Tuk-tuks and tourists

So, I never really mentioned that I moved to Thailand.  :)  Well, I did.  I’ve been here since January 8^th.  Whit moved with me and we’re having so much fun!  My brother, Brian got off his mission in December and he’s here, too.  The three of us all moved in with my parents and my little sister, Amber.  It’s way fun.  I really wish my sister, Lindsay, and her family could be here, too.  We are having a good time, though.  I’ll try to keep my blog updated with the goings on.  :)

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Sometimes things happen that PROVE to us that we are indeed… stupid.  This happened the first week we were here in Thailand.  Brian, Whitney, and I decided that we wanted to have a nice fun day at The Grand Palace.  The Grand Palace is a bunch of way cool buildings where the royal family used to live and stuff.  Anyway. 

 Whenever a group of us that don’t speak Thai want to go out and do something, we have this little arrangement: Noi (our family’s housekeeper- way cool lady.  We have a lot of fun.) will call us a taxi and explain to them where we are going.  Then when we are ready to come home, we flag down a taxi and show them a piece of paper that we carry that has instructions to our house written in Thai.  Simple.  Works like a charm!

 Noi got us a taxi and we got to the Grand Palace.  We were walking up to what we thought was the entrance and a guy came up to us.  He didn’t speak much English, but he asked us if we needed to buy entrance tickets.  After we told him yes, he pointed and told us we needed to go the other way.  Oh.  Cool.  Thank you, helpful stranger.  We headed out in our new direction in order to buy the tickets we were so excited to get.  Before we could get to the ticket booth, however, someone stopped us and asked us if we were going to buy tickets to go The Grand Palace.  After we told him we were, he informed us that we couldn’t go there now because they were closed for lunch.  DANG.  We were a little disappointed because… well… I guess I don’t need to explain WHY.  I mean, they were closed.  That’s why.  This guy was super nice, though, and asked us if we had seen the giant Buddha.  *Okay.  He didn’t call it the “giant Buddha.”  I can’t remember the real name of it, however, so giant Buddha is all you’re getting. :)*  We didn’t even know what he was talking about, so we told him no.  He explained that there was a huge Buddha statue not too far from The Grand Palace and he said it was way cool and totally worth seeing.  He walked over to the closest tuk-tuk (a really cool taxi-thing.  It looks a lot like this-)

and told him that we’d pay him 20 Baht to take us there and back.  Now… taxis in Thailand are super, super cheap.  As in… 5 bucks will get you almost anywhere.  But 20 Baht (Something like 75 cents) is a STEAL.  We thought it through really quickly and couldn’t think of a downside, so we thanked the man and headed in the tuk-tuk to the giant Buddha.

When we got there, our tuk-tuk driver told us (through broken English and charades) that he would wait for us and that we could take as much time as we wanted (unusual).  We hoped that he was telling the truth and went to see the statue.  

The giant Buddha statue was just that- giant.  It was HUGE.  It was cool to see, and we stayed for a little while.  When we got bored we headed back to see if the tuk-tuk was still there.  It was!  Our driver told us he had to go to the bathroom, but that we should just wait for him at the tuk-tuk.  We climbed inside and were just talking and taking pictures.  RIGHT next to us, there was a man sitting there and he asked if we wanted him to take a picture with all three of us in it.  He spoke English quite well.  He took a couple of pictures and he started telling us about himself.  He told us he was a doctor and that he had been to the states before and… whatever.  He asked us how long we were going to be in Thailand.  After we told him 3 months he asked if we had been

to a travel agency, yet, to help plan the rest of our trip.  We hadn’t been to one, so he told us of the BEST travel agency that could get us good discounted train tickets and could help with all the arrangements and everything.  It was called T.A.T. and was pretty close to the giant Buddha.  We talked about it for a waaaaaay long time, and then finally our driver came back.  The doctor told us that he would tell our driver to take us to T.A.T. instead of back to The Grand Palace.  Uh… no, that’s okay.  We said we’d just go another time.  The doctor then told us that it was fine and that we could just go back to The Grand Palace if we wanted, but that it was closed for a special ceremony and wouldn’t be opened again until 3:00.  It was about 1:30 at this point, so we realized that we might as well head to T.A.T to at least get some brochures about places to travel.  

We got to T.A.T. and they really weren’t a lot of help.  They would have been helpful if we had been willing to commit to finalized travel plans right then.  We got back in the tuk-tuk and said to head back to The Grand Palace.  We figured that even though it wasn’t open yet, we could just wander around the little shops outside of it for a while.

