Vernal Reception

12 July 2008

Cami's second reception was held in Vernal, where Kemish is from. The decorations were great and the night was a lot of fun. They had the same sort of festivities at this reception that they did at the Sandy reception, only this time we stood in her line for a shorter time. Yahoo!

Some pictures of the joyous event.

The car...

Kemish's cousin and best man got the car pretty well. The cousins went a little crazy and threw confetti in the car...coming from someone who has been on the bad end of a confetti prank (Thanks again oh so much for that Luke) not the greatest idea...

Mari and Kaylee = CRAZY

9 July 2008

Who would have known that a deck of cards could entertain 2 girls in their 20s for hours? We sure didn't, but I guess anything is possible after midnight.

Mari came home from work right after I got back from a fun night at Annika's. We chatted for a few minutes and got ready for bed. Then I suggested that we play a game. So Mari got out her Pirates of the Carribean cards and we played a bunch of games: L.A. Speed, regular speed, Old Maid, maybe "Go Fish", and ERS.

We played a guessing game as well. We took just one turn cutting the deck three times and then the other had to guess how many cards were in each pile. You were only allowed to look at them and couldn't touch them at all. I thought I did pretty well. The farthest that I was off was three cards. I thought that was great.

WRONG. Mari was the PRO at that game. She guessed every single pile correctly! And she took half the time that I did. Boo. I don't like losing and she totall swamped me. That could be why we only played that once...

The last game we played is the game where you put a card face out on your forehead and try to guess what your number is before the other players. We had a lot of fun with that. More fun that you'd think actually. The first round went on forever because Mari forgot that there is a number 10 card. She would guess every suit, every card, except for ten. It was hilarious. We were laughing really hard.

The second round was really fast. I asked Mari if my card was a spade, she said yes. I asked Mari if it was a queen. She said no. Then I asked Mari if my card was a king and she said yes. This means that I guessed correctly. Unless your partner is LYING to you! Then you think you're just a really good guesser, but really you're way wrong. Yup, Mari LIED. My card was the 3 of hearts; she said it was the King of Spades. She's a punk.

Girl's Night

7 July 2008

Abby and Anne decided to stay down in Provo with me at Mari's apartment and we had a blast.

We started off going shopping with Mari and picked up some food for dinner and the ingredients to make Muddy Buddies - YUM! Mari is FHE group leader so she and I went to FHE while Abby and Anne watched dinner. It was a little crazy for a little while there, but dinner turned out fantastic and the muddy buddies were, of course, amazing.

We decided to be really random and went and played volleyball after a little while. We played for a long time, and I still maintain that Abby and I won. Fair and Square.

Sandy Reception

5 July 2008

Cami and Kemish had their Sandy reception at my Uncle John and Aunt Elaine's backyard. They have a beautiful backyard and an amazing view.

Cami and Kemish asked Dad to do a ring ceremony for them before the reception began so her friends from high school could be part of the days festivities, too.

Cami had us stand in a line for the first two hours (maybe only an hour and a half). It was a lot of fun to see family, of course, and it was great to see friends we hadn't seen in a while.

Then the fun started. Cami and Kemish danced, Cami and Dad danced and Kemish sang to Cami He sang Josh Groban's "In Her Eyes" and it was fantastic. Good job Kemish! Then they cut they cake, she threw (a.k.a LAUNCHED) her bouquet (Grandma Holyoak caught it after hitting dad right in the chest. Dad was IN BACK of all the girls waiting for the bouquet), Kemish threw the garder, Kemish threw the garder, Kemish threw the garder - I don't know how long that went on. Cami was over zealous in her throw and Kemish couldn't get it past it two feet. Eventually he made it like three feet and my 9 year old cousing Griffin ran and picked it up.

The night ended late, after cleaning up and opening presents. Then I played chauffer and took Lauren and Katherine to their hotel, and Cami and Kemish to their hotel. It was a long trip - who knew there were 2 exits to Redwood road off of 215? Boo on THAT.

All in all it was a fun night and a great day for a wedding. Congrats to Cami and Kemish and getting sealed together forever!

Cami and Kemish Get Married!

5 July 2008

After a late night talking to Cami, we also had an early morning. Mari came over at some time that I can't remember (but I was still asleep) and did Cami's hair. She then proceeded to do MY hair - and by doing my hair I mean that she pretty much dumped the bottle of hairspray on my hair. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but coming from someone who doesn't use hairspray...it was a lot. But my hair actually turned out okay, so I can forgive Mari for her hairspraying craze.

Cami looked beautiful and Kemish was quite handsome. They were both in love and happy to be married.

It was the perfect day. The sun was shinning (I actually got a small sunburn by the end of the day's festivities) and there were no clouds in sight. Enjoy the pictures from the Temple!

Shooting and the Fourth

4 July 2008

Ryan and Bekah each have a rifle and Ryan just bought a hand gun, so they invited us to go shooting. I hade never been before and it was SO MUCH FUN! The handgun was really loud, but the rifle wasn't bad at all and both were fun to shoot.

