I just lost my rain of thought

So I kind of give up on that whole journaling about each day in China thing, because I never got around to it and there were so many days I didn’t write about and to be frank, I don’t think anyone cares that much. haha. I’ll just slowly write about the highlights over time. We went on a tour to Zhang Jia Jie, which is very famous for its mountains, especially this one with a hole in it. I hear it’s really cool to watch the sunset/sunrise through, but we didn’t get to do that. The quality of the tour was sub-par and we had already gotten that feeling at the airport before we left for it because they handed out this new itinerary right before we got on the airplane describing all the things you could do if you pay extra monies. Shady business, I say. The tour itself was pretty fun, because we met this other family from the States and guess what, they are from NorCal. Craziness. We were told we’d be on the tour for four days, but not until the night before we were to leave were we told what time to be at the bus station to get to the airport, which was very late afternoon, meaning we wouldn’t get to Zhang Jia Jie until night time, MEANING it was actually a three-day trip. The first night we were there, we were in the biggest city of the Zhang Jia Jie area, which seriously looked like the projects or something, except not as many bums, and there were a few people out at night. We were not fed aside from the odd Corn Nut type bean things they served on the airplane, the equivalent of our honey roasted peanuts, so my mom and I walked around to see if there was anything worth seeing or eating. Turns out there isn’t much open past 10, but there were some people fruit peddlers. My mom bought some Chinese pears and from another stand this gigantor mango. It was seriously like a foot long and it smelled really good. It didn’t taste as good as it smelled but it wasn’t at all unpleasant. We also bought some barbequed-ish chicken and beef outside our hotel and besides the beef being kind of spicy, it tasted awesome.

The next day we drove for hours until we got to this city called Feng Huang Gu Cheng, which was a pretty cool place but very much a tourist trap. It’s supposed to be sort of like this ancient city, which is what I thought was so exciting at first, but then I realized all the cool looking buildings didn’t originally look that way as I passed by buildings currently being worked on. I suppose it’s hard to preserve buildings that are hundreds of years old, so I don’t blame them, but it sort of detracted from the charm, especially when I noticed all the townspeople we saw were only there to sell us tourists things that they seemed to have gotten from the Indigenous Souvenirs Factory. What is this Indigenous Souvenirs Factory, you ask? Well, it appears to be the place that all indigenous peoples of various Chinese towns get their goods to sell to tourists like us, because I totally saw most of those things when I went to Jiu Zhai Gou a few years ago. Some of the other things that I did not see in Jiu Zhai Gou were awfully similar to souvies my parents and sister have gotten on other Chinese tours. Interesting, isn’t it? I wasn’t mad. In fact, I bought some things, but I didn’t waste as much time looking as my mom and the other family’s mom did. Our moms got along very well.

The main attraction of the city is the river that runs through it. There was a boat ride touring the cool looking parts of the city that had been worked on, but dang was it expensive. So what did we do? We allowed some lady to sucker us into the alternative boat ride, but it was for the lower part of the river. Would the sights be the same? Yes, she says. Were they really? NOT AT ALL. But, I must say, though the sights we saw were mostly dingy and sometimes gross, it was still really fun and probably the best part of going to that city, except when these jerks we didn’t even know were splashing us as we passed by, because I guess it’s the thing to do when you go on the shady boat ride (which did not have enough life jackets), but it may have helped if someone had told us that’s what happens on this boat ride beforehand, because they got a little splashy splash on my camera and I would have jumped out of the boat and repaid them with a paddle to the faces if my camera had broken. Luckily, most of the left side of my face and body shielded my dear camera’s life. I felt kind of bad for the boat guy because he literally pushes the boat upstream with a pole. This is a river we’re talking about. A shallow river but a river nonetheless. I felt bad to the point that at this one rockier part where he has to get out of the boat and actually push it, I got out of the boat, figuring that at least it’d be lighter. My mom had gotten out before me because Chinese people seem to like walking on smooth rocks because it’s “comfortable.” That’s such a load of bull because it hurt like crazy and I regretted my decision to get out as soon as I began walking, slowly trying to catch up with the boat because the sooner I got back in the sooner the pain went away. Stupid experienced boat guy who can walk on rocks while pushing a boat, really fast. Not only were my feet in pain but my rolled up jeans began to disobediently unroll and I was soaked up to my thighs for the rest of the day.

