I have set up a new photoblog as a subdomain of this website. You might remember my old photography website. I took it down a little over a year ago. Since then I haven't had a place to really post my "photography" which hasn't bothered me in the least since 9 out of 10 pictures are simple snapshots of my little family and our adventures; and I post those here. But now I have a site to show some of the other work I do. You can check it out by going to "Andrea" at the top of the home-page, and clicking on "Photoblog" on the drop-down menu. Or you can just click here. 

You can post comments to the images, and feedback is greatly appreciated. I've posted most of my old work, though I'm sure I'll find more that I'll want to put on as I go through my old files. But in the mean time, I've also just started showing some of my "new work," starting in September! :D 

This picture was taken on a shoot (not guns) with photography super-hero Rick last weekend in Manti.

Today we ventured to The Nationalities Village, which is located just outside Kunming about an hour and a half from our school. Within this "Village" there are little sections from all the different nationalities of China.  

The first thing we did when we got there was ride elephants. It was so fun.  Alot of people in our group dressed up in some Chinese costumes they had there, and took pictures on the elephants. I personally decided against the costume. But it was so cool to be on an elephant. By the way elephants have way bad breath! Once we were done with that we climbed on some rock elephants that where there. Taking photos on them was not allowed, and the Chinese did not appreciate us doing it, but Colin let us so oh well.

Next we hit the zip line. It was probably 200 feet long and over a really pretty lake. It was really exciting and a lot of fun. 

We hit a little restaurant for lunch and the food didn't really look that good but I was starving and needed something to eat. So I settled for some noodles with vegetables and Chile sauce. Besides the fact that it was cold it was actually pretty good. I think I might have finally learned how to use chopsticks too! At least with noodles. At the school we only have rice so I have just been shovelling it into my mouth - not really learning how to use them. 

After lunch we kinda just broke off into little groups. It was Sarah, Chelsey, Kayla, Colin, a few of his friends, and me. First thing we found where some swings. They where hard to pump on but Colin's friend pushed me (because I cant remember his name we will name him Mike because he reminds me of Mikey, or they way him and Colin interact reminds me of Danny and Mikey). Within that same little area there was a hut and inside there was an outfit made out of grass or something it looked really cool but really itchy. There was also a rice crusher and a bean masher. It was all really cool. On our way out of that section there was a cool little tree that we decided to take a picture in. Guess what happened, yep we got yelled at again for climbing on the stuff.  Next we headed over toward the Tibetan village. We never made it there though. Instead we found these goat like statues much like the elephant ones. This time we made sure there were no security guards around before climbing on them. 

Next we went to an elephant show. It was pretty cool. I fed the biggest elephant my corn on the cob. One of the girls from our group got a "massage" from the elephant it was really funny. You most definitely had to be there. That was pretty much all the exciting stuff about it. After the show my roommates and I just wandered around for a little. I did see some girls riding horses and I really wanted to but they wouldn't let me. So that's pretty much it. It was alot of fun and I would most definitely suggest you do it if you are ever out Kunming's way.

Oh yeah so there was this little goat tied up next to a statue of two big goats. There was a hole in between the two goats heads. The little goat went through the hole to get away from us so I went on the other side of the statue to scare it back to the other side. The other girls where nervous that the goat would ram them but it looked harmless enough. Picture this: I'm on the one side of  the statue and everyone else including the goat are the other side. We decide to leave. Kayla and Dan leave first a few strides ahead of Emily and Chelsey. I come around the statue and scare both the goat and I so it takes off towards Emily and it's afraid and has nowhere else to go so it rams Emily in the thigh! Chelsey and I can't help but laugh and Dan and Kayla missed the whole thing; it was so hilarious. Earlier Emily had commented on how you just need to be faster than the goat. She wasn't.

We went to Manti with the Smiths for Labor Day weekend. They have a home in Manti, and they graciously invited us to go hang out with them. We went down Friday night. On Saturday Mike, their oldest son, came down, and brought Carrie with him, who he's made friends with. We told the Smiths . . . you get us, you get ALL of us (meaning my sisters seem to go everywhere we do!)  

Anyhow, once they got there, we went to the mountains and shot guns. Rick has been trying to convince me that we should have guns. So far I'm not buying it (sorry Rick). But it was a lot of fun to go shooting. Especially the really big guns! There was one that kicked back so hard it almost knocked me off my feet the first time! And let's be honest, it makes for good photo ops. Later that evening we went to the really cute candy shop it town. It was so darling! And we went and got pizza at the local pizzeria, "Lotsa Motsa." 

The next day we went on a drive to the top of the mountains around Manti - "Skyline Drive" peaks at just under 11,000 Feet! We had tons of fun stopping to take pictures. The best were the group pictures. We probably spent 20 minutes just trying to get one good group shot. They're pretty funny!

That night we went to the Manti Temple to take night shots. It was amazing, you can walk right up to the temple there. Rick and Marsha were telling me that the temple in Manti is a little different than in Salt Lake: there's a real sense of community love and affection for the building. They truley look at it as "their temple." I thought it was neat that the community was considered so safe, and respectful, that they didn't have the need to gate it like they do in Salt Lake, and at other temples. We got some nice shots of the temple at night, but like most temple pictures, it's really hard to get an image that hasn't been done before.

On Monday we just hung out for the morning. Finally we got around to packing up. We got lunch at the "Malt Shop," which has been there since the 50's. It was cute. Then we headed home. On our way we stopped in Mt. Pleasant to see Danny and Eliza, who were there visiting Eliza's grandmother. 