Mom is an amazing shot, and it seemed everyone else was pretty good too. I didn't really watch Ryan or Bekah shoot, but I'd assume they're good because they go more often than we do.

I wasn't amazing at hitting the pop cans, but it sure was exciting when I got one. We shot at full pop cas so they exploded when you hit them. It was great. It made things so much more exciting.

After shooting we went up to Bridal Falls for a picnic. Mom made yummy salads (there were sandwiches too, but Mom's salads were far superior) and everything was delicious. Anne and I ventured a climb partway up Bridal Falls with Bekah after playing cards with Cami, Abby, and Mom.

After we went back to Ryan and Bekah's place for swimming and dinner. The pool was freezing so we didn't stay long. Anne wanted to see the fire works so we met up with Kemish and his family to watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire. It was a great day, but very exhausting!

Cami's Bachelorette Party

1 July 2008

Cami's high school friends threw her a bachelorette party. We had dinner at Olive Garden and celebrated Cami getting married, and Sarah Chapman's birthday. It was a lot of fun, and of course, very yummy!

Afterwards we went back to Amy, Sarah, Joslyn, and Melissa's hotel room for games. Somehow we ended up parading down University Avenue. I joined for a little bit and then went back to the hotel room - I was tired and just not in the mood.

After Abby, Anne and I spent the night at Cami's place and played games. I ended up staying up super late to finish the host. I just couldn't put it down!

GRADUATIONS!

11 June 2008

Anne graduated from the eighth grade! Yippie Anne! That is way exciting. Her ceremony was interesting and semi-boring, but very nice at the same time. I tried to take a picture of her as she was walking across, but the Chinese can be very rude sometimes and no one would let me through, even though Anne obviously wasn't their child. Boo. I was so mad. I sat next to Abby after than and we messed around a little to help calm me down.

13 June 2008

Abby graduated from high school! My little sister is all grown up and graduating from high school IN CHINA! Pretty neat, pretty neat! Good job little sister! I'm so proud of you! Soon you will be in college, living with your most amazingest older sister and having the time of your life!

Abby's graduation started early. I got there with about a minute to 6p, when it was supposed to start, and the first speaker was already going. BOO!

All in all, I am proud of my sisters' accomplishments and graduations, but I am not proud of the rude Chinese who block pictures and start oober early!

My First Pull-Over

30 June 2008

Monday saw me at with Cami trying to buy a bed for her and Kemish. We found one and for a great price. We were all really excited. After, we went to Mari's to get Cami's hair dyed for the wedding. I basically sat there and read a book, checked my emails (It was a good email day! :)) and chatted occasionally. I really wasn't allowed to help out with the hair. The small blessings of being half boy...

I left Mari's and went to pick up Cami's high school friend Amy Barrow from the airport. I was late (not my fault), but other than that the pick up was glitch free. Untill we were almost out of airport limits. Then I went a little fast and got pulled over by and Officer Washington. Patriotic, huh?

He was nice and understanding and told me from the beginning that I would only get a warning. I was so grateful!

Then we couldn't find Cami's car registration. After sitting on the side of the road for a really long time the officer let us go telling me to go slower. I was so nervous! I'm glad I only got a warning. I blame part of it on not driving for two plus months while I've been in Hong Kong. The other parts: All me.

First Class Lounge and Back to the Past

28 June 2008

Dad flies a lot and is a very frequent fly-er so we got to wait for our plane in the First Class Lounge. It was great. We got lunch and I could have showered there if I wanted to. It was crazy. Very nice and peaceful that's for sure. I didn't know places like that existed! And I thought the business class lounge was great. I was wrong.

Well, I guess it's only kinda back to the past. We left Hong Kong at 5pm HK time and got into LA at 2:30p the same day. So we kinda traveled back in time...

The flight was uneventful and 14 hours long. I slept for the first part of that plane ride and then watched movies the second part. I watched Penelope (great movie), Fool's Gold, and Definitely Maybe.

Dad was way cool and bought me The Host for the trip. I read more of that on the flight from LA to SLC. It's way good and you should read it.

We arrived in SLC and had no problams with luggage or anything. Mom, Abby and Anne came and picked us up and life was just great. Ryan and Bekah were at Grandma's when we got back from the airport and we stayed up till nearly 10:30 chatting and catching each other up. It was good to have most of the family together again.

DISNEYLAND!!!!

21 June 2008

Today was my very first trip to Disneyland! Woot woot! It was super fun. Dad and I did nearly everything in the park. We didn't make it to all the shops or to one show and two "experiences", but we also didn't do anything for the last hour. We just played cards and waited for the fireworks to start. And the fireworks were amazing! It really was magical! I didn't think that it was going to be that magical, because I'm twenty, but it was and I loved it!!! Enjoy some pictures of our day in the magical world of Disney.

