Beijing :)

I meant to write about our trip to Beijing a LONG time ago, but I guess better late than never. So about a month ago, Jon and I, along with Jon's parents Jim and Jane took a short trip to Beijing. It was a good 3 day trip! We travelled there by bullet train... which only took 5 hours! It travelled at 301 km/h or 188 mph. When we arrived, we had an interesting time finding our hotel. We told the taxi driver the name of our hotel and he had no idea where it was! We showed him the address and then even had him call the hotel to verify the location. But we got it all sorted out and we were on our way. When we finally arrived, we realized that the hotel we booked was about a 30 minute metro ride from the city center. We were pretty far out there but it was an adventure!

While in Beijing, we did the typical touristy things: went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, ate the famous Beijing specialty, Peking Duck (北京烤鸭), but our favorite by far was the Great Wall! We went to a less popular part of the wall called Mutianyu (慕田峪), as suggested by our friends. Although it was very hot that day, it was such a great time! Jon and I climbed the stairs up the Wall, while Jim and Jane took the chair lift. There were a lot of stairs! But now we can say we climbed up the Great Wall :) Once we reached the Wall, we took our time walking along the top, climbing more stairs, stopping in the little towers along the way for shade. Our goal was to make it to the highest part of the Wall that we could. And we did! We even explored beyond that point into part of the wall that had not been rebuilt and was technically off-limits. There, we had such a great view! We took a few pictures, breathed in some fresh air and headed back. On the way down the Wall, we got to ride toboggans down! We were in little carts on a metal half pipe with a handle that controlled the speed. If you have ever been on the Dragon Coaster in Labadee, Haiti, it was kind of like that. The only problem was we had people in front of us that were going way too slow! But it was still fun!
Also, we got to meet up with a former classmate from our Chinese class. She has been teaching English in Beijing. We got to go out to dinner with her one evening, it was very nice to get to catch up. We were all saying  that 李老师 (Li laoshi) would be proud (our Chinese teacher).

Well, here are some pictures from our trip! I will put more up later :)

I love this picture because it was so hot outside, all the people wanted to do was find shade and rest from the heat. Everywhere you saw shade, you saw people sitting in it. This is what we saw all across the square :)

Being a foreigner in a country where people look like me...

Since we arrived in PRC, I've been diligently working on my language skills... which is still only OK... but I can get by. When I don't understand, I smile and nod. Isn't that what you're supposed to do? But they expected me to understand and respond. Well, if I "looked" like a foreigner, I think I could get away with it. BUT, since I look Asian, it is assumed I speak fluent Mandarin... It's so funny when the locals ask or tell me things when Jon and I are together and I look confused, and I tell them, "对不起，我听不懂" (Sorry, I don't understand) and then look to Jon to translate for me. It really confuses them. But I find it so funny. Jon's Mandarin is MUCH better than mine... I should be ashamed, but I am proud of him. He can carry on a conversation pretty well. Me on the other hand, I struggle so much!

BUT the funniest thing happened when a classmate and I were on the Metro. A young girl and her mother sat beside us. Immediately, we hear the little girl telling her mom, "她是外国人!" (That girl is a foreigner!) And my classmate (who is French, obviously not Chinese) smiles and says, "Yes, I am." Then the little girl says, "她是中国人!" (That girl is a Chinese!) Her mom looks at me and I shake my head no and say, "No, I'm a foreigner too." She frowns in disagreement and says no you are a Chinese. And I say that I am an American and she said, "but you look like a Chinese. Your eyes are like a Chinese, your hair is like a Chinese. How come you are not a Chinese?! Mom, she has to be a Chinese!!" Poor thing was getting so distressed. I tried to tell tell her in my flawed Mandarin that yes, I look Chinese but I'm not from China, that I was born in the US and that there are people from many countries in the US that are American. I don't think she really understood me. All the while, my friend and I were laughing and smiling and she was so confused as to why we were laughing. Her mom tried to explain it to her that we were just having a good time speaking Chinese with her, but the poor girl was so confused. But then she smiled and started commenting on our shoes because we were wearing flip flops. She said a few other things I didn't understand (we smiled and nodded) Then we got to our stop and waved goodbye to the little girl and she gave us the biggest smile. What a great metro ride...

Life in China...So far!

Well, we've been here almost 3 weeks now. And life's been everything but boring. Getting used to being in a bustling city of approximately 27 million people (compared to Knoxville, approximately 181,000 people), hearing horns honking constantly, being approached by "watch, bag, DVD" salesmen, avoiding the Metro during rush hour, eating some awesome food (not really knowing what some of it really is), meeting new friends, experiencing new things, struggling with my Mandarin trying to talk to the locals... I can't really complain. It's different for sure, but it's been great so far. I'm excited to see what the next few months hold.

A few things that I have observed since we've been here, that I found interesting...

