Hi there! The big news of the month is I no longer have a broken ankle!! My cast is off and everything! (Longest 6 weeks of my life). I'm doing well here; I've made a new friend at church and we click really well. So Stephanie (which is her name) and I decided to go traveling during winter holidays together. We're going to go to Thailand and Cambodia. I'm pretty stoked about it. Teaching is going well; I've started to teach my students some slang (what's up, whatever, cool, etc...) and most of them really get into it. When I was teaching them "Whatever" (in the sense that you use it to say you don't believe someone) I would tell outrageous lies and they would respond. Some of my third graders still do it to me, giving me outrageous lies to which I respond "whatever." It's a lot of fun. I've been exploring more; I got a bike and I'm learning cycling proficiency again. It's been a while. I went to Hong Kong a couple times and played; got some new clothes, went to Disneyland and such. I found an English bookstore (thanks dad!) and so I splurged and got some books. Thank goodness. Here's pictures!

The third grade had an "English Star Arena" where they played games and sang English songs. I was asked to 'host' it.
This is Ella. She was my co-host. She's probably one of my best students. Such a sweetie.
Thanksgiving dinner at the Aufderheide family residence. They kindly offered Stephanie and me a place to go.

Not quite sure what this was, but the girls were all frantically tying their hair...

Stephanie and I went to Hong Kong for a weekend of revelry and shopping.

This is us on the metro. It took us a while to get there. The guy on the right is Joey Christensen; his family are old friends of my parents, and they let us stay with them.Disneyland!!! It was a lot of fun.







Some kind of yumminess...





The Star Island Ferry to Kowloon

China Post

Hi everyone!
I realize it's been a while and I haven't yet posted about China, so here it is. I don't have very many pictures of me going places because of my broken ankle, but hopefully that will change soon. I am working at a school in a suburb city of Guangzhou, and the bus ride into the city is only 40-ish minutes so it's not too bad. I'm really enjoying all the good food and cheap living. Last week I went and got an hour massage for six US dollars. It was nice. At my school I teach graes 3, 4, and 5 Oral English; basically what that means is I help them develop their speaking and conversational English. It's kind of hard because the kids don't get grades or marks for my class, and so they're not invested in it and they don't focus. Some classes are getting better though, thank goodness. There are two LDS couples down here at the same school I work, which is kind of unheard of! It's really nice, and they've been great helping me get around and situated. They've shown me all the good places to eat down here, and where different things are. I am going to Hong Kong this weekend to sort out my visa, since I broke my ankle the day before my last planned trip. Hopefully everything will go smoothly! Stuart and Brooke live right in the city, and it's nice to be able to go and visit and see them so much; they've been great helping me get started and find a job. Well, here are some pictures of my school and my apartment!

This is the front of my school. If I turn right like 45 degrees, there is my bus stop and the street down to my apartment.
The inside of the school entrance. My section is on the right hand side here.
This is the building I teach in. I have the top two floors.

The whole elementary school gathers everyday for morning exercises.


This is my apartment. It's kind of messy in these pictures, but whatever. This is what you see when you are standing in the doorway.

My bedroom.
A very teeny kitchen

That's all for now; it takes forever to upload and post!

Graduation!

On August 14, 2009, I graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Arts in French Teaching, and a minor in English Teaching. It was a very cool ceremony, and I had a lot of fun that day. Mom, Dad, and Erin were there, and we went out to Carrabba's for lunch. Then in the evening a bunch of friends and I went to the Cheesecake Factory (which is my favorite restaurant...). It was a fun vacation overall, and the next Friday Dad and I drove my little car across the country before I left for China.






Ravioli at Carrabbas. Yumminess beyond belief.

Colin took us shooting during our stay, before which I had never even touched a gun. It was a lot of fun, and really loud.

Summer 2009

Life has been very busy this summer; I'm back working at the group home, I've been working at the Telefund, and I've been busy socially as well, which is always good. In July I was having some second thoughts about my decision to go to China, but after lots of prayer and booster calls from Mom and Dad, I've decided to still go. It's something I've wanted to do for a loooooong time, and I figure now is the best time in my life to do it. Dad and I are leaving end-ish of August to drive my car back to Maryland, as I don't want to sell it, and I will be flying to China in the beginning of September. AGH!!! I'm so excited!!!
I've also been having a lot of fun with friends this summer. Ashley Johnson, Stephen Clouse, and Robbie Petterborg are my main source of entertainment; we've hung out like every night, and we have a lot of fun together. We do a lot of cooking and movies on Robbie's big screen (and by this I mean a projector on an entire wall). Action movies are really cool this way, as is the Planet Earth series by BBC we've been going through. The hunting snow leapords, elephants, and desert sandstorms are super cool when they're bigger on the screen than you are in real life.
So next week I graduate from BYU. I've been a student here for 5 years, and it's kind of difficult to imagine me leaving. It's comfortable to be a student and know what's coming the next year. Even though I'll be sad to leave, I'm excited for this new phase in my life. I also stopped working at the Telefund, which was very sad. Most of my college friends were made there, and it was really a good place for me. I'll miss it a lot.

Ashley and Stephen are engaged, and getting married in December. This was on the fourth at the Freedom Days festival, and I joke that this is how their marriage is going to be...


Fourth of July up on Y Mountain to watch the fireworks from Stadium of Fire. This way we were spared the Jonas Brothers. Left to right: Robbie, me, Ashley, Stephen

I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It was so awesome; I've never been to a midnight showing before.

I went camping this summer for the first time in 9 years. With nothing to do that night we resorted to interpretive dances around the fire. This has something to do with magical milk and unicorns, which if you've read the Fablehaven series, will make somewhat more sense. My friends Holly and Bradford.
Bradford was doing something about a baby quail.... best interpretive dance of the night

Not sure what Robbie was going for... a bunny rabbit?

My dance. Not sure what *I'm* going for either....
Me and my good friend Holly. ~Holly started the fire, it was always burning, since the world's been turning~
Robbie bought a cake decorating kit, and we made a mongo carrot cake that took six hours from start to finish. I had the biggest subsequent sugar high in a veeeery long time. We kept sampling the frosting during the making process, and then to actually eat the cake and frosting, well you get my point. We had fun decorating.
Robbie is stabbing the cake while Ashley decorates.

Telefund summer BBQ. It was a lot of fun, and there was a watermelon eating contest. Awesome

Holly and me.
Spaghetti night!!
A berry smoothie that was a-MAZ-ing!!!

So that's pretty much my life this summer. A lot of fun, a lot of work. Good times.