It was a fun weekend. Thank you to the Smiths for inviting us. We had so much fun!

Those of you that have taught English know these words well. They are seriously my new favorite words. Today after dinner I walked outside and there where these two little girls playing. When they saw me they where like "Teacher, Teacher." The older one introduced herself as Angie; she was 8 years old, the other little girl was 6 I believe. The little six year old was riding a three wheeled scooter that had lost a wheel. After observing for a moment we decided to go play on the teeter totter and Angie starting singing "Row Row Row Your Boat," and then she sang "Jingle Bells." I think she mixed some chinese in the lyrics but it was so cute. Then we ventured over to the swings. again it was "teacher teacher push." So I pushed them on the swings for a little. I tried to get pictures with them but it was hard to get them to stand still. I did my best.

Today we also ventured into Kunming where we hit the local DVD Shop. The local dollar has stregthened while the US dollar has weakened so if you want DVDs they will be $1.25 per DVD and TV shows will be $5 a season or if you want nicer ones $20. Some movies we saw today where Ironman, Interperter, Enchanted, Bee Movie, Wall-E, Rattatoulie, Bewithed, Casino Royale, Remember the Titans, Mulan, Clone Wars, Nemo, Lion King, Hancock, Monsters Inc, PS I Love You, Roman Holiday, Cars, The Notebook, MIB, MIIB, I Am Legend, Bugs Life, Fantasia 2000, August Rush, Toy Story, and some TV shows are Lost, House, Prisonbreak, CSI, Heroes, Greys Anotomy and yeah so if you want movies just Email me bbluvsfame@gmail.com

I finally made it safely to Kunming China after 6 days of traveling and man was I ready to get here!

I began my journey last Wednesday, August 20th 2008. I Flew out of SLC to San Fransisco. From San Fransisco I flew to Taipei which took 12 hours and I only slept about 6 hours of that. From Taipei I flew to Hong Kong; we spent two days there. Then this morning we took a train from Hong Kong to where ever I am now. We are spending a day here because only 1 train a day goes to Kunming and we missed it. But to get to Kunming we have a 26 hour train ride. Sounds like fun :o)

Ok so about my group. My Head Teachers name is Bonnie and she is 24. She seems like a lot of fun. Then we have a brother and sister combination. The brother is 22 and his name is Dan. He is pretty protective of us all. Its kinda cool. I think his nickname from me is going to be "big brother." The sister is Emily. She is really cool. She is only 17 but she is fun. She and I spent an hour talking in the airport about random things and now we are rooming together while we are here in this town. Next there is Chelsea and Kayla, both of whom are really cool and from Saint George. Kayla is actually Rulons cousin for those of you that know him. Then there is Abbey. She is my head teachers cousin. Then there is Sarah. I have not spent to much time with her but she did go out exploring with me and the siblings in Hong Kong. The last 3 I don't really know at all.

OK so finally to the story. A bunch of us went to the Hong Kong Temple. but me and two of the other girls did not have our temple recommends so we just took pictures of the temple. that lasted about a whole total of 10 minutes so we where going to go explore when we saw some elders. I personally was really excited so we went over to the elders and started talking to them. Two of the elders were American and the other was Chinese. The elders took us inside the chapel which was located on a floor of the temple. Inside we talked for about 45 Min's. The Chinese Elder acted like he didn't really know English but the American elders said he did. So toward the end of the conversation I shyly asked the elders what Chin Wa meant. The Americans said they did not know and the Chinese did not admit to knowing what it meant so I told them what I thought it meant and the Chinese elder admitted that it did mean "kiss me." It was so cute because he was shy and it was just so fun to talk to the elders. And it was fun to visit the temple. It was so pretty. We talked with the Temple President for a little. He was half Chinese and half Hawaiian; he was really cute. Its just so fun how cute all the people are.

When we arrived at this city there was a guy standing there and he said he was from our city. So immediately I was like "Colin?" And he said "yes." So I ran up and gave him a hug. And he asked me who I was. But it was cool to finally meet him. And yeah, thats pretty much how life has been so far. ILY all

                       Beth

Calvin is officially a walker. He's been walking as far as twenty feet at a time for a couple weeks now, but we always had to trick him into it . . . get him going and then suddenly let go, or push him in the direction of someone cooing and calling at him. But suddenly on Friday he decided he could do it himself, and started letting go himself! At first it was only two or three feet at a time - from the couch to the table, or one side of a door way to another. Then he would still hold on to the couch, wall, what-have-you to continue on his way. But today I saw him let go of the wall at one end of the hall and walk the entire distance, right down the middle! He still likes to get "somewhere" where he can again grab onto something, but he doesn't hold on to stuff while he walks. What a big boy! SUPER CAL!

This week my youngest sister, Beezy, came to stay with us. She spent three days here before boarding a plane for China. She's going to be living and working in China for the next semester. She will be a volunteer English teacher with ILP, a non-profit that all of us girls have done volunteer work for. Leslee and Carrie both went to Kunming three years ago, and Wyatt and I went to Urumqi, China in 2001. Good luck Beeze! I know you're going to love it. You can check out her adventures on her pages. I've set up just a little blog for her. You'll probably have to wait a few days though, as the only things that are posted on it currently are test articles and fake-photos. She's still in transit, so it will probably be at least another week before she's able to post.