The Great Fall on the Great Wall

Well, we've been off the internet for a while because our service was a bit limited over the past 3 or 4 days. But, we are back with another update of our adventures!

This past Saturday we had the opportunity to visit the Great Wall with our friends. It was amazing. If you ever make it to this part of the world, we highly recommend it! Our adventure began with us loading the bus and driving away. Then we turned around to go back because we'd left someoene behind. Oops.

The Great Wall is about an hour and a half drive outside of Beijing. It was nice to get away from the city for a while and see some of the countryside. But before leaving the city we drove past the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. It's excititng to think that just one year ago the city was buzzing with Olympic activity.

Once at the Great Wall we made a bee line for the bathrooms. On the bathroom door was a sign saying, "Bathroom is bad. Go west." Since we didn't have our bearings yet we depended on the Chinese-speakers in the group to help us find the west bathroom. Mission accomplished!

To get to the top of the Great Wall (which is on the ridge of a mountain) you have three options: 1. Walk, 2. Chair Lift or 3. The Gondola. As mentioned above, the Wall is at the top of a mountain; that ruled out #1 for us. I have a bit of a fear of hights, so that ruled out #2. We went the more expensive route and paid our 40 RMB to ride the gondola, or sauna as it turned out to be. The gondonla "pods" are small enough that you can only fit in four people. There are two very small windows, so on this hot day it felt like a true sauna inside.

Once on top of the Great Wall we began exploring. A group of us decided to go to the very end of this particular section, which involved climbing up. But, the Great Wall does not go simply up. It's built on a mountain ridge so it follows the ridge as it raises and falls. So, up and down we went. We found a lot of great nooks and crannies along the way.

At the end of this particular section is a long staircase that goes up, up, UP! We figured that we were still young and healthy, so up, up, UP we went... panting all the way. At the top of the long staircase was another shorter staircase, but this one was much steeper. Remember how Annie is afraid of heights? Yep, this was a challenge! At the top we enjoyed taking pictures. In one we posed as the attacking Mongols. (We later found out that the wall was built after Mongol attacks and to keep them out. It was the Manchurians who were able to surpass the wall. Oops.)

Getting to the top of this big wall was quite exciting. Looking down at how far we had to walk back was sobering. So, off we went. This time down, down, down. We weren't stopping to take as many pictures on the way back. Maybe it was because we were slowly becoming drenched with sweat. This doesn't look as good in the family album.

Our final destination on the wall was the Alpine slide that you ride back to the bottom of the mountain. Fun! When we were about a quarter of a mile away from the slide I mistepped and had a glorious fall. The Great Wall is full of uneven steps and missing tiles. I found a missing tile and rolled my ankle. Now the fun challenge was getting off the Great Wall after my "great fall" with an ankle that was continuing to swell. Thank goodness for husbands! Brian was on one side, I had the wall to lean against on the other. A few of our friends caught up with us and lingered behind too. What great friends! Eventually, we made it to the Alpine slide. You're not supposed to ride it if you are injured. The attendant noticed my limping and started to protest (I think) in Chinese. This was one of the only times I've been grateful not to know Chinese! My friend who did speak Chinese well said something to the man as I was pushing off and sliding off the Great Wall.

In the end, we made it back to the hotel, sweaty and a little dirty from falling flat on my face. I had to lay in bed with my foot up for a day, then was off for an x-ray the next day. Thank goodness nothing is broken! The friends who live in Beijing even had an extra pair of crutches for me to borrow. I'm still limping a bit, but on the mend now.

I still remember sitting on the floor of the Great Wall feeling quite stupid for falling down and telling Brian, "I need a good story for this because basically I just fell." Brian, mater of factly, looked at me and said, "Annie, you're on the Great Wall of China."

