Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Backpacking Across China

So next August I will set off to learn the language and culture of the Chinese people. This four month journey will fill my Cross-Cultural Internship for my masters. The goal of the trip is to learn about life in China. I am really looking forward to learning everything I can from the people. This last Thanksgiving I spent time with many Chinese friends looking at where I should go and visit. This is the general map/plan for my travels. I will mostly be taking train to get from one place to the other. Along the way I will be staying with friends and/or family. I will be  spending most of my time in Wuhan where one of my student offered up her place. This period of time would be spent learning about living in China. All together it will be an amazing trip. I can't wait to begin my journey and to open my eyes to the Chinese culture.



View Larger Map

Monday, November 29, 2010

Table Setting

So tonight I gave in and bought a table cloth. It was only $10 at Wal-Mart and it really made a difference on our table. It did however make me realize I want to paint our dining and living room this winter. I will have to see if I can get my trusting friend to come help me on her break. So after putting the table cloth on we started decorating for Christmas. Here were a couple of our selected additions for the Holiday. What do you think? My favorite is the green bottles of course. 



Thanksgiving Feast

So this year was my first Thanksgiving on my own. For lunch I made homemade rolls and went over to a really good friend of mine, Chris & Summer's house. The food was amazing and we had a good time checking out the Black Friday ads. Then it was time to go home and cook my own Thanksgiving meal for my Chinese friends. I decided to do the whole feast so they had a chance to see a traditional feast. They wanted to come early and help out as well so here is everyone in my kitchen helping out. We even made use of you sink for work space. 


Summer and Chris told me about turkey injection so I decided to try it. I stuffed my turkey with herb bread, butter, onion, and celery. Then I injected the turkey and then added some chicken broth. Here is the works.
When it was time to get the turkey out it wasn't even close to be done. I knew it would be a while so Chris went home and got the left over turkey from their house and we had there leftover. It was so nice of them to come to my rescue. At 9:11 p.m. after everyone was gone the turkey was finally done. I was the only one who got to enjoy the site of such a beautiful turkey. Even though the turkey didn't come out on time I still had a very grateful Thanksgiving. I was very blessed to have local friends as well as friends from the other side of the globe join me. I would have to say I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. 
 I hope and pray each of you had an amazing Thanksgiving with Friends and Family! 

Sewing Project

Today is a day for unfinished projects. A couple days ago I thought I finished my new curtains however they fell down. I have a wall of widows in my room so I tried using this iron on Velcro. Lets just say it didn't work the way it should therefore I went to plan 'b' today and sewed the Velcro on. I'm wasn't sure how it would turn out but it did great. Now I'm sure they won't fall down and I just love how they turned out. My room is finally coming together. Now for more projects. 

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Turkey Trot

This Thanksgiving Day I decided to start a new tradition and ran my first Turkey Trot which is a 5K run. Here is a picture of Chris, Summer, Becky, and myself before the race. It was so cold out but we all had a really good time.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

My crafty side


So it seems like the older I get the less time I spend playing with clay, paints, and even crayons. But in the last couple of weeks I have picked up some little crafty projects. The biggest is helping my roommate resign her room. She is a very bright outgoing girl who loves the outdoors. So I surprised her with a room design as well as a painting. To the right you can see the layout. We are creating little by little but it is really looking good!!! The painting I did instead of writing a paper of course and I forgot about how much I enjoy it. Yes, I know I am not the best but I do enjoy painting and my roommate loves it so that's all that counts. Yesterday, we worked together to add some colors to the windows. Below is the final product for at least one wall. As we continue to work I will show you more but for now this is it.


Monday, November 22, 2010

Welcome Friend!!

So I was told today that friendships are not confirmed by facebook anymore. Now in order to confirm a friend they must be your blog follower. So each of you that follow me, thank you for being my friend and to my new friend, I hope you enjoy this little journey into my life. Here is where you will find my hopes, dreams, sorrows, tears, as well as my encouragements. Plus the only place you will find the open book of my life. Enjoy and Thanks for being my friends. ;D

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Way To Long...

Riding Across Country with Bike & Build
I can't believe it's been over a year since I updated everyone on life. The last year has been full of up's and down's. This last summer I went on an adventure of a lifetime many would say. I traveled by bicycle from Providence, RI to Seattle, WA raising money and awareness for affordable housing here in the United States. You can here more about the experience at www.whereintheworldishailey.blogspot.com.

Now that this journey is over I have began praying about my next big adventure or shall I say adventures. This next spring/summer I am already signed up for two half-marathons, and three bike rides. I will once again be doing Cover Indiana which is a week ride around Indiana. Then I will be attempting the Rain Ride. This ride will be a hard ride because it covers over 160 miles in one day. There is a time limit and in order to complete it you must average 14 mph with stops.  The last ride is a cross country ride however I will only be doing a portion of the ride. I will begin after class is over on July 30th in Bloomington, IL and will end in Washington, DC on August 14th. This ride is with a group called The Fuller Center on Housing. It's an amazing Christian organization which builds home for people in need both in the United States as well as around the world. The money I will raise will go to help build homes in Haiti.

After these adventures end I will be heading to China to begin another journey. In Fall 2011 I will be completely my cross-culture internship in China. Not sure where in China or what I will do but I know it will be an amazing opportunity to learn the culture. Right now that is all I have plan for life. I try to take each day as it comes and enjoy the beautifulness of what God has provided. Just look at some of these I was able to experience this summer.
Diablo Lake in the North Cascades

Dam in New York State

Teton River 

Sunflower Field in South Dakota

Shoshone National Forest 

The Great 'Old Faithful' in Yellowshone