunch at our favorite authentic cultural place. It is great food - some of my favorite. I like to put a lot of lajiao into my rice to make it nice and spicy! While we were eating we were spotted by some children walking by. They all froze and started whispering and giggling. Eventually some of them got their nerve up to come in and talk to us. We saw them throughout the day at many places we went. I think we're friends now.
   
I got to visit my Buddhist monk friends again. They were just as sweet as ever. I gave them copies of the pictures we took last weekend when I visited, and they LOVED them! I don't know if I have ever had someone show so much appreciate for a gift I gave. The first picture below is taken as we approached the temple. It is on the side of a mountain.
      

  

   
When we left the Buddhist temple, everyone was taking their afternoon nap. My roomie and I decided to walk around the "neighborhoods" to find people to visit with. As we were walking down the alley where people live, one girl said "Hi" to us, so I responded and we were happy to find that she spoke pretty good English. About two sentences into the conversation, she invited us into her home. We learned that she was visiting the town to spend time with her grandmother. They were so sweet, and even let me take pictures of their home as they gave us a tour. It was a good chance to see the way most people live here.
  
I don't think they have to worry about anyone stealing this kitchen sink!
    
After we left their home we walked to the outskirts of town so I could really take in the views of the country around us.
  
We got together with friends that night for dinner. We ate at an expensive (for this town) restaurant which served some of the most authentic cultural dishes. I must admit that this was my least favorite meal I've had since I've been here. The meat we ordered was really just large slices of fat, with a hint of meat in the juices. You put the fat slices into pockets of steamed bread and eat it, dripping with grease and more fat. Check it out!
  
That night my roomie and I went back to the town square where everyone hangs out. We brought my guitar and sang some songs. We had to keep stopping and moving to different places because we kept gathering a large crowd of people around us. They were so interested in the singing white girls. People here have no problem standing right in front of you and staring at you for extended lengths of time. Fortunately, we kinda knew this would happen, and enjoyed getting to sing our songs for them.

On the way home from our time in the square I was asking our friend, Rachel, what she thought of our songs and the words in them. She told me she thought they were good and that she believed all of that in her heart. This was huge exciting news because my roomie had told her all of those stories before, but she had never been ready to take it in. We were so thrilled to hear that she is a sister now!

While we were singing in the square, we met some ladies who invited us to join them the next morning (Sunday) for a gathering they attend each week. It was a fun, unique experience.

We attended this event with some of our local friends including Rachel. But after a few hours we decided to leave early and go get some lunch. On the way to lunch I was able to talk with one of our brand new friends, Angel, about the most important relationship in my life. As I talked with Angel she asked me several questions, and as I continued to explain all about it she seemed to understand pretty well. I asked her if she would like to have the same great gift that I have, and she said yes! So I told her how to receive the gift and she did - even as we walked down the busy street!

Angel had brought a new friend, Mary, with her that morning, and Mary didn't speak any English at all. But as I had been talking with Angel, Mary was reading from some small papers I had with me - which explained it all in the local language. Mary was busy reading about it, and once we arrived at the restaurant I spoke with her the best I could to see if she understood. After reading the papers a long time, she decided she wanted the gift too! So my roomie told Angel to explain exactly how to have the gift and Mary listened and followed what she said. It was a sweet time for all of us and we ate lunch and celebrated together. I was so excited that I kept hugging everyone, and we clinked our glasses together in 'cheers' over and over. What a great day! Here are pictures from our celebration lunch and my new sisters hanging out around town.
   

  
After lunch we went to Rachel's house to learn to play the country's favorite game; Mahjong. We rode a couple of motor-taxi's to her house on the outskirts of town. And I took pictures from her home that were so pretty! We had a great day together.
  

  

  


I took more pictures during the long bus ride to get out to my special town.
I love this country and these people.

I will end for today, and maybe this weekend I'll post pictures from my first week in class, where I am learning the language fulltime in the local college. Also I'll need to post some pictures of our new couches, which were delivered as I typed this. They look great!