An Update from Beijing

Well, it's been a while since we've updated. It's difficult to capture all of the experiences that we've been having. Sometimes our two weeks in Beijing has felt more like two years. We've had the adventures and challenges of learning more of the language, getting around on public transit and the basic survival skill of getting food. Here's a little about what we've been doing:
Man vs. China: Maybe you've seen the t.v. show "Man vs. Wild?" In this the host is dropped off in the middle of a wilderness and must do what he can to survive. This is what has happened to us in some ways. Our leaders have wisely refrained from coddling us and showing us how to perform basic life skills. Yes, they've given us aids, but they've also just let us free to roam through Beijing, learning as we go.
Getting food has been an adventure. We were given a Chinese/English paper menu with many of the common dishes found in China. We were let loose on the restaurants around our hotel. Quickly, reports came back of the restaurants that had either an English menu or a picture menu. A few times we ventured into an unknown restaurant to find out that they only had a printed menu in Chinese. In these cases we held up the menu and asked in broken Chinese, "What do you have?" After a fun game of pointing, nodding and conferring with our dinner mates, we made our choices. We've yet to find something that wasn't delicious. Our new favorite food is a dish of stir-fried eggplant, potatoes and green pepper. Hao chi! (That's Chinese for "delicious!")
Shopping at the supermarket is another challenge altogether. We quickly recognize brands that can also be found in America: Dove chocolate, Oreos, Skippy, Lay's potato chips and Pringles. We've were also surprised to find products from Bimbo, a Mexican pastry company found throughout L.A. Once we pass beyond these recognized brands we have to resort to a new method we like to call, "What's in the picture on the package?" This was how we found strawberry-flavored Cheetoes! And, they were quite tasty! We've avoided anything that has a picture of a shrimp on it. Some recent fun finds have been: chocolate chip cookies with strawberries or cherries, crab flavored Pringles, chocolate swirled peanut butter, apple-flavored soda, and many more. We are enjoying trying the different types of Chinese snacks too. We're eating a lot of banana chips, dried hawthorne (also called haw fruit), coconut bread and little chocolate cookies that are shaped like mushrooms. They're the only mushrooms Brian will eat. :) In all our searches we have yet to find the elusive Nutella. We found a German version called Nussa but haven't tried it yet.
Please check out our webpage for additional updates and pictures. We'll continue with more of our China adventures in our next note…

Life in Beijing

Well, after a 12-hour flight we made it to Beijing! Because of our flight times, flight path and crossing the international date line we had 23 hours of daylight. By the time we got to Beijing we were really ready for good sleep. But, we know that the best way to beat jet lag is to stay up until at least 9:00 p.m. (local time) so we don't wake up in the middle of the night. To do this we went out to the grocery store and bought some colas to keep us up. Even with the caffeine in our system we could only make it until 8:30.

After three days in Beijing we are settling into a new pace of life. (We are here for three more weeks for training.) Our first day was spent exploring the city with some Chinese students who are studying English. We had the best guides! Galen and Olive were very sweet and very helpful. We were able to see some of the most popular sights in Beijing: Tiananmen Square, the Drum Tower and Wangfujing Street (shopping!!!). Part of the challenge of the day was spending time using public transit. The subway in Beijing is very easy to navigate, and the busses stop often. We were very impressed.

Since then we have learned a lot in our training classes. Part of our training was in how to order food at a restaurant. We are having fun with that! Speaking Chinese and reading Chinese are two different animals. We have only been focusing on the speaking part so far and are quickly learning how important it is for us to learn how to read it as well.

All in all, we are having a lovely time and enjoying the new friends we are making. We'll keep you posted!

We're almost there

After much time of preparation and planning, we are about to finally leave for Asia! We are very excited and can't wait to share our adventures with you all. Please forgive our absence on our blog. Internet access will be limited when we are out of the country. But, we hope to be more faithful with our blog now.

Have a lovely rest of your summer! See you online!

A Day Away

This past weekend we had the chance to get out of Los Angeles. Of course, L.A. is so big that it took us two hours of driving to get out of the city. Yet, we triumphed on our drive south towards San Diego.

We found it a little funny what a vacation really was to us at this point in our lives. We have been so busy lately with our preparations to move overseas. Just a week ago we finished a class we were taking that lasted 16 weeks. We were so thrilled to be done with homework... and then the box arrived. The box contained all of our training materials for our TESOL training this summer. Each of us have six books to read and about as many papers to write before we start training in late-July. So, in the midst of all this we just wanted some time to really enjoy doing nothing much.

Brian had some plans up his sleeve. He knows that one of my favorite things to do is to go to the movies. But, in L.A. that can cost anywhere from $11-$14 per ticket. That's a little out of our current budget. Lucky for me Brian won a work contest at the coffee place where he works. Since he sold the most pounds of coffee in the month they awarded him with a $25 gift card to the movies! Brian is such a good husband that he let me choose the movie. I jokingly suggested the chick flick "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past." He wasn't too excited but was willing to go. See, great husband! In the end, we saw "Star Trek" and used the extra money on the gift card for some ice cream (one of my other favorite things) at the concession stand.