The tuk-tuk takes off, and we drove for quite a while.  We couldn’t remember how far away we had been in the first place, but it seemed like we were going a little far.  Finally we pull into the parking lot of another T.A.T. building.  Uh… hang on.  We really didn’t need to visit another travel agency place.  Our driver shut off the tuk-tuk and turned around and smiled at us.  We told him that we didn’t want to be here and that we just wanted to leave.  He didn’t really understand us… or pretended not to… and we all just sat there sort of awkwardly.  Finally he got the point, but he seemed disappointed.  As we got driving again, he turned around and said, “First you go to Thai fashion.”  We were like… huh??  We kept telling him that we just wanted to go back to The Grand Palace, but he was sooo insistent about the “Thai fashion.”  Finally we figured out he wanted to take us to a tailor’s shop.  Since none of us wanted to have any suits made, we told him no.  He kept begging us to go for 5 minutes.  “Just 5 minute.  Just 5 minute.”  Finally he just admitted what was up.  “Free gas.  Free gas for 5 minute.  Free gas for me.”  Ah.  Suddenly it all made SO MUCH SENSE.  We had just been taken for one heck of a ride!

The tuk-tuk driver got vouchers for free gasoline for every group of people that he took to T.A.T. and this tailor shop.  Everyone that we had talked to that day had been in on it!!  It started way back with the “helpful stranger” that sent us toward the “ticket booth.”  Turns out we were headed the right direction to the ticket booth in the first place!!  He sent us away from it towards the next guy who told us that the Grand Palace was closed for lunch.  The Grand Palace… closed for lunch.  Yeah.  No.  The Grand Palace doesn’t close for luch!  Are you kidding me that we fell for that?!  Then… how nice of him to get us a tuk-tuk for so cheap.  Oh, right.  Tuk-tuk driver: also in on the game.  The nice “doctor” we met, who informed us about T.A.T.  Ha.  E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G was a set up!  As we sat there piecing this all together, we laughed and laughed!  The first guy told us The Grand Palace was closed for lunch while the “doctor” told us it was closed for a “special ceremony.”  Oh, man.  We bought every part of it.  The whole unexpected trip took about an hour and a half.  We finally agreed to go to the “Thai fashion” for 5 minutes.  THEN he took us back to the Grand Palace.  We had a great time at The Grand Palace, and seriously… just laughed the whole rest of the day. 

We were actually way glad that it happened.  We had SO MUCH FUN!   And seriously… we saw so many cool things on that tuk-tuk.  We never would have been able to get a tuk-tuk and say, “uh- just drive around so we can see stuff.  Yeah, drive a lot… don’t know where.  Yeah.”

 

So there you have it.  Three stupid tourists.  Three stupid tourists who had one dang fun day.  :)

SUN VALLEY 08!!

Yeah... maybe about time to write about Christmas, eh??  For those of you who don't know, I had the absolute best Christmas this year.  I went to Sun Valley, Idaho, as

 part of a group called The Sun Valley Carolers.  We left for Sun Valley on December 15th and stayed there until December 31st.

I loved our schedule.  We got to basically just chill out during the day, and then we performed at night!  Our performance rounds were different each night.  We had a number of restaurants we would go in between, and would sing 3 or 4 songs at each stop.  We would also stop and sing for people along our path.  We did all sorts of fun stuff during the days.  Snowboarding, shopping, ice skating, bowling, playing games… rough life.  :)

Let’s talk about snowboarding.  I loved it!  Yes.  YES it hurts. Oh, and I should throw out there that I am by NO means good at it, I just really like it!  My first experience was really… not so good.  It took me an entire hour to get down the hill ONCE.  And not only that, but I was in one heck of a lot of pain by the time I made it to the bottom.  It took me forever to figure out how to just stand up.  Once I finally was able to get up and stay up for at least 30 seconds at a time it started to get really fun!  By the end of the two weeks I definitely loved it.

 On Christmas Eve we performed at the annual ice show.  All the carolers went and stood on the corner of the ice at the ice skating rink and we sang songs while the ice skaters… well… skated to them.  It was so funny though, cause it wasn’t just snowing… it was blizzarding!  By the end of the show (it lasted about an hour and a half) the guys had two inches of snow on their top hats and the girls had two inches of snow on their heads.  Huh.  We were seriously being buried alive.  It was so great.  By the end of the show we all looked like drowned rats.  :)  After our shows that night a few of us had a bit of a party.  We watched It’s a Wonderful Life and had hot chocolate and cider.  We also had a group sleepover in my hotel room.  This next part will probably only be funny if you know Cory Keate.  By the time we finally decided to go to bed it was about 4:00 in the morning.  We were all so tired, and yet so energetic at the same time!  I was sleeping on my bed, and Cory slept on the floor between the two beds.  