At night we had some street food, which included more of that barbequed stuff, which I probably ate most of, some illusion dumplings (because they were all big but empty inside with a speck of meat), soup made of some mysterious seaweed-type stuff, and fried rice, all of which were AWESOME and only around 20 bucks altogether in RMB! Amaaazing! After dinner, we walked back to the “hotel,” which totally LOOKED cool but maybe was too accurate when emulating those of ancient times. Well, okay that’s an exaggeration, but they turn off the hot water after 10! There was no electricity before 6pm. The other family had a rat in their room..but we were on the top floor, where there is no food.. Think of how many rats there must’ve been in the kitchen! EW! I did not think of that until just now! Not only did they have a rat or mouse or whatever in their room but when the lobby guy couldn’t catch it, he just said to let it be.

The next morning we left to go to the Zhang Jia Jie mountains, which, my sister said were described as having grotesque peaks when she Googled the place. They really are beautiful and it really looks the way so many painters capture them in those Chinese paintings. I find that they look prettiest when there’s a little fog around them, but this particular day was kind of REALLY hot so there was no fog until towards evening. The peaks began looking the same to me pretty quickly, not that they weren’t cool and all, but I’m not really a nature gal. That kind of happened to me when I went to the Grand Canyon too. These kinds of sights are pretty and occasionally breathtaking but during those in-between-the-taking-of-breath moments, almost everything looks the same.

The next day we went mountain watching again but this time it rained. A lot. There was fog alright…COVERING EVERYTHING. I could barely see anything when we got to go up to “see” the cool stuff. There was something called Heaven’s Gate. Did we see it? Maybe? I saw something with a shape but I don’t know if it was that. We saw the Five Fingers. There were lots of other sights I couldn’t see that I can’t remember that were potentially awe-inspiring, but I guess I will never know. People, and by people, I mean me, were getting rather upset because we were walking in the rain in cheap raincoats, wet shoes (unless you decided to wear the footies), with open umbrellas around other CHINESE people looking at things we couldn’t actually see. I decided that that day that the thing I hated most is crowded places with narrow paths filled with Chinese people holding umbrellas, because they’re selfish. They don’t move to the side for you to pass, even though they see that you have an umbrella of equal size. They do no yielding whatsoever. If you’re in their way, they don’t mind doing that cold shoulder push thing. And you know what? When I’m pissed off, I don’t mind either, because I hate rude people and they deserve to be pushed with my cold shoulders!

There was this elevator thing we had to pay extra for that was not quite as exciting as I thought it would be. Basically, you just go down a really high elevator and the view is pretty much the same the whole way down. If not the back of someone’s head or someone’s face uncomfortably close to yours then a couple of the peaks. Luckily, I had a view of something outside and it was all quite pretty. I made a video of the whole ride, which went way slower than I anticipated. The bus ride to and from that elevator was miserable. The first time I had a seat but felt extremely nauseous due to the driver’s horrible steering abilities. The way back I recall standing uncomfortably swaying back and forth and probably bouncing. Here’s where it gets juicy. Supposedly, these buses are supposed to be included in the fee we paid to get into Zhang Jia Jie National Park but the tourguide made us pay him 100 bucks to feel nauseous. But if this said 100 bucks really wasn’t included, the tourguide was profiting off of it (because over there they get paid by the people that tourguides bring tourists to) and not cutting a deal with the our actual bus driver, which he is supposed to!

We went to this other place and this time the mountains were not only visible but a lot of them had cool shapes. There’s one that’s kind of famous that looks like an old man hunched over a little. Another peak looks like a hand with its index finger pointing up. There was also this one mountain that looked like some eyes with eyelashes. Very exciting stuff. I believe after that we did a lot of live infomercial types of things. On a lot of Chinese tours, tourguides take the tourists to these places where they put us all in a room and advertise products to us. The massage place sucked because I could not understand what anyone was saying and the guy refused to give me a massage because I was “too young” but it was really because I couldn’t understand anything and there was no point in him advertising to me, so they just left me there with my feet drowned in a giant bowl of herb stuff. I have to admit that the knife place was really cool though. My mom bought some really cool peelers. They cut wood! WOW! You know you get urges to do it too and with this you really can. haha. We went to a tea place as well, but those are usually a tough sell.

Well, that pretty much sums up my first Chinese tour of that trip. More to come soon, I think. Oh and by the way, I’m feel a bit stressed because my apartment is falling apart!!

Very early in the marnin’ my mom, uncle and I headed out to Guangzhou for a few days, which is where my dad’s side of the family is from. My cousin there took my mom and me to this hospital for my momsie to do examinations and whatnot because it’s cheaper to do it in China and even cheaper for my mom since shady business goes on at hospitals too. It’s this crazy place where they take care of pretty much all your physical problems, including dental ones, and we had to walk up and down several flights of stairs many times. It’s also a really dirty place, so I was afraid to touch anything and spent my waiting time sitting and doing Sudoku and people watching. What made me most uncomfortable was that my cousin’s nurse friend had blood stains on her outfit. :\ Yucks.