On Saturday we slept in! This was a great treat for me since our 16-week class was on Saturday mornings, I hadn't had a chance to sleep in in quite some time. I hope that one day we will have children, and at that time I know that sleeping in will be a thing of the past. So, for now I'm going to really relish it!

After lunch we went over to La Jolla. Brian had pre-paid for us to rent snorkels and masks to explore this cove where there are a lot of tiger sharks! They are the little ones that you can pet. When we arrived at the rental place they told us that the visibility was really bad that day, but they would give us a big discount on renting a kayak. We agreed! When we told them we'd have to go back to the car to get our wallets to pay for the upgrade the guy looked at us and said, "Don't worry about it." Yippee! We only paid $14 for the snorkels and masks but got to rent a kayak for the same price (normally $45). I love a bargain!

Next, I squeezed myself into Brian's wet suit. It was made for a man and took a little cajoling to fit my German-heritage hips into. I'm so grateful Brian brought the wet suit for me because the California ocean is never very warm. Once we were all suited up we headed to the beach and out to sea on our kayak.

What a beautiful day it was! Along the coast near the beach are caves where birds are perched on all the ledges in the rock. They kept swooping just over our heads. On one of the rocks was a huge family of sea lions. There must have been thirty of them! It was so fun watching them. The alpha sea lion was barking at the people watching. There were a lot of baby sea lions. Some were fighting, some were just playing in the water with their momma sea lions. Ah, nature! How we love it.

After we returned our kayak we decided to swim and play in the waves. Brian taught me how to body surf! I found it challenging to swim and play in the waves without my contact lenses being washed out of my eye balls, but somehow managed to end the day being able to see. The waves were great on this day. What a joy it was to really take advantage of a beautiful beach in California before we leave.

On our way back north we visited a friend for dinner and ate our weight in bread sticks. Yum, bread sticks. This is one of the many foods we will miss while in China. We're also going to truly miss all of our wonderful friends and family.

Now, we are back to L.A. life, the box of books and all the preparations to move...

Ten Weeks from Tuesday

Soon, we'll be saying "goodbye" to this...

and this...

and this...

... and saying "hello" to this...

On June 30 (ten weeks from Tuesday), we will be driving out of L.A. to start our journey towards Asia! Upon leaving L.A. we will be visiting family as we roadtrip from the West Coast to the Midwest. We are super excited to see our family again and look forward to treasuring those times together prior to our departure.

As we get closer and closer to our time to leave L.A. we have come to both appreciate and be annoyed by L.A. at the same time. We have already begun eating at restaurants that we know we won't have in Asia. Last night was Arby's! It was delicious. Normally, we don't eat such unhealthy food, but we keep saying that we're trying to absorb as much American culture as we can in our last weeks here. That's the same excuse I give for my current addictions to "American Idol" and "The Biggest Loser!"

Where have we been?

Okay, it's been a while since we've gotten online to post a new blog entry. It's happened to us again, life has gotten too busy! So, here's a little about what has been filling out time...

--We've been taking a Saturday morning class for 6 weeks now and have 10 more left to go. The class is great, but there is a lot of homework. We keep trying to carve out blocks of time to sit down and work through the weekly assignments.
--More medical fun for Annie! Annie recently saw the podiatrist. He had to give her a steriod shot into the ball of her foot to settle some inflamation. While there the doctor also noticed a fungal infection in Annie's toenail and decided to remove the infected nail. We both just got our dental insurance activated and went to see the dentist. Annie found out that sometime in the past two years she has started grinding her teeth and now has a number of cavities. When she went to get the first few filled she had a very bad experience. After three shots of novicane she could still feel the drill. Through all of this Annie has quickly realized why torture often affects the teeth and toes... it really hurts!
--Brian has been teaching on Sunday mornings to fill in while his boss has been out of town. He has really enjoyed it, but it's kept him quite busy.
--We've begun the paperwork necessary to move ourselves to Asia for work. And there is a lot of paperwork! We are taking it in small chunks one evening at a time. We can only trust in Father that it will all come together in His ways and His timing.
--In the midst of all our busy-ness we've also been able to have a little fun with friends and escape for the occasional cheeseburger and shake at the 50's Cafe. If you haven't heard from us in a while, please forgive us. We hope to have another newsletter going out in May. By that time we should have our assignement for where we'll be placed to teach in Asia. We can't wait!