5:00 AM, I wake up to a strange tapping feeling.  I look over, and all I see is one slipper, held in the outstretched arm of Cory.  He was still lying on the floor, but had his arm fully extended straight up so that he could repeatedly whack me with his slipper!  I asked him what the heck he was doing.  He looked at me.  He looked at the slipper.  He looked at me.  He looked at the slipper.  Finally he answered, “I… have NO idea.”  He had been totally asleep!  We laughed for about 30 minutes STRAIGHT.  It was the kind of laughing where you’re trying so hard NOT to laugh that you end up snorting and making all sorts of weird noises.  Then you’ll finally ALMOST get control and one bursts out laughing again.  We were trying so hard not to wake everyone else up!  Loved it.  :)

 On Christmas night, we decided we were starving.  We wanted something to eat so badly, but there is NOWHERE to buy food at night in Sun Valley or Ketchum.  And when I say nowhere… I really mean it.  Not a restaurant, grocery store, or gas station.  It was like 10:30, so we decided we were going to drive to a nearby town to go to a McDonalds they had there.  It was a lot farther away than we thought it would be, but we knew it would be worth it anyway.  We drove all the way there only to find out that McDonalds was closed!  Not even the drive-through was open and it was only 11:00!  We were sooo disappointed.  We knew that we still needed to find food somewhere.  We were driving back to Sun Valley watching for ANY food opportunity when we passed the hospital.  :)  We pulled in because we knew that the hospital would have a cafeteria.  The hospital was closed.  What?  You couldn’t go in after visiting hours (9:00).  Dejected, we got back in the car and kept driving.  As we got into Ketchum, we saw a little… diner that looked open.  Luck!  This tiny, smoky diner was open until 2 am.  So we spent Christmas night in a funny, quirky, smoky little diner where they played music WAY too loud, and where we got to listen to their chatty, crazy worker.  We were sooo grateful for that food, though!  It was really quite fun.  THEN a few days later we were hungry after rounds again, so we tried McDonalds again.  We thought that since it was no longer a holiday we’d probably we okay.  Wrong again.  :(  We found a gas station on the way back that time.  Mmmm… Hot Pockets.  :)

 There were a couple of nights we had dances to go to.  (Crazy fun!) There was even one night (due to lack of sleep) that we stayed up making sock puppet music videos.  No, really.  :)  They were brilliant.

 Anyway… I’m not sure why I’m posting about all these random stories.  My favorite part of Sun Valley was the people I got to work with.  We had so much fun.  We had the opportunity every night to sing about the Christmas season and to bring the magic of the holiday to people.  It was an experience that I will never forget.

 Sorry for another long post!

Seeeeeattle!

*I want everyone to notice that I got pictures in the middle of this post.  Clap for me.*

It might actually be time to post about my Thanksgiving week trip.  Wow.  What a cool city!!  Seattle.  It has an OCEAN.  It always RAINS.  It's always CLOWDY.  I think I'm in love.  Rain and ocean together are brilliant!  Love em, love em, love em.

 Whitney and I left for Seattle on Tuesday the 25th.  Amazingly, our plane was only delayed by 45 minutes, which... seriously is really good for a flight that I'm on!  AND they gave us full cans for our drinks on the plane.  I love it when they do that.  :)

Whit's dad (Evan) made us our own room in his garage.  It was AWESOME!  It was complete with pictures on the walls, rugs on the floor, and space heaters to keep the temperature good.  :)

 

The first few days we mostly just chilled out.  Pretty much we just hung out with Evan. We had a DVD series called Planet Earth and OH MY WORD.  Whit and I are addicted.  If you haven't seen planet Earth, then go find it!

 

 Thanksgiving was fun.  A bunch of Evan's friends came over, and guess what we did?!  We had a big dinner.  Surprised?  Yeah... thought not.  His friends were way cool, though, so it was a really fun dinner.  And yes, the food was amazing.  Except... I do have one question.  Why are things that taste gross considered to be "high class" stuff?  Examples: caviar, escargo, duck, etc.  