After our hospital visit, my cousin took us to this restaurant where we ate rice out of a bamboo shoot. It was rather interesting, but we waited like an hour for it or something because the service was crappo. From there, my cousin took us to where all the travel agencies are and pointed out the way to Beijing Road. We went to a couple agencies and took some flyers for later use. Then we went to this place to book flights for my uncle and his family because they were supposed to come back with us on September 15th. We got trapped in there because there was a huge storm (shocker, I know), but there were places that sold umbrellas nearby so we ran to the first one we saw and got ripped off because it was raining and there was no set price, but oh wells. My mom had to use the restroom, so we went to this mall area that the airline agency place people told us to go to because they don’t even have a freakin’ restroom in their own place and use that one too. While there, I saw with my own eyes (not on TV), for the first time in my life, someone with Fong Sai Yuk hair. haha. It’s that hairstyle guys used to wear way back where their head is totally shaved on the front half of their heads and then they wear a long braided ponytail in the back. Oh my gauze it was so peculiar. If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, think Jet Li in Fearless. I wish I had taken a picture, but 1) I was in too much shock and amazement and 2) that’s kind of rude. haha. I didn’t even get to point it out to my mom. So sad.

So after the restroom break, my mom and I went to Beijing Road to get our shops on. We bought a good amount of clothes, so I’d say it was a pretty good day. haha. The street is full of big (Chinese) brand name stores, so I got some nice basic clothes, but what I really love shopping for when I come here is the weird but cute stuff, even though the quality is usually crappier. There was this one brand name store we went into called Y’pay More. No joke. hahah. It wasn’t as expensive as it sounds. My mom and I bought some shorts and I wanted to laugh because this one guy who worked there was unusually loud, even for a Cantonese person. I kept wondering what he sounds like when he talks to people outside of work. My cousin had told us where the bus stop to get back to her place was, but we couldn’t freaking find it and walked up and down the street we thought it was on until finally she called us to check on us because she just got off work, so she came to get us and took the bus home with us instead. It turns out the bus stop was on that street but we were in the opposite area of where we were supposed to be. Sigh. My mom was kind of mad at me after that because I kept insisting it was over there, but I remembered wrong. That was actually where we had eaten and I thought the bus stop was nearby. Cry. She was more mad that Guangzhou bikers are such bungholes. We were crossing when the walking sign came up for us, but this guy on a bike insisted he keep biking across the intersection and friggin’ crashed into my mom’s wrist. Luckily no one was seriously hurt, but dang, he was a jerk. So my cousin came and found us and took the bus with us and I was so scared the whole time I was on the bus, because last year, my sister and mom was with her on a bus when this guy tried to steal her purse. Fortunately, Guangzhou people are loud as heck and she started yellinggg and everyone started staring at him. He was so embarrassed that he went and sat down, everyone keeping their eyes on him the rest of the time until he got off. hahaha. But I didn’t want to get jacked without my knowing it so my eyes were darting left and right the whole time.

After dinner at my aunt’s place, which is almost right next door to my cousin’s, we watched some TV and then it was time for sleep. My mom and I slept in one bed and my cousin slept on the floor next to it, so we didn’t have to open the AC in more than one room. My cousin is the loudest snorer I’ve ever heard. haha. It was like a foghorn or something. I can’t even describe it. What’s even funnier is that my mom told me that my cousin complains about how her husband is a loud snorer, so sometimes they sleep in separate rooms when he keeps her up. What a perfect match.

Day Five consisted of more shopping, but first we ate dinner at this restaurant with cute desserts. I got to see my cousin’s son and he is so cute. He’s like a miniature version of my cousin. He looks so much like her and the way he talks reminds me so much of her. They’re both very…sharing. That’s the only word I can come up with. He always announces when he has to poop or pee and she does the same when she really needs to go. One time, my mom, my cousin, her son, her husband, and I were in their complex’s elevator and her son said he had to pee. Then she said, “I wish this elevator would go faster, I have to poop really badly.” Her husband gave us this look of embarrassment. It was so funny.