Some Wedding Mad-libs

Our friend, Katie, put this artistic photo together. She is so creative!

This was taken during the wedding reception.

For our wedding we wrote our own Mad-libs for our guests to fill out. We were surprised by how many people did them! Over the course of our first year of marriage we've taken time to read them. Below are two of our favorites. The bolded words are those that were filled in for the game. If you don't know what Mad-libs are, then this is going to look really crazy to you!

The First Date

Brian and Annie met on a websited called flower.com. When Brian saw Annie's smelly picture on-line, he said, "Holy Baloney!" On the other hand, Annie thought Brian's picture looked like a tapir. Still, she dangerously agreed to meet him at Khadafi's Cafe. Brian said that he would be wearing a strong push-up.

When Annie snorted in the cafe she was happy that Brian was funky. He thought she was too. They ordered their chunky drinks and began talking. Annie told Brian about her suspicious career as an organized criminal. Brian was very impressed. He told Annie about his favorit hobby, doing jumping jacks. She thought this was so totally yellow.

Annie and Brian fried for 17,327 hours. They discovered a shared interest in the former Yugoslavia. They each told sotries of flushing there last summer. They especially enjoyed the fluffy people and their eggs.

At the end of the date, Brian shrugged Annie to her car and asked her for another lemming. Annie was very pokey. To say good-bye, Annie held up her sacro-iliac and said "Laugh it." Brian did, and now they are getting married!

The Proposal

Brian realized that Annie was the floor of his life, so he came up with a sweeping plan. Brian bought her a green ring from his friend in Golden Gate. His plan was in motion.

When Brian crashed Annie to go out with him, she thought this ws just another tasty date. They began by visiting a kitchen where they observed many beautiful dogs. Annie was impressed by Brian's knowledge of lights. next, he chopped her to a Persian restaurant. She danced Brian and said "I eat this place!"

After their long dinner, they drove to the top of a wine and enjoyed the purple view. Brian felt a little pink as he prepared to "pop the big cake." He gave Annie a knife, and she unwrapped it. Then she said, "Thank you, I hate it." But there was more. Brian urged Annie to deliver the appliance. Annie was reluctant saying, "I can see the shoe on the box!" Brian was insistent. Faithfully, Annie did as he asked and discovered a mushy ring. Brian quickly fell to his knee andasked, "Will you chase me?" Annie shouted, "Heck no!" And now, they are married.

One Year Already!

On January 26, we celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary! We can't believe how quickly the time has gone. We continue to enjoy learning about each other and laughing together.

To celebrate we took a road-trip up to central California and had a lovely time the whole way. Our first stop was to visit our aunt in Fresno. We had a great time just talking, eating Chick Fil-A and painting a plate together at Color Me Mine.

Our next leg of the trip was up to Lake Tahoe. What a beautiful drive it was! After living in such a highly congested area for so long we were refreshed to see so much open space. It started snowing as we got farther up the mountain. The highway department had a blockade where they were stopping them and requiring snow chains for any two-wheel drive vehicles. Brian and I pulled off and had another first in our marriage... putting on snow chains! What was most funny about this experience was that once we got the chains on and continued down the highway there wasn't too much snow. They plows had already cleared most of it. Oh well, we had an adventure anyway!

In Tahoe we stayed on the 9th floor of a hotel with a view of Lake Tahoe. It was amazing! We sat for a while just taking in the view of the snow falling over the lake. Because the roads were bad, we stayed within walking distance of the hotel. We managed to eat dinner at a casino buffet and watch "Frost/Nixon." This was the very last film that Annie worked on as an extra. You can see her if you know where to look... and if you look quick! The movie was great, and we highly recommend it.

Our main reason for going to Lake Tahoe was for the skiing! A friend recommended a great ski area, and we had perfect conditions. The snow from the night before left a nice layer of powder, and since we were skiing on a Monday, there weren't too many people on the slopes. I hadn't really ever been skiing before, so she attended "ski school." After the morning class I was able to join Brian on the big hills! Well, we skied a green course and a little of a blue course. I didn't like going too fast, and I REALLY didn't like the ski lift. In the end, it was a lot of fun. Brian got to share one of his favorite activities with me. Neither of us was injured, quite sore, but not injured.