No, we didn't have any of these things at Thanksgiving dinner, but we did have "sparkling water" instead of "regular water".  Ever had that?  Basically it's just soda water.  Ew.  Why?  It's just bitter and... completely lacking any pepsi or root beer flavoring.  Therefore... not so good.  Whit had a really good analogy for the whole gross-stuff-being-high-class thing.  Back in Shakespeare's day, all the rich people got the seats up high in the theatre.  The richer you were... the higher you got to sit.  And the poor people were right up next to the stage.  (Granted, they had to stand... but still you get the idea.)  Eventually people started thinking... "Wait... they can see better than we can," and the front seats became the expensive ones.  Maybe some day rich people will think... "Wait... this tastes gross," and twinkies will be more respected.  After dinner, we went to the new 'Australia' movie.  Way good.  Must be recommended.  Uh... kay

 

Whit's aunt, Leslie, cut and dyed our hair on Friday.  It took a good chunk of the day to do all three of us, but man... was it ever needed.  I won't bore you with details from that.

 

Saturday we had "readings" done.  What is this, you might ask?  Well... I'm still kind of wondering that myself.  We went to see one of Evan's friends, Eugenia, who is a... well... a psychic, for lack of a better word.  She was hilarious!  Her laugh was this loud cackle that just made me laugh right back.  She was super blunt, too.  The outcome?  My future doesn't look so bright.  Thanks.  Thank you very much.  I could have told you that.  :)

 

After our helpful readings, we went to Pike's Place Market.  Such a funny place!  I loved it, though.  They have a fish market there, and the workers just throw all the fish and crabs and

 lobster and... well... just all the seafood... through the air.  Weird and super cool.  This guy who worked there was watching Whit and me trying to get pictures of the fish flying through the air, so finally he made us go up front, and had Whitney stand underneath all the fish they were throwing.  I think he and Whit really hit it off.  Even though they live in different states, and neither even

 knows the other's name... I think there is a future there.  You can see the fish over her head in this picture.

 

Whitney wanted a good picture of a lighthouse, so we went to a beautiful beach.  It was super, 

super foggy which only made it that much more amazing.  The fog was sooo thick.  You could actually see water droplets in the air.  Everything was just coated in water and it was only from the fog.  We walked along the shore for a while, then had to climb over a whole bunch of cool rocks before we got to the lighthouse.  The light wasn't actually on (I'm not sure why... I would think fog... yeah. I dunno.)  But we got some way cool pictures of the lighthouse and the cool driftwood and stuff.  Unfortunately, a lot of the pictures were on Whit's black and white camera that actually uses... wait for it... FILM.  Wow.  :)  She is in a photography class and she develops the film in a dark room and such... therefore I can't put them on my blog.  Anyway... back to the previously scheduled post... It was such a pretty beach!  And one of my favorite things... Whit's hair had been straightened, and with how foggy and wet it was... her hair got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger the longer we stayed.  SO FUNNY!  I totally forgot to get a picture of it though, and it was SO PICTURE WORTHY!  Dang.

 

Anyway... loved it.  Miss the ocean already.  I've just gotta get me one.

 

I got to Sun Valley today, so I'll post about that when I get home.  Yay Sun Valley!!

 

Lovin' the good ol' NC!

“Real life” is often hard to face after vacations.  I’m definitely feeling that right now!  I just got back from visiting my sister in North Carolina.  I had sooo much fun!

This is how my vacation started.  I have this… thing.  It’s called BAD TRAVELING KARMA.  Not sure what I did to deserve it.  All I know is that every time I fly, I end up in some weird situation!  I’ll either have an airplane with some crazy delay, or else the airlines will loose my luggage.  Really, like every time.

My plane from SLC to Houston was supposed to take off at 1:30.  They loaded us all on the plane at about 1:00, then we sat there for an hour and a half while they tried to "fix a small problem."  Wonderful.  After an hour and a half they finally asked us to get off of the plane.  Oh goody. Okay.  Officially missed my connecting flight.  I guess the problem was with the navigation system or something.  I don't know.  I didn't really get it.  Finally at 4:30 (!!) they came on the intercom and said, "The navigation system on the plane has been fixed, and the plane is now ready to take off."  Everyone was pretty excited until they went on, "The BAD news is that our flight attendants are nearing the end of their shift, and if they work this flight now they will be clocking in overtime hours, and that isn't something we can do.  We have a new flight crew coming, however.  They should be here at about 9:00, so we'll plan on taking off at approximately 9:30."  Oh. My. Heck.  You have got to be kidding me.  I just sat there and laughed.  It was so dang funny to me!  So then I had to get in a line to find a new plane to take me from the Houston airport to North Carolina.  How long did the line take?  Oh, only 2 hours.  Ugh.  There were no more flights out of Houston that night, however.  So I flew to Houston (we took off at about 10) then they got me a hotel.  I couldn't get any of my luggage, though, so I just had to go to the hotel with... basically nothing.  By the time I got through all of the lines at the Houston airport and at the hotel and everything it was 3:00 in the morning!!  Guess what time I had to be in the hotel lobby to catch the shuttle back to the airport?  Oh- 5:45.  Yeeeeah.  I was really afraid of falling asleep and missing my plane, so I just went to my hotel room and watched tv for a couple of hours.  It was actually kinda fun!  My hotel room was super nice.  Anyway, so I ended up getting to NC at like 10ish in the morning.  It was crazy.  So dang funny, though.  There were a lot of mad people, but I just thought it was pretty funny.  :)  This is me by myself at my hotel.