So after the foods, there was more shopping. It turns out my cousin only really likes to shop at brand name stores and she doesn’t even look twice at the kind of stores I like to go into. I didn’t really want to drag everyone into the stores with me because I was only one who would be looking, so I didn’t buy a lot that day. I did buy some cute coats for my sister and me, though, because they were like 80% off or something since it’s insanely hot right now and they were from the winter season. Yayy! I really want some shirts though. I don’t like wearing the same few over and over again and I only bought two in China so far.

My cousin’s husband drove us to this place for dinner that is known for their beef noodles and it was really good. My cousin and her husband were telling us about some place opened by this guy from my grandpa’s hometown that is so good and well known that, despite it being one of those dirty looking street restaurants, even rich people come from all over the place in their BMWs to eat at there. They were saying how people from my grandpa’s hometown are really good cooks or something, because there’s quite a few places that are just that good.

My cousin’s son really, really, really wanted to swim, so we went swimming after dinner, despite the huge storm. Luckily there was an indoor pool, but the amount of chlorine in it was intense. My eyes were burning so bad after a while. I’m not really that great of a swimmer and got kind of tired of swimming around after a while because I didn’t want to run into people and I’m not a huge fan of exercise. I think we spent over an hour there and then went to 7-11 to buy bread and stuff for my cousin’s son’s breakfast. Then it was back to their home. My cousin’s son slept on the floor of the room and she slept in another room this time. Another reason I think he’s so cute is because he always sleeps with his hand behind his head. haha.

On Day Six my mom wanted to buy some jewelry, so we went to the jewelry district. None of us know how to look at jewelry so it was kind of hard to know what to look for. Most of the stuff there was probably fake, but it’s so hard to tell. We looked at a bunch of jade places and my mom decided she wanted some bead bracelets, which she has been admiring ever since. Every single place says that they carry A type jade, but it seems sort of fishy because is there really that much jade? China doesn’t even have a huge jade mining industry. Interesting. The jade is still pretty though and producing fake stuff has gotten so advanced in China that my mom didn’t care too much. While jewelry shopping, we took a break and went to this Buddhist temple called Hua Lin. They had the hugestestest incense I have ever seen! They had to be the size of my arm or bigger. Intense. We walked around inside this one area and there were like hundreds of buddhas.

When it got to lunch time, my cousin took us to another popular street place, which was known to have good wonton noodles, my fave. <3 Man the food was sooo good. We had congee, wonton mien, churng fun, and mango ice cream that they make themselves and it was all sooooo gooood. Best Chinese restaurant ever and I don’t even know the name. So good that the way people wait for a table is by towering over you, watching you eat, and waiting for you to leave. Like I said, lines don’t exist in China.

We did more clothing shopping afterwards. More brand name stores. blarghh. I really wanted to go to other places because I only need so many polo shirts and t-shirts, but I did end up with some jeans, so it’s cool. I was reluctant to try any on at first because the style here right now is saggy butt jeans that are kind of tapered, which I don’t find too appealing and I’m sure I didn’t make it sound very appealing either, BUT lucky for me, the pair I picked out fit okay and there was no butt sagging involved. My cousin’s husband picked us up to go back to their apartment, where we crammed the last few things from our shopping trip into our suitcases, and then we were off to Dong Guan. We were supposed to bus back, but they didn’t want us to get lost or anything, even though it’s a bus that drives only between Guangzhou and Dong Guan. haha. They decided it was going to be a family event, so we had to cram two suitcases, one wheelchair, and seven people into a small van. It was intense and lots of strategy went into finding spots for things and people.

So the first day I got to China I got this bug bite on my right hand that made my hand swell up until I couldn’t see my last two knuckles. On this special day, Day Seven, right after the swell of my right hand died down, I got a matching bite on my left hand, amongst other ones. It was almost in the same exact place and became just as huge as the right one. It was great!

We spent Day Seven like an hour+ from Dong Guan at this area known for its fish market. We took this car ferry across some large body of water, which was pretty cool. What wasn’t cool was all the trash floating around. Anyway, at the fish market, they sell pretty much anything dried that once lived in the water. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the smell of dried things much, especially if they came from the water. It was so gross, but my mom, my aunt and her huge group of friends went crazy shopping. I just sat on the side and talked to my cousin a little, probably the most words I’ve ever spoken to him. I figured we should talk a little, since he’s probably going to live with us soon in the States. It was so funny because on the way there, we were all talking about what his English name should be (I continued this conversation with him later and suggested some names, all of which he turned down. Sadness.), because the name his English teacher gave him was Henry, which is my brother’s name, as well as the name my other cousin chose (We suspect that cousin was trying to steal my brother’s identity or something because he’s all sneaky like that.). I say his name should be Ben, because it’s close to what everyone calls him in Chinese, and then my uncle, who learned a little English in grade school was asking why he doesn’t use part his Chinese romanized name, Bin. He was like, “Bin is so easy. Call yourself Bin Bin. It’s that easy. You should add ‘easy’ to it. Easy Bin Bin.” hahaha.

