Shanghai (上海) District Conference

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE WEEKEND!

I had on caps lock by accident, but then it seemed quite appropriate. 

So we met up with a ton of other Young Single Adults (maybe...50), and then split into different groups. 

I went with the group that was going to the museum and then tai chi! 

I couldn't believe it, but I ran into Caroline from BYU-Hawaii!! She is living here with  her parents (and holding the umbrella in the photo)

Jesse (the guy on the far left of the photo) and I wanted to see something BIG in the museum. I was excited when I looked towards the jade section because there was this huge stone!! 

..then it turned out it was just a sign about the exhibit. . . Basically the biggest thing I found in the museum was this turtle:

We had a really legit Tai Chi instructor. I was disctracted though because::::::::

I ran into Mason Run Through and his wife Jenna!!! I'm friends with Mason from Pine View High School! I mean, sure, when I ran into Caroline I was happy and surprised, but I had actually just forgotten that she was here in China. Mason I haven't seen in years and I could hardly believe it was really him! So fun. 

Me, Audie (from New Zealand), and Jesse (from Georgia, RM from Peru)

These guys are both super cool and I really enjoyed talking to them. 

I want a wall like this in my house. 

This is an interesting/annoying bridge. hahaha. It keeps going back and forth at 90-degree angles so that evil spirits can't cross it. 

All the meetings were awesome. It was really an amazing weekend and very spiritual. I loved the stories and testimonies shared at district conference and I'm grateful to be associated with such wonderful people. 

Now,,,,,,back to work! 

Hangzhou (杭州) - modern city

Well, today was a fun opportunity to check out a little of Hangzhou. I've actually only really been to the West Lake once (maybe twice?) since coming here, so I wanted to go there. I was surprised when we all met up to find out that we were actually going somewhere else. When I asked Yena where we were going she said it's a supplies. (I may have heard her wrong).

As it turns out, we went to a really nice part of town that had a lot of modern sculptures and buildings! Pretty cool.

It's a little hard to select photos on here, 

so somehow I accidentally got this random photo of some old dude.

Poorly timed handstand photo. 

Or possibly a poorly executed handstand.

Highlight: There was an outdoor amphitheatre that we found. So of course I climbed down and got on stage. I started singing at the top of my lungs with my roommate Joerg. I think he may have just been singing with a normal voice so it was kind of like I was soloing. I didn't have much a crowd, but as I was leaving I saw some tourists with smiles on their faces that I'm pretty sure had been listening. 

Song choices: Italian hymns, Down to the river to pray, and Oh happy day. (It was Sunday afternoon)

Here's the group! Fun day. : )

Weekend around Hangzhou (杭州)

Although not my typical Saturday of traveling around China, it was still a very enjoyable day. Let me tell you about it. 

In the morning I got up and went to the church to help us move buildings. Unfortunately I didn't get the e-mail about the date being changed, but I still had the opportunity to help out by cleaning the building.

After I was done, I figured I didn't bike all the way out there (okay it's only a 20-30 minute bike ride) to just bike home without exploring a little! 

One of my greatest finds here has been the universities on the other side of the train tracks. I had seen a tunnel going under the train tracks, gotten curious, and gone exploring once. After finding the universities (there are like 6 around there) my roommate Joerg and I found La Ji Jie (Trash street) where they have tons of cheap food and shops. The food is super good too. I lve it there.

So I decided to go to the other side of the tracks at another area closer to our house. 

Ahh, the sights and smells of China.

So I really wanted to climb a mountain (more like large hill) that I saw after riding for awhile. I'm the type of person who sees a mountain and wants to conquer it, so I went in search of a way up. 

A man gave me terrible directions, but somehow I managed to find stairs leading up. 

I left behind my trusty steed and began making my way up the mountain.

I really didn't make it far before I had to stop to look up a couple characters like I always do when I see a sign in Chinese. I was happy that I could understand the sign after looking up only two of the characters on my phone! : )

That's a lot of stairs!!

Eight hours a day of sitting in an office hasn't left me in the best shape, as my body quickly reminded me. 

I thought to myself, if Clark were here with me we would probably be running up this mountain. haha. 

It actually wasn't too long until I was enjoying the beautiful? vistas of Hangzhou. 

Actually, I'm not sure if you can make out Hangzhou at all through this smog..

Well anyway, I was happy to find a bench to stop and take a rest. 

Hangzhou is a fun place to explore. It's really huge and every interesting. Yeah, some of the things you see don't exactly make you think "First world," but I think that keeps it interesting. 

