Our life in the Orient

First off, I just want to start out by saying, WE HAVE INTERNET!!!!! Woo!!!!!!!! Today is the first day we have had it in our apartment which means that we no longer have to risk our lungs to cancer. The internet cafe's here consist of Chinese gamers that smoke 2 packs in the 2 hours they are there. Gross.

We landed here last Thursday morning and have been going ever since. We live in the Jing An district in Shanghai just North of the Jing An Temple. Go ahead and google image a picture of it if you like! Our apartment was built in the 1930's so it has an old China feel to it. It is many different levels with the same wood floor as it had when it was built im sure. We also have a cat named Spice. The man who is letting us stay in his apartment has Spice to kill mice and we haven't seen any so far, so good job Spice!

So far, we have toured the area (by foot!), saw the Pearl of the Orient, walked around the Bund, ridden in many taxis and safely made it to our destination, not been killed crossing the street, eaten REAL Chinese food and enjoyed it, found every American fast food restaurant within a mile radius and ate there, been stared at by every Chinese man, given food to the poor, and survived jet lag. It was a beast!

Zack started his job at the hospital on Monday. He is interning at Shanghai United Hospital. Right now they have him doing administration which doesn't help him at all, but he is enjoying working with the people there. He has been given assignments to visit other doctors so that is promising and he is excited about it.

I (Emily) have successfully wandered Shanghai alone and managed to not get lost and pass the time. Much thanks to my ipod and the movies and office episodes on it. I will teach English to kingdergarten kids but it doesn't start until June first. I do go in to do a 'demo' for them on Thursday though, so I hope it goes well!

We are doing well. Church is my new favorite thing. I am positive that Shanghai has the COOLEST branch in the world. Everyone is so funny, nice, and friendly. We went to a branch party on Saturday where we met many people from all over and some that I happened to go to the same elementary school with. Small world! Not to be all churchy on you but I really am so grateful to know that when I go far away to places like this, that I always have the church to rely on and that people in it are there to help me. It has really helped me to settle in.

Here are a few of the pictures of our adventure so far!

Zack and I at the Bund. Which is basically the boardwalk along the Pu River.


Me with the symbol of the World Expo. It is coming to Shanghai in 2010 and basically the little guy is everywhere, and the entire city is under construction for it. It is NUTS!



Zack and I at Bali Park, right across from the temple. About 10 min. from our house.



Thank you Korean Air for getting us here safely!

I DID IT!

Yesterday was a big pay day. I graduated from Utah State! I started with the big commencement that started at 9:30. I met on the Quad at 8:30 to assemble for our 'commmemorative walk on the quad'. We started to walk at 9am from the Quad to the Spectrum. Once everyone was seated we had our speech by Senator Bob Bennett. He gave a great talk and it was short and sweet. The Valedictorian then addressed us and it was a girl I went to high school with! I thought it was pretty funny. She did a great job.

After that my parents, Zack, and I went to lunch at one of my favorite spots in Logan, Old Grist Mill! While we were there, Zack's parents Linda and Evan joined us. We filled them in on the first commencement and then headed over to the Kent Concert Hall for my College's graduation. I am in the College of Agricultur and proud of it!

I thought my college graduation was a lot of fun! The speakers were great, and we even had a quote from Kung Fu Panda! When it was over, we had some refreshments of cake and of course Aggie Ice Cream! It we delicious and the perfect way to end the day. When we went outside, the rain had finally stopped for a bit and we got some great pictures.

I still feel like it didn't happen! I am sure come this fall when I don't go back to school as a student it will hit me. I'm going to miss it, and it was a great 5 years. I'll always be an Aggie in my heart!


My FAVORITE Professor at Utah State and the reason I graduated. Me and Julie Wheeler.


All the girls in my major. Go FACS!!


Me and my Hottie Hubby on the A!! I finally got him there!!


Accepting the Diploma. I did it!!!!

Drive down memory canyon

This past Friday I drove up to Utah State to turn in my last assignment EVER and to attend the closing seminar for Secondary Education. I have driven this route SO MANY times I could do it blindfolded. While we're on that subject there are many late nights I drove back and seriously think I fell asleep at the wheel. Good thing someone was looking out for me.

As I drove through the beautiful green canyon my mind was flooded with all of my memories at Utah State. I loved it up there and am so proud to be an Aggie!!

The other day I was grocery shopping in Provo at Smith's in my Utah State Game Day shirt. As I was checking out my groceries, a girl behind me asked if I went there and if I liked it. I quickly answered with a "YES!". I answered a few of her questions and I hope I helped.