After the dried fish market, we went to this other place that sells fresh stuff; seafood, veggies, fruit and whatnot. Once again, the ladies went crazy and bought lots of junks. A lot of stuff we were shopping for was for the big dinner we were going to right after, it turned out. I thought we were eating on a boat, meaning lots of deadly skeeters, but we got to eat in an indoor restaurant. With AC. It was really good and there wasn’t anyone waiting to pounce on our table as soon as we got up.

We had to wake up really early Day Eight, because my mom and I were going with my uncle, aunt and cousin to Guangzhou. Like I said, my cousin is probably coming to stay with us, but first they had to get through immigration. There is no shady business involved, so don’t worry. Long story short, it was a pretty sure thing and we had even booked tickets for them to fly out with us, but something lame happened, so he hasn’t been granted permission to go yet, but we’re fixing it and they’ll probably go not long after we leave. While they embarked on their three-hour journey, my mom and I went sightseeing nearby. We went to this huge park where you can’t step on the grass, which is pretty much the whole park, but you can take pictures next to the waterfall, so that’s where we went. We also walked around underground near the subway and then we checked out Ikea. I kept wanting to buy things (it’s the Ikea effect) but I just bought some spice jars because they were on sale and there’s no tax. Yee! We also bought my dad a new shoehorn because he loves them and because he bought one once at Ikea that was blue and this one was the same but white and now they can be cute together.

After my uncle and fam got out, we went to eat lunch at Zhen Gong Fu!! YESS! I’ve always wanted to eat there because their logo is a giant picture of Bruce Lee and I see them everywhere. It’s like the Chinese McDonalds and Bruce Lee is their golden arches. The difference is that their food is actually quite good and none of it is deep fried. Because I eat slow, my uncle and fam went to get their health papers together for the trip to the US while I finished up. My mom and I walked around the area while we waited for them and of course, we bought more things. I got a memory foam pillow, which I am so excited about, because the lady said it’s supposed to help with neck aches, which it totally does (:D!). My mom saw that it was so cheap here that we bought another one for my dad. We also got a blanket set for someone, but she likes it so much she refuses to part with it now. haha.

My mom and I stayed behind in Guangzhou, because we were going on a Chinese tour the next day to Zhang Jia Jie. I got to my cousin’s place and passed out for several hours, because I had nothing else to do while my mom was over at my aunt’s conversing.

Sorry so slow with the updates. I only have a week left as of today! :O!!

This is my last week of summer school and then freeedom. I haven’t been doing what I had planned to but I have been trying to organize the room. I have rearranged some things to get rid of some cardboard boxes, though. I think I keep ignoring everything else I wanted to do because my cleaning hasn’t been complete. This week I shall be reading and studying though.

Regarding movies, so far this summer I have seen Ocean’s 13, Transformers (twice), License to Wed, Die Hard, and Knocked Up (the last four in one day, thanks to ninja skills). I have not been disappointed so I am glad. I hope to see the Simpsons movie when it comes out as well. I think the best part in Transformers is the twenty seconds they waste on the close-up of that screaming girl as one of the robots is flipping over her. Maybe she’s friends with Shia Lebeouf or something. And when I went to watch those four movies, there were so many cameos of people from The Office that I am getting the movies a little mixed up. When I watch movies with a lot of extras, I wonder how I can get in on the action, because it seems so easy to just walk around in a background for a living. I mean, I totally did it for free in the spring musical my senior year. I don’t see why I shouldn’t get paid for it.

Next month I will be going to China again. I hope we get to go on a Chinese tour because I don’t know how much shopping I will feel like doing this time. I am still bitter about everyone saying what they did, of course, but this time my mommer will be there to help stave off the meanies. Alright! I also want to go on the tour because I will get more usage out of my neck pillow that I bought recently. YESS. Maybe this time my mom can assist in finding me a hubby, preferably one who looks and sounds like Wang Lee Hom.