When I was on a street like the one in the first photo with the burning trash I saw a couple of brand new Audi's drive by me. Crazy. 

I can't wait until next weekend when I'll be in Shanghai (上海)! : )

Shao Xing (绍兴)

Another week, another weekend trip! We hopped on our bikes and headed down to the metro station. You'll notice my yellow fenders! I spent about a week painting those yellow!!! Hahaha. It took many many layers to cover up the blue below. I learned much patience from this bike. : D

On the way to the metro station we found some blossoming plum trees! So of course we stopped and took a photo. 

I sneakily got a photo of this guy who also stopped to photograph the plum trees after seeing us there. 

I really love this about China!! There are so many fun places to slide down!! It's so much fun. What's crazy is that even when you go to the ancient temple you can find it! I love China!

Okay, so I'm not quite wearing a striped shirt with the correct colors, but I thought this made a nice Where's Waldo-esque scene.

Joerg commented on how he loved how these two Chinese girls were dressed, so I offered to go ask them if he could get a photo with them. They seemed to happily agree...right up until the moment that I actually took the photo because here it definitely looks like they're not too into it. Haha.

The Lan Ting Orchid Pavilion is where the famous Wang Xizhi composed famous works of Calligraphy (circa 353 AD). Him and his friends would sit along a small stream and float cups of wine down it. If a cup of wine stopped in front of you, you were to pick it up, drink it, and write a poem! 

I totally want to have something like this in my house someday. I love plants, and I love that even inside the house there is an area that is open and has nature. 

We really had a great trip to Lan Ting and Shao Xing. After going back to Shao Xing we stepped into a music store for a few minutes and met a really friendly shop owner. He began telling us about instruments and I told him I wanted to know about the Gu Zheng. In particular, I wanted to know if there was a smaller Gu Zheng. 

Here's a random photo I found of a lady playing a Gu Zheng. 

Anyway, he told me that there Is one. It's an Er Tong Gu Zheng (which means a child-size Gu Zheng). I said, no, that's not what I want. So I gave up on finding a smaller version. 

About an hour later (we really sat down and talked for awhile), I asked him if there were any Chinese instruments that he didn't sell in his store. He said yes, there's one. He doesn't sell the Gu Qin. I said what is that? He says, it's like a Gu Zheng but with less strings. 

And it's not as big. 

....

So I was really happy to know that the Chinese instrument I want to learn is actually a GuQin. : )

Mogan shan (莫干山)

Today we took a day trip from Hangzhou to Mogan shan. It was really awesome.

Getting there turned out to be a lot harder than expected. Dou Xiao (in HR) sends out a monthly newsletter to the foreign interns about what to do around Hangzhou. Her directions to Mogan shan were pretty simple: take a bus from the bus station in Hangzhou. hahaha. Well, we decided to just take a taxi to the station which was actually on the other side of the city. Then we had to take the bus to another city near Mogan Mountain, take a short $1 USD taxi ride to a minibus, and then bus up to the mountain.

Once we got there we got a ride up by another little taxi, and then started exploring! : D

Right away it seemed pretty cool. Mogan shan used to be a kind of summer getaway for rich chinese. Some notable Chinese who had homes there include Chiang Kai-Shek, and Mao Tze Dong. Mogan shan is a great place to cool off due to it's high altitude.

I have no idea whose home this actually was, so let's just assume that this was Mao Tze Dong's summer retreat.

We had heard about the bamboo forests and were very impressed by them. They're really a lot of fun. If I had drum sticks I could have made some nice music with them. They're also very flexible so when you shake them as hard as you can the entire tree bends quite a lot. 

Joerg (my roommate) and I were thrilled when we found the path leading to beautiful waterfalls and pools of water. A little ways further we found that the paths ended, but continued on a little dirt trail that went along the river crossing back and forth, much like the the PCC falls hike in laie. 

Although quite cold, Mogan shan was an awesome place to visit. In the newsletter from Dou Xiao she actually said right in the beginning that "Hundreds of springs and waterfalls make Mogan Mountain the best place to escape the summer heat." Hahaha. She sent this in the February newsletter! So we were laughing the whole time about how we got to "escape the summer heat." haha : D

Well, I haven't been doing a good job blogging about my internship, so I'll just say that it's really awesome and I've had the opportunity to make some videos for training and for a dealer conference, help with testing new products, and been having fun meeting new people here in China.