The next day we drove three hours to Emerald Isle.  Emerald Isle is a little island right off of the shore of North Carolina, I guess.  Lindsay and her family and her friends and all of their families rent a beach house on Emerald Isle a couple of times a year.  Yep.  We need an ocean in Utah.  Anyway.  So we went to the beach for 4 days.  I don’t think there is a way to describe how much I love the beach.  I could live on a beach coast for the rest of my life.  Sometimes I love getting out in the waves, and sometimes I like to just sit and watch them.  I always get into a very reflective mood when I watch the ocean. 

 

Sorry- tangent.  Anyway- a couple of funny things that happened at the beach: 

(Sorry to those of you who read Lindsay’s blog, too.  There might be a little repetition.  Not all of it, though, just a little!)

 Lindsay and I were wading out into the ocean (we weren't even hip deep in the water yet) and we saw a gray fin sticking out of the water, swimming RIGHT NEXT TO US! (okay... the fin probably wasn't swimming- but whatever it was attached to sure was!)  It was literally only two feet away from us.  We hightailed out of that water as fast as we could.  No.  No, we don't know whether it was a shark or a dolphin.  The fin was large, though.  The "animal" was probably like 4 or 5 feet long.  So basically, we were either ALMOST eaten, or ALMOST Flipper's new best friends... and we don't even know which it was.  Huh.

Ah yes, and then there was also the time that I stepped on a dang sting ray while out jumping waves!  Luckily it didn't sting me.  It was really slimy, though.  Ugh. 

Really, I think my favorite part of the beach this time, though, was being there with Lindsay and her family.  I hardly ever get to see them and it was so fun to be with them.  Lindsay and I got tons of talking time in (which was great because she is super insightful and funny and helps me see things more clearly), Brian (my bro-in-law) is one of the funniest people I know, and their kids are absolutely adorable.  (I may be a bit biased, but really- they are the cutest/funniest kids in the world.)

We checked out of the beach house, and on our way back to Durham we stopped at a cool aquarium.  I love aquariums.  I really do.  Ocean life fascinates me.  McKenzie and Carson were super cute, too.  Carson just couldn’t get enough of all the fish.  

 

We also went to a rad museum.  Linds says she takes the kids there a lot.  It was fascinating.  They had so many things to do there.  It was gigantic.  They had a little zoo and a whole collection of really nasty bugs and weather demonstrations, and… yeah.  Just tons. Here we are in the butterfly… place at the museum.  TONS of butterflies flying all over the place.

 

We did other fun things, too, like going on walks, playing tag with the kids, listening to Carson sing (he never stops singing.  No, really.  Like never.  It’s awesome.), listening to McKenzie tell one of her many stories, and… ya know.  Just hung out.  It was such a good week.  I love them tons.

 Then of course on the way home, my plane was delayed… but only by 30 minutes, so I didn’t miss my connection.  No, instead I just had to SPRINT through the airport, where my backpack broke open (no trip is complete without me making a fool of myself in front of dozens of strangers) and spit all of its contents upon the ground.  Yes- my laptop included.  How is it you might ask?  Not so good.  Sad.  It'll be fine- it's usable, but needs a little doctor's visit.

Oh, and then they lost my luggage.  Shocker.  :)

Mission reunion!!

Most of you know that I had the opportunity of serving a performing mission to Nauvoo, Illinois in the summer of 2005.  It was one of the most amazing/ one of the hardest things I've ever done.  I wouldn't trade the experiences that I had there for anything.  This post could end up about 10 years long if I actually let myself get into it, so I'll just settle for talking about the reunion.  :)

20 YPMs (Young Performing Missionaries) serve in Nauvoo during the summer (10 sisters and 10 elders).  Last Friday we got together (well- as many as could come) and caught up on each other's lives, and had soooo much dang fun!  I miss these people so much.

I don't really have time to say much more (and really, there are no words that are adequate for describing Nauvoo or my connection with my Nauvoo family, anyway) so I'll just leave it to the pictures.  :)