Yesterday I went with Wendy and Susan to Huntington Beach. It took forever and a day to find parking and all the lots were full. It was a little bit of a shock, because I had never seen a parking lot that you have to pay ten bucks to go into be full before. What sucked was that not long before we got to the beach, the sky turned dark and got darker as time passed. We were probably there for an hour before we started feeling drops of water. Since there were so many people, we were nowhere near the actual ocean, so it couldn’t possibly have been the waves splashing at us. The drops gradually fell faster and we realized it was sprinkling, causing us to leave in disappointment. So the day would not be a complete waste, we went shopping in Irvine/Tustin and then had dinner at Lucille’s, where my sister met up with us. Oh my goodness I thought I was going to burst after dinner. It was so delicioso and even more so because it was free since my sister paid for me. Teehee.

So I guess that’s all I can remember for now. Keep recycling, folks. Oh, speaking of being green, the reusable shopping bags from Target are freakin’ cute. I heart them!! <3

I didn’t tell a lot of people, but I went to the Grand Canyon for Memorial Day weekend on a Chinese tour. There was a lot of canyon and a lot of sleeping involved. I don’t know how many hours I spent on the bus, but most of the time I was sleeping so it doesn’t matter.

We left home Saturday morning at around 8am and rode the bus for many hours until we got to the Grand Canyon Caverns, which is where I took this lovely picture. The Caverns was probably my favorite part of the trip, because I am a big dork that loves rocks, I guess.

The story behind it was that there was this guy named Walter Peck who was on his way to play poker but fell into this hole in the ground. The hole was actually deeper than he had fallen in and he thought there was a possibility of gold in there somewhere. He sent samples of the dirt and whatnot to be tested and before it even came back he bought up all the land above the caverns so no one else could claim it. Unfortunately there was no gold down there and it turned out that he just bought a giant cave in the ground. He wanted to make some money off of it, so he began letting people tour it. He lowered people on a rope for a quarter and I guess they walked around and marveled at the underground awesomeness.

It really is a cool place, literally. It stays 56 degrees all year round and there is only 6% humidity down there so there aren’t any bugs or anything. One of the cool things down there were the crystallized snowballs. There are also some animals that were found down there, one of them being a bobcat. The bobcat was mummified due to the humidity but some of its bones are missing because when it was found, the construction workers didn’t know what to do with it, so they passed it around to look at and play with. Gross.

One of the funny things about the caverns (located in Peach Springs on Route 66, inspiration for the movie Cars!) is that during a time when dinosaurs became all the rage with little kids, they decided to get in on the action and put up that dinosaur head over the entrance of the elevator and there’s also this giant fake dinosaur outside. The thing is, there has never been any dinosaur remnants found in the caverns. hahaha.

So after the Grand Canyon Caverns, we stayed the night at a Holiday Inn. For dinner, we had the options of eating at the 24-hour McDonalds, Jack in the Box, or Pizza Hut. My family initially wanted to eat at Pizza Hut, but I guess those lazy b-words were going to close sometime in the next 24 hours and decided it was too late to serve us unless we wanted to take it to go. All the parentals began yelling in Chinese as we headed for the door and trucked on over to Jack in the Box. Apparently I don’t pay attention to the content of commercials, because I didn’t realize they served breakfast food all day. When my sister told me, I recalled faintly a commercial where guys were dressed up as different meals… Anyway, I got the friggin’ awesome breakfast burrito and slathered it in salsa. The cashier was a little on the slow side and my dad was kind of making fun of him to my mom, but really…if your job is to push clearly labeled buttons on a cash register that tells you exactly how much is owed and the amount of change you need to give back, you shouldn’t need to tell people to slow down their orders, especially when they speak perfect, audible English, rather slowly, might I add, so the cashier would stop freaking out. At least my burrito was good..

The next morning we woke up at some ungodly hour and headed over to the south rim of the Canyon. Our first stop was the Desert View Watchtower. It was my first encounter with the actual Canyon and ’twas exciting indeed. We took lots of pictures and saw an Indian reservation from afar. There were cute drawings all over the inside of the Watchtower, one of which looked like that star from Mario that makes you invulnerable to those buggers that try to kill you.

We went to another place to look at the Canyon again after that. I think it was Hopi Point. My sister and I kept walking around, but the view stayed the same and it was getting to be quite hot. We lost track of time and ended up being the last people on the bus. That’s always embarrassing. haha. After that we went to Lookout Point to see where the California Condors hang. It’s cool that we got to see so many because there’s only like 300 in the world or something. They are really awesome looking and can have a wingspan of 9 feet. Luckily none of them attacked, because I’m sure they could totally lift people.