Macau and the Partners' Conference

23-27 June 2008

The best way to describe this week is BUSY BUSY BUSY! The Partner Conference is an annual event for the Partner's to network and come together to discuss the things of the firm. The event's team I'm interning with sets the whole thing up. My role at the conference was restaurant bookings, conference room bookings, and printing.

Printing was by far the most stressful. The partners' secreataries would need their boss to have this material or that presentation by a certain time. They would need so many copies and a delivery to the room. Some times it was just down right crazy trying to get the things done that everyone needed. But it was a lot of fun. I loved being a part of the events team again. It really is what I love to do. Now if I can just do it outside with jeans on life would be perfect!

Disneyland Hotel

10-13 June 2008

My first real assignment as an intern was to be support at an event for the global partners. The event was held at the Disneyland Hotel and it was great to be there.

I had never been to anything disney at this point in my life, so the Disneyland Hotel was magical for me. I loved the subtleties what I found all over the hotel. Cute figureine's and statues, mickey mouse heads in the carpent, glass slippers in the tiles. The best subtlty of all was the real glass slippers in the chandelier! NO joke. Check out the pictures; they're great.

Swimming with the sisters

9 June 2008

My sisters pretty much never go to school. Seriously. They are always off for this holiday or that holiday. It's crazy. I guess that's the benefit of going to an international school where they have to respect American Holidays and Chinese holidays. It also does make for a long school year. They start mid-August and end mid-June. Icky.

Anyway...My sisters had the 9th off and we decided to play. Abby and Anne both had some packing to do for college and vacation in the States so we left around 11 and headed to the outdoor pool at Phase 1.

The pool was amazing and the day perfect. The sun was shinning the water was great, and we just had a blast. I cut my knee on the side of the pool, not sure how that happened, and the three of us were just silly the whole time.

Abby suggested that we try to get out of the pool with only using our legs. You flip your legs so they're out of the pool and you have to pull yourself up from there. It's quite hard, but doable. It took us a while though - the edge was really slippery!!! And not just because it was wet either, the stone was really smooth.

We only spent a couple of hours at the pool because then Abby and Anne had places to be. It was a fun couple of hours together though. I'm glad we went - even if we did all get sunburned and crazy amazing tan lines...

Pictures from Beijing

Here are some pictures from the places that I went while I was in Beijing. The city was huge and a different experience. Different from Cortland, Provo, and Hong Kong.

Vacation Again

Beginning of June

After getting back from Beijing late Saturday I returned to the office early Monday for work. I was approached Tuesday morning and told that HR didn't want me to work until my work visa was activated. No one informed me, or anyone that I was supposed to have it activated when I arrived in Hong Kong and went through immigration here.

So since my work visa hadn't been activated, I still wasn't legal. I got to go back on vacation until Thursday night.

Thursday night there was a taste testing in Macau for the Partner's Conference that was coming up at the end of June. To enter and leave Macau you have to go through immigration so I would have an opportunity to get my work visa "chopped" - That's how they say stamped here.

In the meantime, I read a few books and hung out with Mom and Sister Collins again (Heather had left for Scotland by then). It was fun and relaxing as any vacation is.

Luke and Bekah

18 May 2008

Luke Beachley and I worked together at Timpanogos Elementary this last school year and found a common connection: Both our parents lived in China. Way interesting. He and his sister decided to come and visit their parents with a stop off in Hong Kong. They stayed with us for the week they played in Hong Kong.

Mom and I went Sunday evening to pick them up. They had a good long trip from the States and they were tired when they arrived. But their tiredness put no damper on their energy for the fun they planned on having that week.

I was excited to have friends in town and people to hang out with. Luke, Bekah and I had some great adventures while they were here. We visited lots of places and took a bunch of pictures.

Cheng Chow Island

16 May 2008

Heather, Sister Collins, Mom and I all decided that it would be fun to have another outing together. This time we went to an island called Cheng Chow. None of us had been there before so it would be an adventure to us all. And it was great fun.

We walked around the little homes and shops that were there and then decided to do some shopping. We shoped for a little bit then went to lunch at this Indian restaurant. It was way good! Indian food is amazing. One of my favorites (Mexican still wins).

We shopped for a little bit longer then headed back home on the ferry. It was a beautiful ride. I really do love being on the water.

Shenzhen: The Art Village

12 May 2008

For my birthday my parents promised me a trip to the art village and a souvenier to bring home. So after the craziness in the "Great and Spacious Building" Abby and Anne left to be home in time for Anne's Mandarin tutor who was coming that night, and Mom and I headed over to the Art Village to pick out my birthday present.

I loved the Art Village. I thought it was great. There were so many paintings everywhere and so many artists and shops! It was great. Many of you may know my struggle with making decisions. I have a really hard time choosing. Picking out my birthday present was no exception. I think Mom and I walked through the whole village twice completely, and then other parts way more than that. There were just so many to choose from. A lot of them were pretty big too, and I didn't want anything huge because, well, I don't really like big things. Normal, moderate size is great for me.

Eventually I decided on two wonderful paintings: One of the Hong Kong Skyline and another of a Chinese fishing boat and hut. I love them. They're great.