1. People, especially the young women, wear really weird shoes here. I may be coming from a Westerner's stand point, but the other day, I counted about a dozen people in one hour wearing the strangest shoes. If I ever can snap some photos of them I will. An example of an odd pair of shoes I saw: neon yellow 3-inch heels with a stuffed teddy bear head on the front... My Toms are really boring compared to those!
2. Some people have no shame walking around in their PJs. And these just aren't any plain PJs, they are PJ pants and button up PJ tops. Cotton with little ducks on them to sleek silver Silk PJs, I feel like we've seen them all! And the best part, they wear the slippers to complete the outfits too! It's quite amusing.
3. When you go out, carry some tissues and hand sanitizer/wipes with you. When you use public restrooms, very few of them have toilet paper or soap. 
4. Around almost every corner, there are fruit stalls where you can buy some really good fresh fruit! I would highly recommend going to these places. All you have to do is pick out what fruits you want, have them weigh it, and then however much it weighs (per type of fruit) that's how much you pay :)
5. The older people here are VERY impressive! I've seen people, who must be well into their 80s or 90s riding their bike around the city, carrying what looks like some pretty heavy bags, just going along like their age does not affect them. It's amazing! 
6. The children here are SO adorable! I may be biased, but I think Asian babies are just the cutest things ever! Just the other day, we were at a concert, and there was a little girl (maybe about 2 or 3 years old) sitting behind us singing along. It was so precious! And they all love Jon! They are always so surprised that a white person can speak their language. It makes them smile so big!

And that's just in the first 3 weeks! :) Shanghai is such an international city though, with most of the comforts that Western culture has. It may be completely different when we venture deeper into the country :) It's always an adventure with Jon. I'm excited to see what the next few months will be like!

X Games! Shanghai!

On our first full day in Shanghai, our friend had some free tickets to the KIA Extreme Games. I couldn't say no to free tickets to the X-games... I mean come on, I've never even been to the X-games... It was pretty awesome! We arrived at some stadium (I was so jet-lagged, I was not even paying that close attention to where we were going) where there were several events set up. And since it was the finals, it was even more exciting! The first event was the motocross... As we were watching these guys jump off ramps doing flips, tricks, and turns with their 200 lb motorcycles, I was in awe.

What was also entertaining was watching the 60-70 (maybe even 80)-somethings with their $2000 professional cameras, tripods, fancy lenses, etc taking pictures of these X-Games participants. I'm not even sure that they were working for any media company, just a very expensive hobby :) Later on, we saw BMX and then skateboarding. What I found to be pretty awesome was there was a very young participant, had to be at least 15 years old from Japan... I was very impressed. All around, it was a great first day in PRC :)

Trey & Shelby's Proposal Story!

It happened on May 31, 2013.

She had NO idea!

It all went down in Helen, GA... A cute little alpine German town in the middle of the mountains. Trey had been planning for a year! Jon and I, his family and her family were all in on it. He always knew he wanted to propose in a hot air balloon. Conveniently, Shelby had always wanted to go up in one. It was her birthday the next day, so she thought that Trey had something planned for that. Little did she know that by that evening she would be engaged to be wed to the man she loved!

The journey began with what seemed like a surprise adventure double date. We ate lunch at one of their favorite Japanese places, Osaka Japanese Grill. ( Which also happens to be my parent's place--if you are in Maryville, you should check it out :) ) I was tasked the responsibility of playing dumb. To throw her off, I kept asking, "what are we doing?," "where are we going?" all day. And Shelby would chime in too. We were told we were going on an adventure and were told to bring our bathing suit, closed-toed shoes, and various other things to throw us off.

On our way there, the guys joked we will be stopping every 20 minutes. That being said, we stopped for gas, a scenic pull-off, and then "20 minutes later," we stopped by this little shop in the middle of no where. We were enticed by the signs for homemade ice cream and honey. What we should have done was read the shop name before entering... Seven Sisters... should have given us a hint that we were about to meet some witches... yeah... needless to say, we got out of there!

 

After that, we were on our way up to Helen. We arrived in the late afternoon and began exploring the town. Shelby and I were really confused... we were both asking, "is this our final stop?, is this a joke?" As I was looking around, I saw so many truck trailers, t shirts, hats, and other things with hot air balloons and "balloon race" all over the place. But somehow, Shelby missed them all... Also, Trey did something or said something a little strange and she leaned over to me and whispered, "he's been acting weird all day." I couldn't help but laugh a bit.

We went and walked through the shops, looking around. There was an interesting mix of things for sale...ranging from German metal mugs to redneck bumper stickers. We also went and explored the small river under the bridge, where tourists would be river tubing and what not.  At one point, Shelby and Trey ventured off near the river, and two kind of larger women floated by and Shelby said that Helen was the least romantic place ever! And Trey replied, "well don't worry, I will never do anything romantic here, ever." :) While they were off by themselves, Jon was on the phone orchestrating their parents across the bridge (there was basically only one way into town). And then we continued to explore the town. We walked through a glass-blowing shop, a candy cottage, and a very strange crafts store.

