Recent stuff

So, it has been a while since I have posted. Not because I haven't desired to but being over here and doing the stuff we are doing really limits me to what pictures I can show and what I can say. :( But I did want to update so here it goes.

It is a time of good-byes here. Mere and Heather just left to go back to America and the rest of us will be following shortly behind. We are saying good bye to our friends, which I am finding out is really sad and difficult to do. One friend today gave me a kiss on the cheek...We were taking good-bye pictures and in one she plants one on my cheek, I just went with it. I have my week lined up with 3 appointments pretty much all in a row and that continues through the weekend. I am leaving next monday and tuesday free to finish packing and get last minute details finished. I need some flex time. Then EARLY wednesday morning we head to the airport with the summer group who is here to go help them debrief and do some sightseeing.

On the 3rd we will leave and fly to San Francisco to go visit my sis and brother in law. We are so glad we could arrange a stop to see them. Laura will be having her first baby at the end of July so I am glad we will get a little time with them before baby Schultz makes his arrival!

On the 5th we will travel back to Texas! whoop! And visiting people begins.

This past weekend we said good-bye to one of our favorite cities over here. We took our last personal weekend and here are some of the fun but crazy things we experienced while there.

 Here we are at our favorite Mexican food place. Seriously I would go there if they were in America! YUM!

Here we are eating a Krispy Kreme doughnut!

The weekend wasn't all about the food...but a good portion was! Plus, I can't post the main touristy pictures because it would give away where we were! 

Ok, seriously what is this?

For all you Chicken Express lovers...here it is Commando style! I don't want to know.

It's WILD out there!

Before I tell you this story, I should let you know this is a daily occurrence in our city but also in many others in this area.

So, as I was walking by the lake, minding my own business, listening to some good tunes on the ipod I saw a group of people standing around some trees. These people were pointing up to the tree and many had their cameras out taking pictures of this tree. I think to myself  "self, why are those people looking so curiously into that tree?" so I also proceed to look up at the tree and what do I see......?

A squirrel!  Yes, a plain, boring, ordinary squirrel. Well, I think about it and realize I have never seen another squirrel in this country. never. So, I stand their with them and take a picture of the squirrel too. And, I also take pictures of the people taking pictures of the squirrel. As I left the site I just couldn't help but laugh :) 

Look at those lenses! Crazy! 

Ok,so my picture of the squirrel is not that great, but you know what one looks like! 

Gifts from friends!

Here is another gift I have received recently!
As always I receive them thankfully and graciously and with a little smile and laugh in my head. I am thankful for each of my friends here and am especially fond of the girl who gave me this purse. Maybe this gift was given to me because I am from America, more specifically Texas.

Check it out and let me know when you want to borrow it! I don't think you could find something like this at Brighton!

Admit it, you are a bit jealous! :)

Dinner out with the Gang

For many of our meals we will eat out with the gang. 1. Because it is cheap! 2. Because for the most part it is delicious. and 3. Because we love spending time with them and we know we will always be in for a good laugh with them.

Recently Meredith was on a quest to eat some "soupy jiaozi", otherwise known as dumplings in soup. So we loaded up on our scooters, some chose to walk, and we met up at a dumpling shop. It was the first dumpling place we ate at when we arrived here. Here are some pictures from what followed that evening.

There are many kinds of dumplings: fried, steamed, boiled, and boiled still in soup. These pictured here are the fried kind....mmmm!

Here is Meredith with her dumplings in soup.

And, our dear friend Jason ordered 3 plates of fried dumplings for himself. When 1 plate costs you less than $1 it's not a bad deal!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone! 

We had a great time here celebrating Easter here with our friends. For us on Sunday we listened to an Easter talk from last year and of course ate some great food! Here are a few pictures of us with our friends here after our meal. We had a great brunch filled with waffles, cinnamon rolls, breakfast casserole, and delicious fruit. 

As you can see from the pictures we also had a lot of fun! 

Flesh eating fish!

You can't travel or live in Asia with out hearing about the Dr. Fish. If you haven't heard of such things let me tell you. Looking inside the windows of these shops it first looks like a large aquarium then you look closer and you see there are people sitting inside. You get curious and see these people are sitting on the side of the tank with their feet in the water and the fish are swimming and eating on their feet! From the first timers you hear shrieks of laughter and excitement as the fish swim up and nibble on their toes. During a conference a group of us decided to partake in the fun a laughter.

For both Jared and I it was the first time we had willingly let fish nibble on our toes...we even paid for this kind of torture treatment! We had a great time with our friends and lots of laughter. It was a little bit like torture, at least for those of us with sensitive feet!

Here are some pictures from our fish adventure! 

Pictures from vacay!

Here are some pictures from our travels. We went to Koh Phi Phi, Thailand. We were quite surprised by this little place. This island was pretty much destroyed by the Tsunami in 2004.  It has been quickly built back up and restored. You can still see some of its effects throughout the island, especially where some of the locals live. There are no cars allowed on the island, but it doesn't really matter because you can get anywhere you want in a 10 minute walk. There are a lot of narrow streets with tons of shopping and delicious restaurants. Thai food is yummy! Since there are no cars you must take a taxi boat like the one on the left to get to                                                                                          to more secluded beaches.

Here is a beautiful sunset view from the viewpoint on the island.

These two pictures are from our favorite beach we went to. We got to do some snorkeling while we were here. You had to take a taxi boat or kayak yourself out here from the main beach. Because it was out of the way there were very few people. This beach had the softest sand and the clearest water! 

  

These two photos were taken at the main beach. There are 2 beaches on the island you can get to without taking a taxi boat and this is the better of the two. Since the inhabited part of the island is so small they have packed as many bungalows and hotels in as they can which means it is filled with people by 11am. We enjoyed being here since it was easy to get to and you could go get food or drinks or headback to the room anytime you liked, but that meant you had to deal with a packed out beach. There were many nice people, mostly Europeans, but we met a few other Americans + another Aggie! 

 
 

You can't see it to well but these are the roots of many trees. After spending some time at a beach we decided not to take the taxi boat back to the main area and find our way back. It was a well marked path but our option was to climb over some slippery rocks or climb through these tree roots. Guess which we picked!