Beijing/China thus far...

I better right this quick. The power converters here don't like my computer...

 

So far though... I LOVE CHINA!! We've gotten lost at night trying to find our hotel and thus had to wander the streets of Beijing at night. I've eaten dumpings and porage for breakfast which were amazing. We've ridden the subway everywhere... which is an adventure in itself. Gone to the Pearl Markets, where the venders looked at you and said, "Oh you are mean American girlfriend. You breaka my heart" when you said you weren't interested. We walked through the Forbidden city. It's HUGE!!! They mean it when they say city. I always thogught it was just a large courtyard. Boy was I wrong. It just keeps going and going. And... we had litterally hundered of pictures taken of us yesterday. There was one young couple that followed us and snuck pictures of us for over 30 min. :P

 

I love it here though!! The girl who met us from the school we're going to's name is Angel. Here English is amazing and she is ooooober cute! And so far I really do like Chinese food. Yay!!!

 

I'll add pictures once I get a converter that works. Right now my computer doesn't have enough power. :)

 

More to follow later...

An experiment...

If this post works it will be a miracle. :) I hope that you all read this. If you can it means that I can post even if they block blogger. :) Anywho.

Taiwan sunrise...We're safe and sound...

Wow. We just landed in Tiawan and a day of my life has disappeared. In Logan it's around 4:00 pm on Aug. 20. Here in Tiawan (we're on layoever) it is 6:00 am on Aug. 21. At least I know I'll get it back when we return to the States.

So since it's 6:00 in the morning we get to watch the sun come up. I must admitt it sounds a lot cooler than it actually is. It's too humid and merky here to really see anything. (A lot like the sunrise hike we went on a few weeks ago...)

I'm happy that I survived the 14 hour flight though. Even if the lady did take away our carry-on luggage and charge us $32.00 to check it... when no one else on the flight had to. (I'm just glad I didn't have to leave it in the airport. :))

Anyway. I don't know when the next time I will blog is. It might be blocked once we get there. Bella found a way around it though by emailing in blog posts though, so hopefully it works. :)

More to follow later!

Goodbye US of A... Ni hao China...

I can't believe that in less than 24 hours I will be on my way to China! I've lived in lovely, little, Logan, Utah, my whole life. The longest I've ever lived in a different city than my family is one week, and both times I was only two states away in California. Other than that they've always been within a two mile radius.
I just found out that instead of heading to Taiyuan(where our schools is)right when we get to China, the school is paying for us to stay in Beijing for four days to see the city so they will have everything just right for the American teachers when they arrive. I can already tell I like the people where we are going.
I can't wait anymore! (Which makes it really good that we are leaving tomorrow.) I want to see where we'll be living and meet the friends that we are going to make along with all the hyper little children. :)
Wow... I love Logan. I'm glad that I know I'm coming back. Ten bucks says though that I say the exact same thing when we leave China.

I now know how to make people in my family run fast...

So when I arrived home this evening I found my parents sitting out on our back porch watching the sunset. It began to get darker (which is what usually happens when the sun goes down) and dad decided to go inside. I stayed outside with mom talking about how we would probably have named the "Annual Pig Out" something else. (This is currently name of the neighborhood ladies dinners that they have.) It was sometime around this climax of our conversation that I saw something go swooping up right behind mom's head. Upon closer inspection I quickly realized that it was a bat. No sooner had I informed mother of this than was she already up and heading for the door. I was laughing at all of this until I realized that the bat was headed in a circle and coming right back straight at my head. This is when I ran inside too. :)

Lazy summer Sundays are the best time to explore...

This past Sunday I attended the Institute choir's summer fireside down at the Tabernacle. It was such a good program. Their focus this time was on the importance of family and attending the temple often. :)
Since I couldn't remember if it started at 6:00 or 7:00 I took my camera downtown at 6. I knew that if it didn't start until 7, I would find at least something to photograph. Which, obviously, I did.

This was in the rear view mirror of Loretta Florence. (She is my red 1994 Chevy, Lumina.)

These next two are where Great Harvest used to be back in the day, instead of across the street where it is now.

This is the back of the Blue Bird, one of Logan's oldest restaurants and soda fountain counters. This is one of many pictures I got that reminds me of California.

This is the same building where Great Harvest was. I took the two photos and then realized that I liked how they looked stuck together.
This was the back of the Trail Head and some other business. I just love how the building materials in this part of town change every three feet along the businesses back walls.

This was only part of a long row of planted trees/shrubs.
This is another one of my California pictures from the day. Doesn't it look like it was taken in down town San Francisco?
I love the coloring in the top half of this one. Like something from a Poloroid or Lomo camera. (Sort of...)
I just love old buildings. When I look at places like this I wonder and think, did it look just like this 50 years ago? Answer: most likely.
This picture reminds me of Cuba. Don't ask me why. I've never even been to Cuba. I guess that it just proves that I'm crazy. After all, do you know anyone who looks at the bank and thinks, Cuba?

Again, I love "Historic Downtown Logan." I know that I may complain about living here my whole life, but in all honesty, I really do love this place. (Now on to Taiyuan, Shanxi, China. Only 5 days now!!!)

I promise you'll see crazy things if you look closely at another person's lunch...

So right now we have squash growing in our garden. I don't really care for the stuff, but when I walked into the kitchen and saw this happening I thought it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. (At least as far as vegetables go that is...)

It's amazing what can be accomplished at 4:30am in the rain...

I can't begin to tell you how much fun this was.
So this last Saturday a group of us hiked the Crimson Trail at 4:30 am in attempt to watch the sunrise.

Here is Jessie and I about 1/3 of the way there, according to Joe. It was also sometime around this point that it started to rain.

This was the first picture I took where there was enough light to see anything. It was right before we got to the top.

So after waiting at the summit in the cold drizzly rain for around 30 minutes, we all concluded that the sun must have come up. Therefore, this is going to have to be my only "sunrise" picture...

So after the "sunrise" we had a little picnic with the bagels, oranges and apple juice that cute Whitney brought. And I can't remember, but judging by the look on Jessie's face, this was probably taken right after all of our orange peels were thrown off the cliff... :)

Joe made me laugh/scarred me to death because he kept climbing down around the side of the cliff and between all the rocks. I think that this picture made my day.

Here are just a few pictures of our surroundings at the top...

I think that this one is probably my favorite landscape shop from the day.

I also found it funny that our trip ended up being six girls... and Joe.

When I look at pictures like these I realize how tall I actually am...

On the way down this is when the drizzle actually turned into a real rain. Nonetheless, I just had to stop and take a picture of the China Wall. (I also can't believe that in 9 days I will actually be in China... Eeeeep!)

I loved how pretty all of the plants where on the way down.

This picture doesn't really do the flowers that we saw any justice.

So this was the last picture of the day. Right before we returned to civilization.

I really want to do this again sometime. And preferably the forecast will be clear... :)

Starting Things Off...

First off, I have to thank Jamie for coming up with the name, Pelican's Watch. I already love it. :)

So basically, here are the reasons for me, AnnaLynne, to have a blog:
a) I want someplace to post my photos besides facebook...
b) I love reading everyone else's blogs, so I figured it was high time I got one too...
c) I had to prove to myself that I actually could create a blog...
and d) I'm going to be in China the next few months. And even if I did want to post on facebook, I wouldn't be able to since the Chinese government banned it in the country two weeks ago...

I'm sure that I'll think of more reasons later, but this is all for now...

Ps: If you are good at blogging, please help me... :) Thanks.