Here's a few photos of what we've been up to the past 2 weeks (thanks, santa, for the new camera).

In case you can't quite read it, T-rav's shirt says "If you can read this make me a sandwich." Oh, and he's imitating my female Korean students. They like to cover their faces.

Lots of reading on Christmas day

Kimbre's Christmas lemon meringue pie (I had a great time making the peaks on the meringue)

Ah, Matt. Always so charming...

At my Brazilian student Andressa's reception

Our dear Arwen, fresh home from her mission, creating a veritable Swedish feast

Semlor: a delectable Swedish treat of a sweet roll stuffed with almond paste and whipped cream

Hiking up Rock Canyon on New Years Day

I'm trying to figure out my camera and experimenting with different things on a photoshop-esque program. What think ye? The color was a little strange on this one...and still is, I think.

Three Cups of Tea

Read this book! It follows 10 years in the life of Greg Mortenson as he struggles to build and sustain schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It's well written and compelling, the kind of book you don't want to put down. Mortenson's institution, the Central Asia Institute, especially focuses on educating children in non-extremist views (in contrast to the Islamic fundamentalist education they would alternatively receive), improving health, and teaching young girls who would not otherwise have the chance to get an education (aren't they cute? I adore small Muslim children). The book talks about peoples who are mostly unheard of in this part of the world...go try and find the area called Baltistan on a map...It's quite an interesting place. But most of all, this book will inspire you. Mortenson is the kind of person that we need a few more of in the world. In the face of ridiculous challenges, he never gave up. His selflessness has enabled thousands of peeps to live better lives.

Read it.

Now does anyone know where I can find $12,000 for my friend's school in Haiti?

Infestation

Christmas ended early for me this year. Here's why:

Within the first few hours back in our dungeonous apartment, I noticed a few small, spider-esque little bugs crawling around our couch and on the floor. And the closer you went to the Christmas tree, the more of them there were. So just to test his theory, T-rav stuck his hand in the tree and found his fingers crawling with mini-spiders. Yes, to my dismay, the lovely Smiths-purchased Grand Fir was completely covered in these nasty little bugs.

Yep, totally covered from top to bottom of the trunk.

So, I sat in the corner of the room and wept as T-rav carefully removed all our ornaments and took the blasted thing outside (I usually leave my tree up until at least after New Year's Day). We then spent the next few hours smashing bugs and vaccuuming up the mess they made.

I think we returned from Idaho just in time; imagine what a disaster it could have been if they had been allowed to breed...

Happy Anniversary to us!

6 years and counting...Ya tin bajo, Tio!

Merry Christmas

Finals are almost over, my piles of things to grade is beginning to dwindle, and peeps are starting to leave for Christmas.

But I'm not ready for Christmas yet! I need another week!!

Does anyone else feel this way?

dinner parties

Last night we were invited to a non-lds foreign friend's house for a dinner party. This was our evening's schedule: we arrived around 5, chatted and snacked for about an hour, started on dinner around 6 while our hostess cooked and brought out dish after dish, sat around the table for the next few hours chatting, had dessert at about 8:30, chatted some more, and finally left at about 11. I think our hosts were slightly surprised that we (there were 5 of us, all lds) stayed so late. Apparently their experience has been that lds people expect to eat dinner right when they arrive, eat, talk for a while, then leave within about 2 hours of arrival. Having not been invited to many dinner parties in my life (after all, dinner at your non lds friend's house when you're 16 hardly counts as an official invitation), I was wondering if this is an lds custom or an American custom. What are the usual expectations for a normal non-lds American dinner party?

I was also wondering about this: what do you expect when you invite someone over for dinner? If I invite you over, I'm offering dinner and, as long as I don't have something pressing later on that evening, inviting you to stay as long as you'd like (usually I prefer it that way. I feel empty inside when people leave). On the other hand, when I am invited to someone's house for dinner, I usually feel like I've overstayed my welcome if it's been more than 3 hours.

And this: if you bring something with you to dinner, do you expect to take home the leftovers? Or do you expect to leave them with the host?

some stereotypes are true

Such as the one about Asians being rill rill smart:

Today one of my Korean students told me that her 10 year old daughter just won a spelling bee in school. Did I mention that she's been here for less than 1 year and barely spoke a word of English when she got here?

And she won the spelling bee for her entire grade.

It's ok to be impressed. I was.

Oh, and exciting news: I've decided to start an International Student Choir (club) at UVU. So as of next semester, I get to be a choir director. Coolies eh?

Now if you have any ideas for songs, I'd happily take suggestions...

you are what you eat

I have a friend who is overweight and quite miserable about it. I enjoy spending time with her, but I often feel quite awkward around her. Let's say, for example, that we're having lunch together. I might sit down to a salad and yogurt, or a sandwich, or even something relatively unhealthy like a hamburger or greasy cafeteria food. It doesn't matter what I'm eating- she always has some kind of comment about it. She might ask me how I eat things like that and stay so thin, or comment on how I'm so good for eating so healthy, or how she's so fat and will never look like me...blah blah blah. For a long time, I felt almost guilty for eating around her because I'm skinny and she's not. But over the past few weeks I've been watching what she eats and my guilt has lessened. Here's an example of a typical meal with this friend:

• Chips
• Chex mix
• Several cookies from the vending machine
• Lots of chocolates
• Salted flavored nuts

She's also always the first one to grab a piece of pie or cheesecake or tart or anything sweet and bad for you. Occasionally she eats something healthy with lunch, but almost all of her snacks, and they are many, are things with lots of salt, sugar, or fat. Really, it's no wonder that she's overweight- if I ate like that, I'm sure my booty would also expand. And I'm starting to want to tell her this anytime she makes a comment about her weight. She's living proof that you are what you eat.

wishing you a Merry Christmas

Dear non-religious Christmas celebrator,

Why does Christmas need to become a secular event? Why can't I have signs saying "Merry Christmas" in my store windows? Why does it have to be "Happy Holidays?" Why can't I sing Away in a Manger in school along with Jingle Bells. I understand that you may not choose to celebrate the religious aspect of Christmas, and that's just fine. But the plain fact of the matter is that Christmas is a religious holiday, no matter how you look at it. I'm not trying to force my Christianity on you by wishing you a Merry Christmas or by singing traditional religious Christmas carols. I'm just celebrating Christmas the way I see fit, just like you are. Why does my way of celebrating = closed minded or offensive? And why can we talk about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa without any repercussions, but Christmas is taboo?

How about this for a solution: I'll wish you a Merry Christmas, you respond with a Happy Holidays, Eid, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or whatever, and we'll both smile and go our separate ways.

Sincerely,
your religious Christmas celebrating neighbor