Sofi's China Trip

Sofi Here. I spent July 14-29 in China with a school group from the United States.  Twenty-four students from southern Oregon joined a larger group of 600 Americans in China.  The photo shows our group in Tian an men Square in Beijing.  We had 2 teachers as chaperones-- Steve and Mr. Hartman. 

Beijing had skyscrapers and smog, but the spaces between the buildings were filled with beautiful gardens.  The weather was hot and humid.

A huge part of our experience was eating Chinese food.  We ate a lot of different foods.  Sometimes it was better not to ask what we were eating.  We called it food roulette.  Foods I liked: apple cake for breakfast, ice cream, watermelon, noodle soup, won ton soup.  Foods I didn't like: bean paste (hidden in everything--even ice cream!), bones in meat, lemon chicken (bland, neon sauce), McDonald's cheeseburgers- Chinese style, yogurt- Chinese style, strawberry vinegar drink.  Strangest food I tried: duck feet-- thumbs down.  One thing I really liked was the service at restaurants.  The waiters would put the dishes on a lazy susan in the middle of the table so you could try little tastes of everything.  The photo below was taken at our first real Chinese meal in Guilin.

We spent most of our time at Guangxi Normal University.  We lived in dorms and had a whole bunch of different classes including Chinese knots, calligraphy and Kung Fu.  Here Tannar and I are being super ninja.

We visited a tea farm.  We wore awesome hats to go out in the fields to look at the tea plants.  We saw the preparation process and got to go to a tea ceremony which was very, very, very fancy.  Everyone else tried three different types of tea.  Coral is the girl in the photo.

We visited the Reed Flute caves which are these beautiful, ginormous caverns which stretch for miles underground.  I didn't get any good photos inside the caves, but here's a photo with me, Michael, Tannar, Coral and Xin outside the caves.

I made a whole bunch of friends, both from my group and from others. Our group of friends was definitely the most fun. We did all sorts of random things including dancing to 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson, making a huge blanket fort, and puddle jumping in a huge rainstorm. In this picture, we had decided that one of our friends from New Jersey--Michael--looked like a greek god. Then we waited for a half hour in the lobby for him to get back from shopping with his group so we could make him pose with a bunch of grapes. 

"I'm flying, Jack, I'm flying!"   We went on a boat tour of the beautiful Li river on the 22nd. Naturally, when we saw the large open decks of our boat, we immediately thought of the most famous boat in history, and rushed to take pictures of each other 'Titanic-ing'

Here's a picture that I took from the boat of the famous Guilin scenery. The mountains were absolutely surreal! Add some mist, a river, trees, and the occasional water buffalo, and you had the most picturesque landscape in existence.

The day after the boat tour, we got to have a dinner with a Chinese family. We were all invited to various homes by the volunteers who helped us around the university. The girl who invited me's name was Star. She also invited several of her friends and it turned into a party. We had a great time playing games and talking about differences between Chinese and American culture.

A group of us learned a traditional Chinese dance to perform at the closing ceremonies in Beijing. Though the dance was kinda slow and not very interesting, we had a lot of fun with the brightly colored costumes and the little balls we wore around our necks. Our dance instructor, Xin, was amazing!

This is me, Tannar, and Kate after the closing ceremonies in Guilin with two of the volunteers. We were all very sad to be leaving all of our friends in China, and made sure to exchange as many emails and facebook names as possible. (btw, if you're thinking that the girl on the far left looks like the mom on the Incredibles, You're not the only one)

After leaving Guilin, we went back to Beijing for a few days to tour around. Although the hospitality left something to be desired, (horrible food, bedbugs, squat toilets, and unfriendly staff) the sightseeing opportunity was amazing! In this picture, we visited the Lama Temple, which was a beautiful Bhuddist temple full of huge statues of Bhuddas like this one.

The crowning moment of the trip was our visit to the great wall of China.  There is a saying in China that a man becomes a hero once he climbs the great wall. (Idk what that means for us girls.)  The part that we visited was basically one giant, super steep stairway, so climbing it definitely felt like a feat.  I celebrated afterwards with some ice cream.  The entire China trip was super duper amazing, and I am totally planning to go back several times in the future.

The minute I got to the airport, I was swarmed by Abe, Helen, Gibson, and my best friend, Joey. It feels sooo amazing to be back home with everyone again!

29 July 2012

We dug the potatoes up from our garden this week.  We grew nearly 20 pounds of potatoes.  Our kids kept saying, "These look just like the potatoes in the store!"

We went camping this weekend at McArthur-Burney State Park in northern California.  The Burney part of the park is represented by Burney Falls.

Here's a more complete photo of the falls.  Burney Creek pours over the top of the bluff.  The rest of the waterfall is formed by underground water that seeps through cracks in the volcanic rock.  Abe is in the lower left of the photo.  The pool at the bottom of the waterfall is a beautiful turquoise color.  The mist blowing from the falls felt wonderful on a hot day.

The Pacific Crest Trail passes through the park.  As you can tell from the sign, the trail stretches along the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges from Mexico to Canada.  We took a short detour from our hike around Burney Falls so we could say we had hiked part of the PCT. 

Here are the kids relaxing around the campfire.  Abe is rereading the Hobbit before tackling The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  He's also drying off his shoe after stepping in the creek.  Helen is rereading the Harry Potter series--she's on book 4 now.   

We took some of our homegrown potatoes and roasted them along with some onions and mushrooms in a dutch oven.  Delicious!

The park also includes Britton Lake.  The lake is very popular for waterskiing, but a section of sandy beach is roped off for swimming.  The water was warm and great for swimming.  Abe, Helen and Gibson enjoyed making sandcastles at the edge of the water, then trying to defend their castles from the waves caused by passing boats.