That evening we went to watch the sunset at Mather Point, which was really pretty but to get there, we had to cram into this bus and it felt like Hong Kong. I took way too many pictures of the sunset and will probably have cataracts…just like beets. Never mind. I watch too many commercials. Before going to watch the sunset, though, I managed to get hit on in the cafeteria of the place we were staying at by these fobby guys working there. How they got there, I will never know. One of them kept talking to me in Mandarin, so I guess I got to put my education to use. I tried to stay away from making conversation, because really, all I wanted was my parmesan meatball sub. I’m sure they were nice guys, but I’m waiting for my Takeshi. haha. A lot of people, including my closest friends, seem to think that I am particularly fond of fobs. Contrary to the belief that I go around searching for the perfect fob, I just like guys that appeal to me, not any particular “type”. Yes, my future hubby Takeshi is one, but that’s not why I love him.

After sunset, we crammed back into a bus to go to our rooms, and the next morning, we woke up at an even ungodlier, courtesy of my dad. The wake-up call was at 4am, but my dad decided to wake us up at 3:30. My parents wanted us to have breakfast in our bellies before our next trek. We left at 4:30 to drive back to Hopi Point to watch the sunrise, which was also very pretty, but I liked the sunset better because it was more colorful. I don’t remember where we went next, but there was more Canyon to be seen. At this point, every location was the same to me, but this time we actually got to hike in it. I can proudly say I have been in the Canyon and back. haha. We were on this route that eventually led to the Colorado river, but that’s a 15-hour mule ride. What’s gross is that the mules leave trails that smell horrible. We only spent about half an hour or so hiking and then it was back to the bus. Things were a little blurry after that, because it was mostly sleep from then on. We stopped somewhere for breakfast, then somewhere for lunch. Later on, we went to this souvenir place in Seligman, Az, on Route 66 that sold all this Route 66 stuff. There was this old gas station place next door that housed a bunch of old school cars and more souvies. It was a cute little town that reminded me of the Disney movie Cars. My sister saw the guy who brought Route 66 back to life. He was the guy who made everyone aware of its historical value and whatnot, which is really cool. He just hangs around there and runs a barbershop. That was our last tourist-y stop and then we were on our way hooome. Weeee. Very long bus ride though. Not so weee.

I’ll post more pictures when I have a chance! Hope everyone else had an awesome Memorial Day weekend, too.

I realized recently that one of the reasons this year has been not so good is because I didn’t get to watch any meteor showers. I have watched the Leonids one every year since 8th grade, but this year I missed it. I didn’t even watch the one this month to redeem myself. I guess I just felt like there wasn’t anyone who actually wanted to watch with me and I haven’t really been watching alone these past few years so I just sort of gave up. Some astro person I am. Sadness.

I felt really down Christmas night because it just didn’t feel like Christmas to me. Christmas during the day was quite fun, but after I got home, I just didn’t feel the excitement of Christmas I usually feel. I didn’t get to wrap any gifts and put pretty ribbon on anything. I love wrapping presents. Agh. I just felt like it was too commercialized this year and I personally contribute to it, working for such an evil retail corporation. Gotta pay the mortgage right? haha. That was from Thank You For Smoking, for those of you who don’t get it. Hilarious movie. Hilariousss.

But anywho, I had a freaking blasty on my Chinese tour. I went with my family (minus my brothers), two uncles, one aunt, and my aunt’s friend. The first day we just sat in the bus all day. We were supposed to go to Zion Park in Utah, but it was already dark by the time we got there so we just went to our hotel instead. We stopped at McDonalds for lunch and dinner. Yucko. I haven’t eaten there for so long and I didn’t really want anything. I have to say, though, their French fries, or crack fries rather, are addicting. I probably ate two boxes myself that day. The next day we went to Lake Powell, which is in four states and I believe we traveled on the lake in Utah and Arizona. We took a cruise that covered 11 miles, while the lake is 186 miles long. It was quite pretty, but SO SO cold and I got burns from the coldness mixed with sun. At one point, we were in Antelope Canyon, which is quite narrow and the boat was seriously inches from the rocks and I got so freaked out because I was out at the front of the ship. It was intense. We saw a lot of Navajo tapestry walls and in one of them there’s this thing that’s shaped like a bunny eating a carrot. :D! The black stuff on the walls is rusted manganese. I made sure to ask because it looks so awesome. Like the whole wall looks the way maple looks when you cut it with a saw and it’s got those burn marks and stuff. Later that day, we went to Bryce Canyon, which is the smallest of Utah’s national parks, and we played in the snow! I love snow!! The canyon was awesome looking and there was just snow everywhere. It made my family members very happy. I love seeing adults happy. hehe. That night we stayed in Mesquite, Nevada and up until I saw a sign with the name Mesquite, I was so confused about what the tour guide had been saying all that time. He kept saying something that sounded like “mer-ski” and I could not, for the life of me, figure out what he was saying. It was kind of relieving to know. haha. I barely slept that night because I slept so much on the bus, so I got like an hour and a half in before we had to get up at 4am to get to Zion Park. I can say that I have been to Zion. Woohoo! It was soooooo friggin’ cold there. I had to put on the extra pair of pants I brought in my backpack to make the wind stop hurting me. We got off the bus to take some pictures in front of the Checkerboard Mesa. It looked especially cool with the snow on it. The tourguide specifically told us to go out there and “make some memories.” haha. OH, by the way, I learned on the Lake Powell cruise that a butte (they pronounced it like beaut) is like a mesa but it’s much more narrow. Anyway, we did indeed make some memories. We also got to ride the bus through one of the manmade tunnels there. That canyon is REALLY awesome because a long, long, long time ago, it was actually all under water so all the rocks have these really cool shapes. After leaving from there, we were off to Vegas for lunch. After lunch of course, some of my family members decided to do some gambling. I think the only person who won any money was my dad, who made a bet at a roulette table at the last minute. Pretty cool. After Vegas, we were on our way home. Super heavy traffic though. The bus driver took a detour that I’ve never seen before. I slept most of the way. We got to San Gabriel around 7 or so and went over to my aunt’s house to eat congee and then we were off to our own home. My brother came home not long after with Patches and she was soooo excited to see everyone. I heart her. hehe.