Finally, after an extremely long day in China, Mom and I left for home.

Mother's Day

11 May 2008

Basically, me and my sisters are amazing. That is the best preface for my Mother's Day entry.

My sisters and I decided to decorate my Mom's bedroom mirror with things that we admired about Mom. There were a bunch of things listed and we all pitched in. So one mirror has been decorated.

Then we decided to write HAPPY MOM'S DAY on the mirror in our front room. So we did and it was great.

Mom came home and was happy and surprised at our thoughtfulness of writing on the mirrors. We know we're cool.

But the best part is yet to come. See, every Mother loves to have the gift of "Mother's Day Dinner" so my little sisters and I made dinner for Mom. It was a new recipe and YUMMY! But the greatest part was dessert - of course. We made rice krispies. But we shaped it into...dun...dun...dun... MOM. That's right we made my Mother out of rice krispies! It was great. We put candles on it - a 2 and a 6 for the years Mom and Dad have been married, and 5 single candles for the most wonderful gifts in the world - HER CHILDREN! Woot Woot!

We think we're funny.

Abby's Heart Attack

7 May 2008

Abby is my younger sister and a senior in high school. On May 7 Abby was going to be taking her AP Lit exam so the night before I decided to heart attack her. I stayed up with Mom and watched a movie or something. Abby was asleep on the floor with her head in a book nearly the whole time I was making hearts.

There was a problem with hanging the hearts, seeing as there were just a few places that Abby would have seen them in the morning. So I decided to put them on the floor in front of the door. She'd be sure to see them there!

And she did and she liked it and she did well on her exam. Yea, Abby!

My Business Trip to Beijing

This is an email that I sent out to my family when I was in Beijing for the PwC Cup Qualifiers, an event my team put together:

Hello from Beijing! Yup, that's where I'm at. I'm helping out with an event here. Or something. HR says I can't help until I activate my visa because if I get hurt the firm can't pay for my medical bills because I'm not legal. Whatever. My boss Michelle says that I can do things that are "safe," "not dangerous," or "not life threatening". I just keep doing whatever I can. Yesterday we didn't know I wasn't allowed to do stuff so I counted a whole bunch of things. Today things have been slow because copies haven't been done. But wait, let me get there

Yesterday: the flight was good. I watched Dan in Real Life. Good movie, I really enjoyed it. My headphones were obnoxious; they only worked in one ear. I thought about switching, but I wasn't up for talking to anyone. The breakfast that they served was Sausage and egg with hash brown cubes. The sausage was white and definitely questionable- I didn't eat it. But I ate all the potatoes and some of the egg. Something about the egg just did not taste that yummy. We arrived and had a car driver waiting for us at the airport. That was fun. Oh, and before the flight we got to hang out in this lounge area with free food and nice chairs and couches. That was a lot of fun. I enjoyed that. The perks of flying for business.

The drive to the hotel, after the flight, was quiet and uneventful.
The hotel is nice, it's the trader's hotel for the first two nights and the Shangri La for the last night (dad will appreciate those details). After dropping off our stuff we got Lunch at Starbucks on the way up to the office. The conference room we are in has an amazing view. Two of the walls are windows. Don't worry; I have taken lots of pictures. I can't wait for everyone to come in December and see Beijing. So far I LOVE it. But more about that later

We came up to the office and I counted out things for the event.
(Everything is highly confidential due to it being a competition so I probably shouldn't go into more detail) we were here until right before 8 and then we went to a supermarket really quickly. I was feeling terribly, really sick to my stomach and just wanted to go home. I picked up some crackers and water, figuring that this would be okay for my stomach and wouldn't make me sicker. Plus I was thinking of skipping out on dinner because I didn't feel well.

I did end up skipping out on dinner because I felt so terribly. I stayed in my room and read a little in my book. But then I turned on the TV and Back to the Future II or III was on. It's the one where they are back in the late 1800s early 1900s, you know, the one with the train and doc falls for the teacher? Anyway, I watched the rest of that and went to bed at 10p.

I woke up at 5, boo. I finally got out of bed a little after six. I showered and got ready and was utterly board after sitting on my bed, so at 6:45 I decided to go out touring. So I did. I went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Or at least that was the plan. Nothing was open yet, however, so I just walked around. It was a great adventure and I did it all on my own.

Then we came to the office around 9 and we have had really nothing to do all day because the copies aren't done. But once they're done we'll be busy.

I really like Beijing. It's HUGE! But it's not overwhelming like Hong Kong is. Hong Kong is super crowded and the buildings are so close together. You can't see the sky, you can't breath, and you can't walk any where without running into someone. Here the city is laid out on a bigger area and it's not so over bearing. There are not a lot of people walking on the streets. Or at least it doesn't appear like that because the roads are so huge! 7 lanes ONE WAY. Craziness. Walking around the sites this morning was amazing. I walked through the most beautiful garden and loved it. It was kind of cold, which was nice.
Also, it is dry here and that is a nice change for my hair. You can actually see my curls here. Haha.