Our most anticipated event of the week was welcoming Sofi home from her trip to China.  Her flight left Beijing on Sunday, July 29 at 8 am and arrived in Seattle on Sunday, July 29 at 5 am.  We're still trying to wrap our minds around the time change.  She had an amazing experience.  We'll have her post some photos from her trip later this week after she catches up on some sleep.

22 July 2012

The photo below shows Helen and Abe enjoying their first ever ice cream cones.  This is the first summer we've found wheat free cones.  They loved their new treat.  This is Gibson's second ice cream cone.  He got one earlier in the month while home teaching with Brandan.

Abe worked on the whittling achievement for his Bear badge in cub scouts this week.  Abe used the whetstone and carving knife Grandpa Larsen gave Becky over 20 years ago.

Abe carved a bear out of a bar of soap.  He's going to give it to Sofi as a welcome home gift (shhh!) 

We took a picnic to the green show at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival after Brandan got home from work on Thursday.  We enjoyed some fantastic blues music on a perfect summer evening.

On Friday, Becky took the kids hiking along the Rogue River.  The kids found lots of pieces of pumice which they enjoyed floating in the river.

Brandan has tried several new recipes from "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes."  This is a photo of wheat and egg free brioche.  The wheat-free recipes are more complicated than the wheat recipes-- maybe "Artisan Bread in 45 Minutes."

Sofi called from China this week.  Unfortunately, we had gone to bed, but it was good to hear on her voicemail message that she was enjoying the beautiful country. We've gotten a few snippets from the group over the week, enough to know that they are having an amazing experience.  We're looking forward to seeing Sofi in a week and hearing all her stories.  In the meantime, here's a photo of the city, Guilin, where she is staying. (Photo copied from wikipedia.)

15 July 2012

We dropped Sofi off at the church on Wednesday morning to go to Girls' Camp.  Our Girls' Camp is short, but packed with quality.  Sofi had a fantastic time.

 It's been hot this week.  Helen, Abe and Gibson cooled off by wading in a creek.

Helen has been working through the Harry Potter series this summer.  She's nearly finished with book 7.

Brandan spent Friday at Girls' Camp.  With Brandan and Sofi gone, the rest of us had our own campfire and roasted marshmallows.

Sofi came home late Friday night from camp and we dropped her off at the airport Saturday morning.  She is part of a school group going to China for 2 weeks.  She'll be home July 29.

This is what 24 students, 2 chaperones and assorted friends and family looked like at the airport.  It's very unusual for our small airport to be this crowded.  This was a good day to get to the airport 2 hours early.

Sofi will be spending most of her time in southern China in a city named Guilin, marked with a pink arrow on the map below.  She's participating in a sort of Chinese summer camp hosted by the Chinese government.  Her group is staying at Guangxi University.  They will be studying Chinese language and culture.  The last 3 days of their trip they will be in Beijing and will see the more familiar tourist sites.  Sofi has studied Chinese the past 2 years at school and we were super excited for her to have this opportunity. 

Saturday night our family watched a "scary" movie (Charade with Audrey Hepburn and Carey Grant-- highly recommend it.)  Abe, Gibson and Helen decided to sleep together on the upstairs landing afterwards.  Luckily, no one had nightmares and no one rolled down the stairs.  The landing is a tight fit for 3.

8 July 2012

A friend shared a link to making artisan bread in 5 minutes with Brandan.  It sounded too good to be true, but also required very little commitment to test out.  Brandan made his first loaf on Sunday.  The recipe calls for flour, water, yeast and salt.  The dough doesn't need to be kneaded and can sit in the refrigerator for up to a week before you bake it.  The recipe completely lived up to the hype-- delicious, homemade bread with hardly any work.  Next up: gluten free bread in 5 minutes.   ~   https://artisanbreadinfive.com/

Here's a less successful home experiment.  We try to garden organically, but we have some persistent clover growing in a pathway that has been very resistant to eradication.  We were ready to grab some poison when we read of an organic farmer burning his weeds.  We don't have a propane torch, but we do have a kitchen torch.  Brandan tried burning a test patch of clover.  The leaves turned black for a short while, but several days later, the clover looked as vigorous as ever.  

We had a fun 4th of July.  We lit a few fireworks for family night on Monday.  Our kids really like the snap dragons and snakes.

Here's a photo of Abe and Helen waiting for the 4th of July parade to start.  They've taken their hats off to keep their candy in.  Helen has gotten a little better every day from her surgery.  Her voice is still squeaky and she is still eating soft foods, but she has recovered very well.

On Friday, Becky took the kids hiking.  Helen took this photo of one of the waterfalls we saw.  

1 July 2012

Abe spent the week at Cub Scout Day Camp a.k.a. Heaven for Boys.  The photo shows him with Malakai, Ben, Ashton and Camden just outside the archery station.  Josh, a 13 year old helping with archery, is peeking through the fence.  The boys got to do archery and BB guns every day, along with many other fun activities.

The theme for the camp was "Treasure Island."  Sofi helped our friend, Suzy, paint the pirates on this board.

Our neighbor has two cherry trees and invited us over to pick as many cherries as we want.  We've been taking advantage of her generous offer.

Helen had her tonsils and adenoids removed on Friday.  She was very brave at the surgery center.  Since then she's been eating all the popsicles she wants, coloring quietly and watching Barbie movies (our super hero home teachers rented all the Barbie movies they could find and dropped them off at our house Thursday night.)  Helen's voice sounds very high and squeaky right now as she tries to talk without moving her throat.  Helen's tonsils were so large they made it hard to breathe while she was sleeping.  Her snoring is completely gone now.  The doctor (fun connection: the doctor's name is Elizabeth Helen) said it will take 7-10 days for Helen to recover and 2 weeks to be able to eat normally.