this is the AM view i have had every morning now for 5 glorious days on the Puget Sound, WA. a friend of friend allowed my friend Lisa and i to stay in their little, new, bungalow built atop a 3 boat garage. (they call it the Taj Garage). it's so beautiful, and quiet (except for a few crows and an occasional boat passing). it's our summer vacation ~ and that it is. while here, besides running over to Walmart too much, we have kayaked out to Hope Island, slept in every morning, sat on the porch and watch the tide change from in to out, read a good book or two, done our nails and then ate a whole lot of good food and fresh blackberries picked from the front yard. it's a delicious time to be alive. we are headed to the OR coast tomorrow, then over to Eugene after a few days to visit April, Nick and my Mason. i'm sad to leave.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
this is the AM view i have had every morning now for 5 glorious days on the Puget Sound, WA. a friend of friend allowed my friend Lisa and i to stay in their little, new, bungalow built atop a 3 boat garage. (they call it the Taj Garage). it's so beautiful, and quiet (except for a few crows and an occasional boat passing). it's our summer vacation ~ and that it is. while here, besides running over to Walmart too much, we have kayaked out to Hope Island, slept in every morning, sat on the porch and watch the tide change from in to out, read a good book or two, done our nails and then ate a whole lot of good food and fresh blackberries picked from the front yard. it's a delicious time to be alive. we are headed to the OR coast tomorrow, then over to Eugene after a few days to visit April, Nick and my Mason. i'm sad to leave.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
ever ray is born
a whole month has flown by. where? some of it was skiing, some was school, some work, a bike ride when the weather permited, a cold that later became a sinus infection.
the spring skiing has been both warm as can be then as cold as january. this is my last week of skiing and then i'm on into spring. anxious to get loggging in some bike miles.
today was the first day of my new niece's life - Ever Ray Anderson (cookie dough). i'm taking care of her 2 older brothers and sister (who can hardly stand the excitement of a sister in the house) while my sister languishes in the hospital for 2 deserved nights.
congrats kathy and ever!!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
obviously, i'm back stateside. (they don't have snow like this in China) it's been 2 whole months since landing in SLC on the PM of jan 3rd. 2 days later i was teaching Chinese back at the BYU and skiing at Deer Valley. beside jet lag and altitude adjustment there was a bit of a jolt to the psyche.most of january was figuring out what America meant, and Feb has been spent doing --- life things. moving my bed into my room and finding my church shoes (some of which are still missing).
i managed to get in a trip to the yurt with some of my friends and ski a lot! i suppose i'm finally back in the swing of things. it's great to be back in the land of big glasses of cold milk, central heating, carpet and my own car.
sami was beside herself when i first picked her up. she wiggled and wiggled and whined and sniffed, then went to find a ball for me to throw. i was worried that she would have some kind of adjustment period to being back with me, but instead we picked up where we left off and she's been great. again, it's nice to be home. although, i have to say i miss the low prices of China. America is expensive!
life isn't as interesting as it was in China - which means that i don't have a lot to share in terms of funny stories about a maid (dang! i miss having someone clean my house everyday) or face offs with crazy taxi drivers, etc. but, i'm quite enjoying the 'boring' life.
the best part about being home is connecting again with family and friends. i stayed connected via email and skype while in China, but there is nothing like hugging the kids in my family and being in the midst all of those i love.
this past weekend i was in Victor, ID in the shadow the Grand Tetons visiting my sister Holly, her husband Andrew and of course the baby - Summer. what fun! it's truly winter there. -11 on Sat. morning. wow! we didn't leave the house until 10:30, and only then because it was warmer in the sun. the day before holly and i skied at Grand Targhee. i've never skied this resort before. typically, it is quite foggy up top, but we had clear skies and 8" of powder. holly was willing to take some professional action shots of my fine skiing - you can see her work here - and i took some of her. my favorite is her hitting a tree. my siblings are my favorite ski partners, we had a wonderful day.
Summer is as cute as ever. she says enough words to communicate that she wants to wear her ski goggles and go to her friend's house to play. i haven't seen her since august so we had some good aunt/niece reconnection time. for the most part we just played and laughed, but about 20 minutes before i was to leave there was some drama when she head dived out of her play pen. that was the end of nap time.
it's wonderful to be home.
Friday, January 2, 2009
leaving asia
Thailand in a moment....
this will be the last time i write from the other side of the world. lisa and i missed a night of sleep on our 1am flight from bangkok to HK. just as i had closed my eyes for 2.5hrs of sleep they flipped on the lights and started serving dinner. who eats at 1:30am on a plane?? i just felt a slightly annoyed and then covered my eyes with a small white plane pillow that didn't do much to block the blaring lights.
we made it out of bangkok - and gladly as are really ready to be home. our biggest concern was getting into HK, taking the train to town to snag our baggage that we left in our HK hostel, repacking it so that weight was distrubuted evenly and then getting everything back to the airport and check in. all went smoothly, and now we are waiting and waiting to get start our journey via Taiwan to LA. needless to say we are both a little pale and don't feel the best, but it's a good way to start the jet lag process.