Well, I'm going to go now. Maybe I'll actually do something today other than draw and listen to my iPod and take naps.
One can hope.

I love you all and can't wait for you to come and see. I think tomorrow I might venture up to Olympic Park. We'll see though. Maybe I'll save that for later. I don't know how much the taxi would be.

Oh, one other thing. I love how they drive on the right hand side of the street. I don't get turned around at all like I do in HK because I'm going on a different side. That may not make sense, but believe me, it is definitely something to wrap your mind around when you first get here.

Sham Shui Po

I was feeling better by that Tuesday so I went with mom to pick up my new Chinese visa. Mom and I had decided that we would go to Sham Shui Po to pick up fabric for my quilt. Mom called her friend Sandy Lai to ask her directions to Sham Shui Po. As luck would have it Sandy was going to Sham Shui Po that day too and would give us a ride. When we got home I quickly showered and then we hopped on bus to meet up with Sandy and her driver, Ming. Ming dropped us off on this street lined with fabric. I didn't find anything spectacular that I wanted. So we kept going. We walked down street after street of shops: bead shops, jewel shops, button shops, ribbon shops. It was incredible.

And then we came to The Tent.

The Tent is what it sounds like. It's a tent. But a HUGE tent filled with row after row full of rolls of fabric. It's amazing. You think the fabric will never end...seriously. Of course it ends, you silly people who were actually thinking that the fabric tent went on for forever. But there really is a LOT of fabric.

I found some great fabric there: one for jeans, two different ones for skirts, and one for a dress. The skirt fabrics are amazing, but the dress fabric is superb. I think it's so great. It's so bright! My little sister calls it the "Fire Dress" - It's a fitting title.

The Lai Family

The Lai’s are probably the richest people that I know. They have a five story house that looks like another building in Repulse Bay, where they live. There’s an elevator inside that I hear is amazing. I have not been there yet, but Mom says the house is amazing. They have helpers and gatekeepers and the like. They are a nice family: very generous and quite frugal. They have a driver (Ming) that takes them wherever they want. That must be really nice because then they don’t have to wait around for a bus or a taxi.

They’re selling their house, incase any of you are interested: $35,000,000 USD.

Sick

Dad was sick when I arrived in Hong Kong and he was so generous in sharing the bug! Anne was sick and then Mom and then me. Abby was lucky and didn’t get sick enough to not want to do anything. Yea for her.

So I was sick my second Sunday and took along nap that afternoon and slept in late the next day. It wasn’t really all that fun. I was so good at school this year too! Only getting sick with strep by happenstance. I guess we all have to succumb to nasty bugs every once in a while. Let me tell you though…it wasn’t any fun.

Phone Calls!

Monday – 05 May 2008

Today I made my first real calls back to my friends in the states. I talked to lots of people and it was great to hear from them. I talked to Danielle and Mari and Cami and Bekah. It was a lot of fun. Dad has it worked out with Skype that when the minutes run out they will just automatically charge his account with out cutting off the phone conversation. That was really nice because I was on the phone for a really long time and had the minutes renewed before the day was over. Thanks, Dad!

Dragon Holes

Saturday – 03 May 2008

Okay, so some of the most amazing things about Hong Kong are the dragon holes. The Chinese are very superstitious people and so they take certain precautions. Like constructing many of their buildings with huge holes in the middle of them to allow for the dragon’s safe passing through the building. Yup. I’m totally serious. We have one in our apartment complex and there are these holes in other buildings around Hong Kong. Usually they are in apartment complexes and not business buildings. I’m not sure what it is about a building that says it does or does not get a dragon hole. Let me tell you though, if I were a building, I would totally want to be a building with a dragon hole. I don’t want some fire-breathing dragon tearing down my beautiful structure! Haha

Dad and I went up the same Saturday as the dolphins and took pictures from our dragon hole. It was amazing. All eight of the towers of our complex are connected so you can walk from the dragon hole in our building – tower 9 – to the dragon hole in tower 1. The top picture is of the dragon hole opposite the dragon hole in our tower. Here are some pictures from the dragon holes.

The Number 4

Chinese are also superstitious about the number four. To them it is bad luck, like the number 13 is for US citizens. My family and I live in Tower 9 at our apartment complex, but there are really only 8 towers. There is not a number 4 tower. Some places don’t have fourth floors. Just like us and thirteenth floors. Interesting, huh?

My First Solitary Adventure

Saturday – 03 May 2008

I needed to pick up my glasses down in Stanley that Saturday after the dolphins. Mom was still scared for me to travel by myself so Dad was going to go with me. Mom and Anne left for home and Dad, Abby and I were at the bus stop when Dad realized that Mom and Anne may not have keys. So he left me with the charge to go to the grocery store for Mom and pick up my glasses down in Stanley. Not a big deal. I had been to all of those places before and I knew how to get there. Plus, Abby would be coming with me most of the way. I would only be by myself when she left, on our way back from Stanley to go to Jenni’s.