After this I thought for a bit about my answer not because I didn't agree with my answer but I thought about why I loved my 'college experience' so much. For me this experience wasn't about getting straight A's (good thing, I CLEARLY did not), pulling all nighters, or having your second home being the library (although for me it was, I worked there and LOVED it). It is not about your major, True Aggie Nights, what sorority you were in, if you were at the bonfire on Saturday, or the slip in slide you had in your apartment. It didn't matter that we had the worst football team in the nation or that we had a WAC champion basketball team. It wasn't about the fun restaurants in Logan like Old Grist Mill, Cafe Sabor, Charlies, Logan Burgers and Subs, Juniper Take-Out or many others. It wasn't about all the dates I did or did not have on Friday night. Of if I was invited to the 'cool kids' party or not, or the days I fell asleep on the quad.

My college experience was not about having all of these experiences, but the person I am because of them. Thanks to every roommate I had ( I counted them up, I had over 35 or them, thanks Kappa Delta Sorority house!), every class I attended, all the professors that tried to help me, all the late nights spent talking and eating. I wouldn't trade in a minute of it!

Teacher Evaluations

Today and tomorrow I need my students to evaluate me. I have to collect all the data and turn it into the Education Dept. at Utah State. They just check the standard boxes of Strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly agree. You know, the usual. ON the back are some comments it asks for such as:

The thing I like best about student teacher was_________________________.

I had a good time reading the responses. Although I am FAR from being a perfect teacher it was fun to hear their responses and see what they liked and what I need to improve on. Here are a few of the comments they wrote about me. Mind you, these are all the positive ones (yes, I am bragging!!).

Perhaps one of my favorite "good" comments what that I am really loud. Ha ha ha. I guess the rest of the teachers must be quiet? Sorry, I come from working as a camp counselor and a retired cheerleader, I guess I am loud. Glad you like it!

"She is really nice, makes lessons enjoyable, and knows a lot about what she is teaching."

"She was nice and knew everything about cooking. She helped out a lot."

"She smiled a lot and knew me as a person." I do??? I wonder who this is....

"She had a great sense of humor and was smart."

"How she taught her lessons- they were fun and informative. She even let us play games sometimes to help us learn." Score!!


Nothing like a little bit of praise before I make my grand exit! It has been hard some days but I learned A LOT and feel totally ready to teach for real. That is the idea right? Graduation here I come!

FINISHED!

It probably has taken me two years to do it but today I finally finished the Twilight Series!! I read the first one in 2007. I took about a year and a half to finally push myself to getting through the boring 150ish pages of the second book and have been reading here and there through school, the wedding, and student teaching. Wahoo! It is a nice feeling to be done!! I think ironically the second book is my favorite. And I know I will get a lot of hate for this but I just liked Jacob better. He was always #1 for me! Don't get me wrong, Edward is great too but I wish she would have picked Jacob. Overall, good series.

Now I need some good book suggestions for reading on our 15 hour plane ride to China!! Any suggestions??

Computer Information Literacy

This is what I spent the majority of my spring break (well, Timpview High School's spring break) doing. Utah State claims that you need to know this information in order to graduate. They feel that by knowing what is on these tests will help you through your classes and benefit the student. Boy were they wrong!! At the start of the 2008-2009 school year I had only 2 of the 6 tests taken and passed. I submit that if I made it a week away from my graduation with still having one of these tests lingering, I surely didn't need them.

Did I have 5 years to take 6 test?
Absolutely

Did I always find something better to do and not care about these test?
Always

I found out yesterday that after 3 attempts I finally passed my spreadsheets exam! Spreadsheets is Excel and they could not have made that test harder. Wow.

I am sure glad to have this done! Graduation here I come!

'Egg'citing Weekend

Yes, the title to this post sure is corny, but I like it :)

This weekend we had a lot of fun! I hardly took any pictures of it, but we still had a blast! Friday, Zack and I hung out with Zack's old roommates and our friends Janae and Natalie. We had a LOT of fun! We felt like we were in high school again and for just one night, it was a welcomed surprise. We all drove to Wal-Mart and each bought our own Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I chose Phish Food of course. Then we drove to what Zack calls the sweet park and play. We had a fun time but it got cold fast so we came back to our apartment and we just played.

Saturday morning Janae and Natalie called to see if we wanted to go to Ihop with them to which we were very excited! It was delicious and got us ready for the day. Saturday Zack has a shift from 12:45-4:30 so it burns up a lot of our daylight we could have together so imagine my surprise when he comes home and tells me his team teacher at the MTC has mono and nobody to cover his shift so Zack being the good guy he is went in AGAIN until 9p.m. I was not very happy about that but entertained myself by making these!! They are cupcake 'pops' and are DELICIOUS! Recipe found HERE.

The ingredients

The finished product.

Sunday we spent the day with my family and had dinner and relaxed with Ryan and Becky and their cute girls. I think most of us were pretty entertained watching Lexie and Zack play the pillow game for a good 2 hours. It was awesome.

Me making deviled eggs for Zack


Happy Easter!