see you all soon! zian jian asia.
this will be the last time i write from the other side of the world. lisa and i missed a night of sleep on our 1am flight from bangkok to HK. just as i had closed my eyes for 2.5hrs of sleep they flipped on the lights and started serving dinner. who eats at 1:30am on a plane?? i just felt a slightly annoyed and then covered my eyes with a small white plane pillow that didn't do much to block the blaring lights.
we made it out of bangkok - and gladly as are really ready to be home. our biggest concern was getting into HK, taking the train to town to snag our baggage that we left in our HK hostel, repacking it so that weight was distrubuted evenly and then getting everything back to the airport and check in. all went smoothly, and now we are waiting and waiting to get start our journey via Taiwan to LA. needless to say we are both a little pale and don't feel the best, but it's a good way to start the jet lag process.
see you all soon! zian jian asia.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
for a the happy new year gift to myself i stopped and had my fortune read. many exciting things are in my future and she was about 80% right on the past. mostly she said i "have too much talking" and "you spend too much." it was a very complicated looking at charts and books and writing before she came to all these profound conclusions.
new years in bangkok
writing still from thailand.....
since lisa and i had a few extra days in thailand (bangkok specifically) we decided to walk the city and figure out what was going on in our area. after much searching we found a lonely planet of bangkok for $9.00, a few tourist maps and went from there.
so far each morning has started with some good sized portions of pad thai and mangos + sticky rice with a bottle of fresh squeezed OJ - about $2.00. again, we have been sure to stick to our strict Thai food diet. the lonely planet claims that thailand has the tastiest food in Asia and now that i've tested that theory for about 10 days i'm going to agree.
new year's eve started with our breakfast, a good review of where to go how to get there then we started walking. one vague goal was to end up at the flower market, but mostly we wanted to walk around and see what Bangkok had to offer. along the way we found a tasty treat of ice cream in a bread bun, guava and several markets with lots of cheap stuff and food.
outside the Thai King's palace we walked into a small park flocked with pigeons. looking the part of a tourist with our camera and backpacks a thai woman came up to us and shoved small bags of corn into our hands motioning to feed the birds. "How much?" we asked - "No fee...." happily we threw corn for the birds and got lots of photos while they attacked us for the treats.
after our bags were empty we started walking off and suddenly the "No fee" became "No free!" = cost. since our price hadn't been negotiated up front lisa was annoyed that she had tried to gyp us and started walking away. while lisa and i were discussing the situation the woman got in-between the two of us and started demanding payment. when i protested and tried to move around her she blocked me and even jabbed me in the stomach a few times.
"How much?" i asked again, as i figured it was fair to pay her something. "300 baht" (about $9.00 US which is equivelant to $50 for a Thai), NO! i protested. more yelling to lisa who was telling me to walk and the woman jabbed me again. fortunately, i had a 20 baht (about $.75) in my pocket which i pulled out and shoved into her hand. she waved 40 baht at me and demanded that, but since she had tricked us i figured 20 was good enough. i brushed by her and as lisa and i walked off she yelled an explitive in English, to which i turned around pointed and yelled "Hey!"
on our journey we rode the river ferry that runs up and down the river that cuts through the middle of Bangkok to get to our destinations. eventually, we made it down to the flower market. streets and alleys and shops FULL of flowers and stuff for flowers and more flowers.
the Thai's use flowers, mostly marigolds since they are the color of the royalty, to make offerings to their spirit houses, offerings at temples and to tie anywhere they want good things to happen. it's a big business this flower thing. it was fun to wander around and smell it all. eventually we got hungry so we sat down at a street side kitchen and had some freshly cooked pad thai. yum.
at one point some young thai guy started yelling at us in English and pointing to his friend, "You very love him..." we laughed and on our way past them again i yelled back to him "No, you very love him!" i had to say it a few times, but he didn't quite understand my meaning -- always be careful when yelling out statements in a different language.
we made our way back to our neighborhood where the party was starting to build and it was only 6pm. set up at the end of the kao san road market street was as stage for the night's show. the front 2 rows consisted of what looked like living room furniture - for important people we assumed - then rows and rows of plastic chairs behind that. there happened to be some open seats front and center on the front row of the economy section so we sat down to see what would happen.
there was a show with lots of thai spoken that was then translated into English by a Thai guy who didn't know English. several dancers coming out and doing traditional thai dance - which was pretty cool. besides the mic occasionally getting some loud and high pitched feedback, the most exciting thing was the elephant parked off to the side of the whole production.
it was painted from head to toe and chained to avoid any incidents. everyone was mobbing around it taking photos of themselves touching the tusks. when someone gave it money it would grab the cash with the end of its trunk and hand it up to its trainer who was perched above its head. after everyone got photos of the front of the elephant the trainer had it turn around and written on its behind, in big letters, "Happy New Year Thailand."
part way through the show the trainer decided to take it for a walk down the middle of the market street that was now mobbed with people, people who were getting progressively more soused. somehow all of this was normalized - and i suppose it is as we are in bangkok and everytime i have visited this city i have seen more bizarre things than anywhere else in the world.
we made our way back to the hostel before things got really exciting. by 10:30pm we were stuffing ear plugs in our ears to block out the huge speakers that were blasting the roof off the bar next door and the guy who kept yelling 'whoooooh' at 30-90 second intervals. i vaguely remember hearing some yelling and blasts about midnight, but the ear plugs were the best invention every created as i slept better in bangkok than anyone else last night.
