Shhh.... Don't tell....

...but I pull into parking lots and side streets in order to avoid having to stop at red lights on hills. You see, I just dropped Janson off at the airport and while he's gone I'm using his truck, which happens to be a stick shifter. I'm slowly getting the hang of it, but as Murphey's Law dictates, I tend to stall it on the really short green lights and get going again about the time it turns yellow. I can feel I'm getting better with practice, but I am still pretty nervous while driving. And starting up on hills is the bane of my stick-shift driving experiance. As stressful as learning to drive a standard has been, I'm glad I'm doing it, now if there is ever an emergency and I have to drive a stick, I can get behind the wheel with confidence, well... more confidence than before.

I'm finding that as nice as it is to be eating familiar foods again, I wish I could be heading back to China right away.
The food there was delicious- well, for the most part- I mean, there were somethings like the pig lower intestine and the tree fungus which I found appallingly gross, and there were things like the tomato and egg dish and some of the spices which I didn't like at first, but by the end I was not only used to, but really enjoyed. And of course, there was jiaozi and xiao long bao and some of the vegtables which I miss dearly. But, even more than the different foods, I miss the simple sense of adventure of eating out; not knowing what something is, or what it has in it. Sometimes that sense of adventure gets old and thankfully I quickly learned some of the names of the dishes that I really liked so if all else failed I could order a familiar dish, or if I was really not feeling adventurous I could go to KFC, which I did maybe 8 or 9 times.
Towards the end of the semester I was getting to be a familiar face at one particular resteraunt. They had really good jiaozi and lots of choices (with pictures) on ther menus. There were 5 or 6 fuwu yuan (sp?) that work there that knew me by sight and they were always friendly and smiling. They were patient with me when I had no clue what they were saying and when they were trying to figure out what I was trying to say. On my last night in Beijing my friend Matteo and I went to this resteraunt. He has much better Chinese than I do and he helped me tell them that I was going back to Meiguo (USA) and that I really liked their resturant and would miss the good service and good food. They got all smilely (which was really cute) and we said goodbye. I really do miss them and their good food.... If only they weren't a 18 hour travel day away.

Name Change? And Merry Christmas Wishes

I'm thinking I might have to change the name of my blog to just "Sara's Adventures" since I'm not in China anymore. Although, but by the time I stop procrastinating and do that, I might be back in China.
I'm up in Alliston, Ontario right now visiting my parents for Christmas. My boyfriend Janson is here too so there is just enough people to have some good competition for Settlers of Catan games. Here is my brother playing Settlers:

Surprisingly enough for my family, there are actually presents wrapped under the tree. It's surprising because in years past the majority of the gifts usually show up about 20 minutes before they are unwrapped.
Since Laura and Andrea aren't here, Matt and myself were the only ones competing for the top branch position for our hallmark Baby's First Christmas" ornaments. After moving around a bit Matt's ornament seems to be on top, then mine, then Laura's and then Andrea's.

Despite Laura and Andrea not being here we are still managing to stay entertained. Part of that I'm sure is because of Mom:

Yup, that's my mom, imitating Rudolph by using crab legs for antlers.

Without intending, all four of us Rips ended up wearing purplish colors. And after taking 20 different pictures to get the settings on the camera right, we did manage to pull off a nice picture

And one last picture for the road... This is Janson opening up his pinecone and pipecleaner present.

To Everyone and Anyone who might be browsing through here:

Merry Christmas!

Things Feel Different

It is a bit of an adjustment coming back to North America after 3.5 monthes in a strange place. There are sooo many memories that people here just don't understand. I've really missed being around my friends at CNU so I started looking through my pictures, finding the really good ones to show off when I visit my parents for Christmas. I keep laughing at pictures and I really wish I had a couple people from my trip around so we could all laugh together.

Seeing as how they aren't around, I might as well post a few pictures up here....

(Give me a few hours and I'll put some up)

>>EDIT
So a few hours is actually 24, sorry about the delay.


This picture would be Christi, Heather and myself. Earlier in the semester when we realized ice cream bars would still be sold mid-winter we made a deal to take a picture eating ice cream bars all bundled up. Shortly after we took this picture we all hopped back inside the dorm to warm up and finish our frozen treats.


When the three of us girls went to Datong we stopped by this little bakery where the staff were wearing little crowns. We told them that we really like their little hats and could we please have one. So they gave us three. Very nice of them. We also found little cookies that remind me of Dutch Windmill cookies there.


A few days before I left Beijing this was how the smog looked. It was even worse the next day, but right before I left it cleared up beautifully.


A picture is worth a thousand words.... Matteo and I went shopping together shortly before I left Beijing. We saw this dress at the market and we were so stunned we had to take a picture. There is no way that dress could be adequately described in words.


After seeing the dress in the previous picture we were in a rather silly mood. Also, Matteo likes UPS so when we saw this advertisment in the subway, we just had to stop.


I've been converted. Just kidding. It's actually Mike Westrate's hat but whenever I visited his and Matteo's room I would wear it. They are very comfy and warm. Next time I go back I am getting one for myself.

Back from Outer Space

Wow, I made it back. I left CHina at 9:05am Thursday and after 18 hours of traveling got to Grand Rapids at 4:30pm on Thursday. Go figure.

I was pretty antsy on the plane from Detroit to GR because I knew when I got off Janson would be there to greet me. Thankfully the woman who sat next to me was a good conversationalist and we talked the whole flight.

There is a lot that seems strange here. Its weird to see houseses and the air feels sooo much cleaner. On the plane someone was talking about how a movie had just come out on DVD for the holidays and I laughed because the same movie had been availible on street corners everywhere in Beijing since the beginning of October.

My cats are doing great. The one was a kitten when I left and now is all grown up. They still like to wander around the computer when I am using it which is a bit annoying because I can never quite see what I'm typing.

Anyway, I'm back.... I miss China.

Counting Down

I have finally gotten to a internet bar where I can hop on. The only problem is everything on the blogger website here is in characters. It makes it a bit hard to figure out.

I'm counting off the days until I go back to the States (3). But I am also counting down people.

Yesterday three of the guys left for their ski trip to Harbin.
Tomorrow 5 people head back to the states and 3 go off to Viet Nam for a week.
Tuesday morning one leave to Hong Kong and then I'll go back on thursday.

I'm ready to see my friends and family but I'm not ready to leave China.

Not ready at all.

PS I intended the person who wrote the last post to make it clear not to expect another post from my until my return to the US. I didn't see what he wrote until today and now I understand why people keep asking me to update. I'm glad I was able to do one last post before I leave. Maybe if I have time I'll be able to do one more... who knows...

Noww... if I can just figure out what buttons to push to post this thing.