And I did it perfectly. No glitches at all. Abby had me tell her a thousand times that I take a 73 home. Not a 973 or a 6X, what we came on. Don’t worry, I won’t EVER forget.

The Pink Dolphins

Saturday – 03 May 2008

I guess my family had really wanted to go see the dolphins for quite sometime. But they don’t normally have boat rides on Saturdays. They usually have them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and that’s it. This week was different because the Olympic torch came to Hong Kong on Friday and they decided to cancel their trips on Friday and move them to Saturday to avoid traffic and what not. So we got to go Saturday morning to see the dolphins.

It was a lot of fun. We saw lots of dolphins. Or maybe just a few dolphins many times. Either way it was really cool. Yes, you read the title right. They were PINK dolphins. Okay, actually they are white dolphins. They’re white because the water they live in – the water around Hong Kong – is very dark and they get very little sunlight. Just like people, those dolphins without sunlight are white. They are white but they turn pink when they exercise. So when they come to the surface for more air they are pink. When they go back down below the surface they are white again. It was very interesting. And it was amazing to see!

Shenzhen: Fast Style

Friday – 02 May 2008

Afterward the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra we met up with Dad who was at his office at the church because he has some interviews to do. Dad left the apartment with us that morning and instead of going to the dress rehearsal (it was an activity with Mom’s women organization thing – no boys allowed!) he headed off to pick up my Chinese visa from the immigration place and then to his church office to work on some things for a big activity they were having that night. He stayed at the church while we headed up to Shenzhen.

This is a picture of us on our way to Shenzhen. My sisters were so funny. They read and walked nearly the whole way through the MTR till we got to the stop we needed. My Mom is pulling a trolley that had the fabric and stuff to make new clothes out of. It was pretty neat.

Everything was kind of a blur that day in Shenzhen. We had to make it back in time for my family to go to the mutual activity that night. Mom is in the YW presidency and Dad is the Branch President. So they both go to mutual as well. I had some fun adventures trying to get into Shenzhen but it all worked out and we made it to the seamstress Mom uses. I got fitted for some clothes – skirts, dresses, bridesmaid dress, etc. My sisters and my Mom picked up some clothes that had already been made so they really enjoyed the trip. I was just amazed at how she could copy one of Anne’s dresses to make a dress for Abby in the same style, but her size. It was incredible. They’re amazing seamstresses.

Dad asked me to help out at mutual so I tagged along and did what was asked of me. No big deal it was entertaining and fun. I got to do some event planning for their closing even the following Saturday, so that was fun.

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

Friday – 02 May 2008

This day was a crazy day. It was a holiday so Mom, Abby, Anne and I had plans to go to the dress rehearsal of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra at 9:30 that morning. Afterward the plan had been to go for Dim Sum at City Hall. Instead we decided to go to Shenzhen that day so I could get fitted for Cami’s bridesmaid dress.

The dress rehearsal was amazing. I only wish I could have seen the real performance. It was beautiful. I’m not sure if I have ever heard an orchestra live, outside of musicals. It was a memorable experience. I’m grateful Mom arranged for our tickets and what not because the music was incredible. Oh, and the guest director was a man from Austrailia who is known as one of the worlds living wonders. Or something like that. Crazy huh? I didn’t know such a thing existed. How do you become something like that? I want to be a Living Wonder! Haha “Yeah, like that will happen” (That was for all of you movie trivia fans!).

PIT, the Light Show, and the Night Market

Thursday - 1 May

Thursday was a holiday for Abby, Anne, and Dad. Anne spent the night at a friend's house so she came home later. We spent the first part of the morning cleaning up the house and moving me in. That was okay. Nothing too exciting.

KITCHEN AND COOKIES

Abby and I cleaned the kitchen and then made Mom and Dad lunch. Dad had, quite unfortunately, gotten Mom sick. So she was not feeling very well. I was feeling tired - as though I was getting sick- but still okay. So Abby and I made lunch and cleaned the kitchen. Then we decided to have some fun. So when Anne got home we made cookies! And they were, of course, AMAZING!. yummy yummy. We baked them while we played games as a family.

PIT

We had a pretty intense game of PIT going on. It was a LOT of fun. We are a pretty competitve family and the game was hilarious. I taught my family the fun of movie quotations on windows and mirrors. It was pretty crazy. We kept score on our porch sliding doors.

Oh, and I won, by-the-way...

THE FERRY AND THE LIGHT SHOW


After that I think we just sort of all did our own thing, and then got ready to go to the night market. The family had never gone so we planned to go as one of our many adventures for the weekend.

We took the ferry over to TST. We got on the ferry right before eight. I know because the light show is at eight and we were on the ferry when the lightshow began. It's pretty cool. All the buildings along the harbor put on a light show. There are those big search lights, laser looking beams of light and the whole building turns different colors. It's crazy.