HAPPY NEW YEAR - whoooooo ,,,,, whooooo ---- whooooooh
since lisa and i had a few extra days in thailand (bangkok specifically) we decided to walk the city and figure out what was going on in our area. after much searching we found a lonely planet of bangkok for $9.00, a few tourist maps and went from there.
so far each morning has started with some good sized portions of pad thai and mangos + sticky rice with a bottle of fresh squeezed OJ - about $2.00. again, we have been sure to stick to our strict Thai food diet. the lonely planet claims that thailand has the tastiest food in Asia and now that i've tested that theory for about 10 days i'm going to agree.
new year's eve started with our breakfast, a good review of where to go how to get there then we started walking. one vague goal was to end up at the flower market, but mostly we wanted to walk around and see what Bangkok had to offer. along the way we found a tasty treat of ice cream in a bread bun, guava and several markets with lots of cheap stuff and food.
outside the Thai King's palace we walked into a small park flocked with pigeons. looking the part of a tourist with our camera and backpacks a thai woman came up to us and shoved small bags of corn into our hands motioning to feed the birds. "How much?" we asked - "No fee...." happily we threw corn for the birds and got lots of photos while they attacked us for the treats.
after our bags were empty we started walking off and suddenly the "No fee" became "No free!" = cost. since our price hadn't been negotiated up front lisa was annoyed that she had tried to gyp us and started walking away. while lisa and i were discussing the situation the woman got in-between the two of us and started demanding payment. when i protested and tried to move around her she blocked me and even jabbed me in the stomach a few times.
"How much?" i asked again, as i figured it was fair to pay her something. "300 baht" (about $9.00 US which is equivelant to $50 for a Thai), NO! i protested. more yelling to lisa who was telling me to walk and the woman jabbed me again. fortunately, i had a 20 baht (about $.75) in my pocket which i pulled out and shoved into her hand. she waved 40 baht at me and demanded that, but since she had tricked us i figured 20 was good enough. i brushed by her and as lisa and i walked off she yelled an explitive in English, to which i turned around pointed and yelled "Hey!"
on our journey we rode the river ferry that runs up and down the river that cuts through the middle of Bangkok to get to our destinations. eventually, we made it down to the flower market. streets and alleys and shops FULL of flowers and stuff for flowers and more flowers.
the Thai's use flowers, mostly marigolds since they are the color of the royalty, to make offerings to their spirit houses, offerings at temples and to tie anywhere they want good things to happen. it's a big business this flower thing. it was fun to wander around and smell it all. eventually we got hungry so we sat down at a street side kitchen and had some freshly cooked pad thai. yum.
at one point some young thai guy started yelling at us in English and pointing to his friend, "You very love him..." we laughed and on our way past them again i yelled back to him "No, you very love him!" i had to say it a few times, but he didn't quite understand my meaning -- always be careful when yelling out statements in a different language.
we made our way back to our neighborhood where the party was starting to build and it was only 6pm. set up at the end of the kao san road market street was as stage for the night's show. the front 2 rows consisted of what looked like living room furniture - for important people we assumed - then rows and rows of plastic chairs behind that. there happened to be some open seats front and center on the front row of the economy section so we sat down to see what would happen.
there was a show with lots of thai spoken that was then translated into English by a Thai guy who didn't know English. several dancers coming out and doing traditional thai dance - which was pretty cool. besides the mic occasionally getting some loud and high pitched feedback, the most exciting thing was the elephant parked off to the side of the whole production.
it was painted from head to toe and chained to avoid any incidents. everyone was mobbing around it taking photos of themselves touching the tusks. when someone gave it money it would grab the cash with the end of its trunk and hand it up to its trainer who was perched above its head. after everyone got photos of the front of the elephant the trainer had it turn around and written on its behind, in big letters, "Happy New Year Thailand."
part way through the show the trainer decided to take it for a walk down the middle of the market street that was now mobbed with people, people who were getting progressively more soused. somehow all of this was normalized - and i suppose it is as we are in bangkok and everytime i have visited this city i have seen more bizarre things than anywhere else in the world.
we made our way back to the hostel before things got really exciting. by 10:30pm we were stuffing ear plugs in our ears to block out the huge speakers that were blasting the roof off the bar next door and the guy who kept yelling 'whoooooh' at 30-90 second intervals. i vaguely remember hearing some yelling and blasts about midnight, but the ear plugs were the best invention every created as i slept better in bangkok than anyone else last night.
HAPPY NEW YEAR - whoooooo ,,,,, whooooo ---- whooooooh
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