Yesterday I spent most of the day working on my secret santa gift. I think I could’ve done better but it’s ok. I hope she likes it. We ate at the new Cheesecake Factory and I did indeed get to have my cheesecake! Tiramisiu. Mmm. Wendy and I got it for free because their service was so slow. haha. Woohoo. Afterwards was our gift exchange and it was so fun seeing who everyone had and all the awesome gifts. I LOVE love love everything I got. I finally have my galoshes!!! YEAH! They’re gorgeous and so fun to wearrr. I kept putting them on and taking them off throughout the night while we watched eps on Wendy’s new Sex and the City DVDs. I think Susan enjoyed her gift the most because she finally got her yoga mat bag, which she delightfully rubbed all over her face, as well as a MCAT practice book or whatever, and a bunch of different office supplies, all of which she loved. I was sorta down about this break but after my trip and seeing all the Freundinnen so excited, I’m quite happy. I hope I accomplish some stuff I really wanted to do this break so I can be suuuper happy. I also hope that I start to hate work less.

I’M FINALLY DONE AND ALL WARM AND TOASTY AT HOME!! Ugh I’m so glad to be out of that place! I got food for my sister and she decided to eat it in the parking lot, but I got really impatient because I just could not stand being there anymore, so I asked if we could just leave already. I’m so happy to be home! I already met up with a couple Freundinnen and we watched Thank You For Smoking. Super good movie! I had been wanting to watch it for quite a while and finally got toooo. Yay! And we’re going to a pants party on Saturday! WOOooo!

There’s so much I want to do this break. I especially want to KNIT! And read. And snowboard. And, and, and…lots of stuff. The biggest challenge will be cleaning my room. I hope I get around to that this year. I need to go shopping for my Secret Santa because I only have like 11 days. Ah! I also need to shop for other people and whatnot, but luckily, I have all break! Well, minus a few days because I’m going to Utah with the fam. I’ve been telling people it’s to hang out with my Mormon siblings, but really, I’m going on a Chinese tour and we’re not actually going to Salt Lake City, I don’t think. I’ve already done that Chinese tour anyways. It was quite awesome. The Mormon HQ is really an amazing place and I loved that they had translators for pretty much every language of the world, EVEN for Cantonese! Not just Mandarin! Like OMG!

I ended up Undie Running and it was a blasty. I managed not to hurt myself so that’s another reason to be excited. I’d cry if I hurt myself right before break, since ’tis the season for snowboarding! I went with my super fun RT963 buddies (minus Shawna! ) in our nude suits! Just kidding. We’re saving that for next Undie Run because Michelle’s buying them for everyone for Christmas. Oh shoot, I just ruined her Christmas surprise. hahaha. Not really. I had an econ final the next morning at 8am but it wouldn’t really have been affected by my choice of running or not because either way I was screwed for the final, so why not go? It was totally an economic decision. haha. Sigh. Jia you!

PS I CANNOT believe the Jennie-O Turkey people beat me on Google. I’m mad at them. They could not just let me have ONE good thing in this world?? As if they aren’t already popular enough? Geebus.