3 a.m.-7 a.m.

This is what I will be doing between 3 a.m. - 7 a.m.:

Not sleeping. Not showering. Not getting ready. Not grading. WATCHING!

AN OPRAH REGRET

I am one of those women that has dreams. Big dreams. Lets talk about two of them:

1. Being on the Oprah show

2. A stay at home mom who folds laundry/cleans whilst watching the Oprah show

Oprah shattered these dreams of mine when she announced her 25th season will be her last. Now, if I ever do something amazing in my life that would require my presence on Oprah, there will be no "Oprah" platform to tell my life changing tale. I am too classy to sit down with anyone other than Oprah herself to tell my story to the world. I just have to make sure I don't accomplish anything amazing in my lifetime so this dream can't be squashed by her departure. On the second dream, I guess I just wait for the complete 25 seasons, 900 disc special DVD box set. I am really going to miss that lady. Good thing I still have 13 of her shows on my DVR for safe keeping.

p.s. These are NOT my ONLY dreams. Just TWO OF my MANY dreams.

A SLICE OF CHINA WITH A SIDE OF PEKING DUCK

I am so glad I went to China. It was extremely different than what I imagined. The food wasn't as awful as I had expected, the people were much nicer than I anticipated, and the flight was extremely boring. Let's start there, with the flight. It was horrible. Absolutely. Horrible. I never need to go back to Asia just because of that flight. Now I have experienced long flights before but not on an airline owned by a communist government. No movies. No air conditioning. No American food. I was worried that the people I went to China with were going to retaliate against me just because of the flight. But then all the cultural wonders we saw quickly made up for it.


Day 1:

• Forbidden City
• Tiananmen Square
• First Chinese meal
• Tea Ceremony
• Birds Nest/Water Cube
• Peking Duck dinner

Rose, Mom, me, Jen in front of Forbidden City

Old Chinese men are absolutely adorable!

Mrs. Petersen and Miss Belnap with Chairman Mao

My first meal. It was gross. The remainder were mainly gross as well. I got really tired of spinning the lazy susan for the same dishes night after night.

Day 2

• Jade Factory
• Capital Museum
• Great Wall of China

Rubbing Buddha's belly for good luck

Entrance to the museum with Auntie Rose

This is such a great wall. And surprisingly a VERY steep wall. I had no idea this thing was such a mother to climb.

Day 3:

• Summer Palace
• Pearl Factory
• Local school visit

Lake at the Summer Palace

Two of approximately 5,093,095 Chinese who asked for a photo with me. Gotta love being Aryan???

Beautiful paintings along the boardwalk of the Summer Palace

Jaguars represent

We took the school kids some of our OJH yearbooks. They were completely enthralled with them.

Day 4:

• Hutong Village
• Lunch with a local family
• Rickshaw ride
• Tia Chi lesson
• Acrobatic Show
• Silk Factory

Temple of Heaven with Mama

I way heart Chinese babies.

Day 5/6 = SHOPPING

• Shoes
• Purses
• Jewelry
• Mao stuff
• Chinese Fans
• Art
  
• Weird flavored candy for my students (ie. Blueberry Lays, Hot and Sour Fish Soup Lays, shrimp flavored candy, milk flavored candy etc.)

TO COME

In two days I will be here:


In 13 days I will blog about it.

WHY I HATE APRIL FOOL'S DAY:

Because I spend it trapped in a building with 800 teenagers.

INVISIBLE CHILDREN

This is one of the most powerful documentaries I have ever seen. I show this film every year during the slavery unit in 9th grade world civ. I literally look forward to this day all year. I have kids with some pretty rough backgrounds and home life. This movie puts things into perspective for them. My students get to see how bad life can really be. Yes, my students may have 1 parent homes, be in abusive situations, have non-supportive parents, etc. The kids that they see in this movie are kidnapped and forced into rebel armies. They are trained killers as young as 5 years old. Teaching doesn't get better than this. I love showing students what the world is really like. The best part is I show them a clip at the end about things they can do to help donate. I always have students come to me before the end of the year and tell me that they donated or purchased something from Invisible Children. If you have not see this documentary PLEASE SEE IT. It is a story that humanity needs to know and share.

If you have seen and you want to donate to Invisible Children go to:

http://store.invisiblechildren.com/all

I recommend the bracelet.

WHY IT'S WORTH IT

Things like this are few and far between but when I get a message from a student like this, it makes what I do seem worth it

AN ITEM ISSUE

I have a problem when it comes to items I love. If I really love it, then I have to own it as many colors as possible. I do this with purses, coats, shoes, dishes, watches, socks, frames, etc. My newest disease involves a Michael Kors infection that is spreading and spreading. I can't stop. I started with this first purchase - a present to myself for graduating from the BYU:


Then got this last summer because it was on sale:
Now I can't stop wearing this one:
Its weird because I want to stop but I don't want to either. I guess it is just that part of me that really, really loves stuff (hence why I drove to Vegas for Jimmer, shouted at Glenn that I love him, hold birthday parties for Josh Groban, etc.). When I love something, I am just really good at loving something.

LITERAL

As a connoisseur of teenagers (and NOT in a gross way), I think I have a little insight that others might not. Teenagers are unique animals. They don't understand eye cues yet. Meaning, if one raises their hand in class and I look straight at them, they keep holding their hand up. Really? Because I am staring right at you! Then I finally say, "yes?" Still nothing. I have to say their name and and point at them to get them to understand what staring at them means. They just haven't connected those non-verbal cues yet. My favorite thing about them is that they take everything and I mean EVERYTHING literally. This can cause a lot of trouble but can also be really funny. Case in point: Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. In Utah History the students were working on a group poster project. I let them listen to music when they work like this. When the song came on some started singing it under their breath but one girl gasped. "Oh, I just love this song but I shouldn't listen to it!" Her friends wanted to know why she didn't to listen to it and her response was: "Have you heard this song, its really bad. It is about a guy who kills women that he pretends to love, rips their hearts out, and puts them in a jar." NO IT ISN'T! The song actually goes like this, "...who do you think you are / running round leaving scars / collecting your jar of hearts / and tearing love apart / your gonna catch a cold / from the ice inside your soul / so don't come back for me / who do you think you are / I hear you are asking all around / if I am anywhere to be found / but I have grown too strong / to ever fall back in your arms / and I learned to live half alive / and now you want me one more time..." She just took the words of the song for what they actually say. Adorable and one of the greatest laughs I have ever had. Thank you innocent and literal teenagers, thank you.