 

Finally, 6:30 came around! And Jon and Trey went to go find the hot air balloon captain. Jon gathered Shelby and I into the parking lot where all the balloon racers were meeting and told us not to move. As I looked around, it was pretty obvious what was about to happen, but Shelby was still wondering what we were doing. She may have had an idea in the back of her mind... Then, we got the call to meet Trey and the captain and it all became clear... when Shelby found out they were going up in a hot air balloon, it almost brought tears to her eyes. On the way to the launch site, Jon was in contact with the parents... keeping them updated.. and hidden. At the launch site, the balloon crew members were getting things ready, inflating the massive hot air balloon, and what not. I could tell that Shelby was excited and that Trey was a little nervous. Then, they finally got to board the beautiful multicolored hot air balloon. It was absolutely gorgeous, the prettiest one there! Such a cool experience getting to watch this giant balloon lift off into the blue sky. Trey is a pretty darn good photographer, and so while they were ascending, he began to take a few pictures here and there and then set the camera down and began to video secretly. Trey's mom had given Shelby a Pandora bracelet for Christmas, so while they were up in the air Trey got the charm out of his bag, which happened to be in a little white box. When he opened it up, Shelby seemed surprised, and said, "thanks..."

Then he got down on one knee...

Trey asked Shelby to be his wife.

She was in such shock that all she could do was nod her head, "YES!"

It was a special, memorable moment. And best yet, it is all on video!

When they descended, Shelby saw her parents, her sister, and his parents, and she was just overwhelmed with excitement, and still in shock. She couldn't stop smiling. We celebrated!

I cannot express how awesome this day was! Shelby is just the sweetest, most kind-hearted person I know and I'm so happy we could be involved in their engagement! Trey is a lucky man indeed :)

  

CONGRATULATIONS TREY AND SHELBY! WE LOVE YOU BOTH VERY MUCH!

And we can't wait until September! :)

Bennett is here!!

Goodness, I am SOOO excited to announce that our beautiful baby nephew is here! Ok, it's been almost a month since he was born, I've been procrastinating! But he is absolutely beautiful! His name is Bennett Isaiah and he's absolutely ADORABLE! We are a proud Aunt and Uncle :) 

We love him! :)

Our First Genghis Grill Experience!

This is a tad belated but HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all the mothers out there!

On Sunday, we went to Genghis Grill, a mongolian stir fry restaurant, for the first time. We went to celebrate not only Mothers Day but to welcome Jeff (bro in law) home from college for the summer! So once we get there, the server explains how it works , that we get a bowl to put ingredients in and then they will cook it then bring your food to your table... and Jon and I decide that we are going to share because we both weren't super hungry... But when she told us that we could have what ever we could fit in our little silver bowl, we were both like, "challenge accepted!" We got some advice from Jeff to build walls out of waterchesnuts, and we did! We found that bamboo shoots and carrots made the best walls around the edge of the bowl, so we could maximize space building upward with our choices of proteins and veggies... I'll admit it was pretty fun trying to fit all the things we wanted into our tiny little bowl. By the end of it, we had built a pretty impressive mountain of stir fry goodness. And of course, since we both weren't super hungry.... We didn't even finish all of it! But we had a good time and it was very delicious!

Fun Handmade Coasters!

Well, it's official! Jon and I are going to China! We will be spending a few months taking Mandarin language classes and traveling around Asia! We are in the beginnings of support raising and I thought it would be neat to make these cute handmade coasters! I love being crafty and thought that this would be a fun way to do what I love and hopefully bless others with it :) 

Below are a few examples of what I have already made! However, I can make almost anything your heart desires! These make great gifts for weddings, house-warming, etc...

 Travel

 Black and White

 Another Travel One :)

 Pink

 Green

Yellow

Mustache & Chevron 

Prices:
4 for $12
6 for $18
8 for $24

For more pictures, visit our Facebook page :) or if you have any questions about our trip, message me on Facebook :)
http://www.facebook.com/SomethingGoode

Here is an order form, if you are interested!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1QXeS8JpqAhUI9n3xWq0TjBctTLbsqHq85qqvWK2gOR0/viewform

Any questions about the coasters? Please leave a comment or ask me on the order form :)

A Goode Safari Baby Shower :)

This past weekend, I got the honor and privilege to help host my sister in laws baby shower, along with my other sisters in law. It was the first baby shower I have ever been to, let alone hosted so I did not really know what to expect. Thank goodness for Pinterest right?! :) I got so many fun ideas and some cute free printables from The Elli Blog. I am SO excited about getting a nephew next month! I will get to be an aunt for the first time!

For the baby shower, we did a safari theme... We had the themed foods, safari animals, etc... We played a few games including: the poopy diaper game, baby trivia, and baby bingo. Here are a few pictures from that day :)