THE NIGHT MARKET

Talk about PEOPLE! There were tons at the night market. I was expecting the same kind of crowd that was at the Wan Chai Market to be at the Night Market. No. That would have been wonderful. This was the Wan Chai Market times 1 million. OKay, maybe not a MILLION...but pretty dang close. You couldn't walk down the little pathway without touching someone! Not a fan of touching people I don't know so that wasn't exactly the coolest thing on the planet.

I'm pretty sure the market went on for three of four blocks. It was quite the walk. There were a lot of repeating shops: bags, shoes, shinny jewlery, shirts, paintings, purses, dragons, Buddha's, you name it and it was there - whether or not it was of great quality remains to be seen. But there were a ton of things to buy. I ended up getting a ring and a souvenir spoon.

It was a long night. It was the latest that I had stayed up since the first night I got to Hong Kong. It was good though because I started getting over the staying up late and getting up earlyness of Jetlag.

All in all it was a fun holiday. I really enjoyed spending time with my family playing games and going to the night market.

Sai Kung

Wednesday - 30 April

Mom asked Sister Collins and her daughter Heather if they wanted to go on an outing with us. So the four of us headed to Sai Kung Wednesday morning around 10:30a. We took the MTR and then a bus. Sai Kung is a fishing villiage on the coast of the New Territories.

It was a beautiful bus ride there. Very green and refreshing after the rush of the city. We walked around for a little while and then decided to go to lunch at Cru. I just got a ham and pineapple sandwich, nothing Chinese or super exciting, but it was yummy.

After lunch we rode on a Sanpan for an hour. It's a small fishing boat type thing. It was fun and soothing. I really enjoy being on the water. Mom, Carol and Heather chatted. I was quite most of the ride, just enjoying the scenery and the conversation. Carol and Mom together are hilarious! They are good friends.

Oh, I should tell you - Carol and Heather are British. They are citizens of Scotland, but Heather spent most of her childhood in South Africa. She just graduated from BYU in December and has since moved to Scotland after spending a few months with Mom and Dad here in Hong Kong. Brother Collins is one of Dad's counselors in the Branch Presidency. They have amazing cool accents. Heather has an accent, but she didn't grow up in Scotland so hers isn't nearly as thick as her parents are. And their accents are great! I love listening to either of them talk! It's amazing!

Extended Vaction

Tuesday - 29 April

Mom and I were tired from our adventures getting my visa so we decided to stay home. Our day was going great. I was relaxed. Mom and I were hanging out, watching movies and working on my quilt. It was quite fun. And then Mom checked her googlechat.

Dad was on and told her the most wonderful news! (This is said kind of sarcastically...) Dad told Mom that my Hong Kong work visa hadn't been applied for and it would take 4-6 weeks to get. The next hour or so of my life consisted of getting the extra paper work scanned so Dad could get it to HR before he left on his business trip. So HR could then submit my visa application.

See, originally I was supposed to start my internship on 5 May. My work visa should have been applied for and submitted before then so that I could start work on 5 May. Since someone in HR dropped the ball I was suddenly freed from any obligations...for the next month.

At first I was frustrated and down. The entire day I kept saying that I was unemployed and whatnot. It was quite entertaining. It wasn't so bad though, my Mom kept telling me that - because then we just had more time to go and do other things. That sounded like an okay plan to me.

Visa Nightmare

Mom and I went and got my visa yesterday. Talk about CRAZY. We left around 7:30 and because I am new at the whole travelling/ foreign country thing, I forgot to bring my passport - or actually, didn't really know I had to bring it - So it took an extra hour to get to the visa place. We had to come all the way back home, get my passport, and then head all the way back. Boo on that.

We had another hour and a half wait in the world's longest line, and that line was just to even get up to the room where you can apply for the visa. Before we got up to the desk we talked to this line control guy who said that we needed to have an actual ticket to China to get a visa, but we're only going to Shenzhen so we didn't know how that would work. When you go to Shenzhen you go by MTR (which is like the subway) and pay for it via octopus card when you get on. An octopus card is like a debit card and a subway pass combined. You use it to get onto busses and the MTR and at different stores etc. Then we asked the consulate representative about the ticket thing and he said that since mom is a resident of Hong Kong and has her Hong Kong ID card then I could get my visa. So we waited for another hour to get called to the desk.

Once we got to the desk the lady told us it was necessary to have a ticket for me to get a visa. She was very nice and told us how to get one. It was just annoying that we had to get a ticket anyway. Just because you have a ticket doesn't mean that you're actually going to go to that place...but hey, it's all good.

After lunch and some shopping at the Wan Chai market (details to come) we went to get the ticket and got sent on a wild goose chase for the ticket. "You can't get that here, go to this place" was told to us over and over again. Boo on that. We seriously had to get on the MTR go to one stop to change tracks to go to another stop to go to the Customer Service booth there who said to go to the next booth who said we had to go to the east rail stop who said a ticket like that can't be purchased. If that was confusing, well...IT WAS! But we ended up getting some type of ticket and prayed that that would work.