We stopped over in Sacramento on our way back to SoCal. We took a free tour of the capital building that was quite interesting and fun. Our tour guide was a real kick. She made a point of taking us by the sign outside the governor's office that shows the growing state defecit because of the overdue budget.

On our trip we spent some of our time in the truck listening to our Chinese lessons. There are times when we really like the language and other times when we wanted to take out the CD, launch it across the highway and drive over it a few times. We know that with Father's help we can do anything, but this is a challenge!

It's so great to have a husband when you need to put on snow chains!

The guys in yellow were charging people $30 just to put the chains on for you!

Ahhhh.... snow.

Our room with a view.

We just love this pose!

This was at the top of the mountain. It looked like we were going to ski into the lake!

Annie is trying not to look scared on the chair lift.

This was a huge lake!

At the California State Capitol.

I loved this picture from the lobby area.

Below is the sign outside the governor's office showing the defecit.

Livin' in L.A.

Rock concerts, movies and summertime, oh my! This has been the past few days for us.

Last Thursday we got to see a friend's band (Tommy Peacock and the Gas) play at the House of Blues on Sunset Blvd. It was quite an experience! There was another band playing when we got there. I'll never understand the type of music they were playing. It was very angry. The lead singer had a nice voice... when he actually sang. Most of the time he was screaming into the microphone. Brian said that the theme of every song they sang was, "Everything sucks." That was about it! Luckily, we only had to listen to about three of their songs before Tommy's band took the stage. They were so much more fun... and more talented. We really had a great time listening to their music and watching them perform. They really put on a show. Of all the time we've lived in L.A. we have only gone to one other concert! We don't get out much.

On Saturday night we went our for a hot date. This is something else we rarely do! Ususally, we just pick up a DVD at the library and put a frozen pizza in the oven. Thanks to the kindness of our friends, we were able to make use of some free movie passes and a gift card to P.F. Chang's. This was our first time to P.F. Chang's, a Chinese-style restaurant. It was nowhere near authentic Chinese! We laughed at how we've become Chinese food snobs. After dinner we walked to the movie theatre and saw "Slumdog Millionaire." The movie was wonderful! We highly recommend it (but also caution that it is rated "R"). It was just a very well-told story. And, it showed a lot about these slums where the main character grew up. Seeing this made us very grateful for all the comforts we have in America.

L.A. has decided that it's had enough with winter and cut straight to summer. Because of the Santa Ana winds that blow in from the desert the temperatures have soared. The highs all this week will be in the low-80s! It's just wrong. Brian and I are very grateful for all the blessings we have, we just wish we could have colder weather. I'm sure that those of you in colder parts of the country might really enjoy 80-degree weather right now. But, I assure you that after five years of almost endless summer we're ready for a change. And, a little rain might not hurt either!

Christmas in Missouri

Christmas vacation was just what we needed! We really enjoyed getting out of the city again and spending time with family. We had a week to decompress in beautiful Missouri with Annie's family. If was refreshing to see all the open spaces and wildlife. We flew into the area on Christmas Day. Annie's mom picked us up at the airport and drove us straight to Christmas dinner.

We celebrated Christmas officially two days afterwards when we went to visit Annie's sister and her family. Annie's sister is married with five kids. The moment we walked in the door we were showered with hugs and questions about when they got to open their presents. Having children around makes Christmas much more fun. Annie's sister made a delicious brunch including her now famous cinnamon rolls. We could have eaten ten of them! Finally, we opened presents. Annie's sister recieved "Mama Mia!" on DVD. We forced Brian and Annie's brother-in-law to watch it with everyone. They were very good sports! And we were all humming Abba songs the rest of the night.

For a large portion of this trip we were just relaxing and visiting with family. What a joy! We really enjoyed playing with Annie's nieces and nephews. Brian has quickly become accustomed to being called "Uncle Brian." We went on a walk through the Nature Center where we saw a lot of wildlife. At the "cave park" the kids ran around in the caves and fed the ducks in the pond. We have really treasured all of these moments knowing that next year we won't be in the U.S. at this time.

Here are some more pictures of our fun:

Baby on the blanket that Aunt Annie made.



Uncle Brian!

Hiking at the Nature Center.

The wildlife at the Nature Center.

"Sisters! Sisters! There were never such devoted sisters."

Annie's mom trying to win at Apples to Apples.

Ugh. Too much Christmas.