We went back to the visa place and got in another line for another half an hour. The lady at the desk almost didn't let me get a visa because she couldn't tell that it was for Lo Lu (the ticket that we needed), but she gave me a visa! It only let's me into Shenzhen for two days only - which is great because it's all i'll need. I need to get to Shenzhen to get fitted for my sister's bridesmaid dress (trip one) and then go back and make sure it's what I want (trip two).

So after a long day of lines we finally got a two day visa for over 1000 HKD. I'm glad that's over. My dad will go pick up the visa on Friday and my mom, sisters and I will go into Shenzhen on Friday. It should be pretty interesting.

Yesterday I was thankful for understanding visa workers and the fact that there were no lines at all to get home from the visa place, because by the end of the day mom and I were SICK of lines.

My First Day in Hong Kong

Jet lag woke me up at about 6:30. I knew my family wouldn't be awake so I waited until 7a. I woke mom up and she made me pancakes - she loves me. My sisters had dentist appointments that morning so I tagged along for the adventure. Abby went to Jenni Perkins' soccer game and met us at the dentist. It was pretty funny because she couldn't find a lift that would take her to the floor she was on. It was great.

We came home for just a few hours after that and then Abby, Mom and I headed off to Stanley to get me glasses, you know, because half of mine got lost on the plane and all.... Abby got out early and went to her school to get ready for her musical that night and Mom and I went to the glasses place. They were busy so we had to wait an hour and a half. There was a youth activity that night and since Mom is in the YW presidency she had to be there so we went to the activity until my appointment. The appointment was interesting. In the states they have a big Mickey Mouse looking machine that the Doc changes the lensesin. Here they just have a set of glasses that the Doc holds different lenses up to. That was a different experience.

We went to Abby's play after that. It was funny. Abby told me that I was going to fall asleep in the middle of it because I was so jet lagged. I fought to prove her wrong. And I did! I didn't fall aslep in her play at all! I was super tired though. It was killing me. The play was good and Abby, of course, was amazing in it. It was a wee bit scandolous, so that was dissapointing.

I don't really remember the ride back home from Abby's play... or pretty much anything else from that night. I just went to bed. It was an interesting and event filled day. Full of fun and overwhelming cityness. (And yes, I just made up that word. If you would like to use it...well I have it copy righted and you'll owe me $200/use. Thanks!)

Plane, Church and Jet lag

Things here are so fast paced. Today we took a shuttle and a taxi to church. It was crazy. All public transportation here. way weird. I'm still not sure where everything is...I don't know if I'll ever be sure. there are so many places here; so many people! It really is insane. But so far it's been fun.

Church was good today. It was branch conference today so the stake presidency was here. It was a good meeting. There are quite a few singles in the branch. There's a fun girl here from Scotland that my mom introduced me to. Her name is Heather and she's way fun. all of the buildings are so COLD here? outside the weather hasn't been to bad- like 70s... but the buildings are pretty much below freezing. Okay,i could be exaggerating, but not by much. I have to bring a sweater with me everywhere I go.

I went to my sister's play last night. That was fun. I struggled with staying awake, jet lag was getting to me and yesterday was a day full of crazy activities. We left around nine for dentist appointments for my mom and sisters. Dad was supposed to have one too, but dad is sick- sad I know. Then we went out to eat at the California Pizza Kitchen,yummy. We came back for a little bit and I went on the computer,unpacked and hung out with my sisters. Then we left a few hours later and went to Stanley market for an eye appointment for me.

Pause for a story... So I didn't sleep the Wednesday night before I left...there was just too much to do and I had to try and get all of the things mom and dad wanted me to bring into my suitcases, it was way hard. anyway, i slept most of the flight because i was so tired and I didn't sleep the night before. I wore my glasses on the planes and that was fine, until i fell asleep with them in my hand and woke up with only half of them in my hand, the other half never to be seen again. Yes, I have not only broken my glasses in half, but I have lost one of those halves. And I'm a junior in college...debatable i know.

So I needed an eye appointment to get me some new glasses. I picked out some black ones like Danielle's - you guys said they looked good,and I didn't want a bright blue...plus, they didn't have the brown that i wanted...like the glasses I had before.

We got the eye appointment but had a few hours to waste until they could actually fit us in. It was crazy busy. So we went to the stores around and bought a few essentials, like mouse and dried mangoes, yum.

After the play I was so tired that I went straight to bed. I slept amazingly. I woke up at 5:45 as my dad was getting ready to leave for church this morning. I couldn't go back to bed so I woke up my mom and we had breakfast together and just talked. It was a lot of fun.

I love being with my family. It's been a lot of fun so far. Dad came home early from church today because he's sick and was home when i got home from the young single adult activity and we just talked for like two hours. It's amazing how wonderful and how great of listeners can be.

Today I am so thankful to be home, to be with my family, and to have such a wonderful family. I am also thankful for inspired church leaders that you don't know, but know what you need to hear. It's amazing how the tender mercies from the Lord come in small in simple ways.