Beware the Rice Cheeks!!!

They are not a myth! Here's the proof.

Pre-rice cheek

Post rice cheek...so depressing

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for...

Bakeries - Chocolate - Hamburgers - The Internet - Cool days - Hiking and camping in the beautiful Utah mountains - Rockin' out in my car - Fall leaves - Music - Dairy - Cows - Cheese - Milk - Cream Cheese - Butter - Sour Cream - Ice Cream - Autumn - Meighan Peck aka BIG MAMA! - Mitt for 2012 - Ocean beaches - Sleeping in - Clean water - Bon fires - Anna Fisher - Disney movies - Catherine Urie - Christmas lights - Socks - Chelsea Blyle - The product Raid - Soap and toilet paper in bathrooms - Mashed potatoes - Logic - Sugar - Salt - Baking powder - Flour - Nature - Rain - Birds - Christmas - Things I'm not allergic to - God - Cheap transportation - My hands (to smash mosquitoes with) - Snowboarding - Puppy dogs - Paper towels and napkins - High heels - Naps - Dishwashers and dryers - Clean, non-toxic, breathable air - My mom - My dog - Noncrusty underwear - Democracy - E-mail - Doctors - Smiles - Candace Jones - Buses - The kids at our school - Water - Family - hands - China - Peanut Butter - Pizza - Eyes - The gospel - Friends - Oatmeal - Bananas - Communication - Missionaries - Classic movies - Cafe Rio baby! - Skype - Bangs - Turkey - Gum - Toilet Paper - Hand sanitizer - Bug and mosquito repellant - My bestest soul sista Jessy! - Shorts - Asian pears - Normal pears - Cards - Home - Family - Books - December eighteenth - Brains - Leader of our church - People who speak English - American heath care - Board games - Cologne - Hot chocolate - Feet - Our wonderful school food - Spell check - Ice skating - Bottled water - My ipod - Hair straighteners - Tampons - Mistletoe - Christmas tree farms - Sledding - Pea coats - American toilets - Summer inner tubing - Coconuts - Sweat pants - Coconut milk - Laughs and smiles - Rain - A good friend - Green grass - Chinese face masks - Thanksgiving - Love - Wendy Hallows - Burritos - Dreaming - Snowy mountains - Toothpaste - Pina Coladas - Bubble bath - Sweethearts - Catching the bus when you are in a hurry or lazy - No smoking signs - Nuemonovitramicroscopicsilicovolcaniconiosis...the longest word in the English dictionary - The airplanes with American food - 99 cent tacos - Cheap gas - American pedicures and manicures - Fans - Bathroom breaks on a long bus ride - Kind Chinese people who tell me they don't know or show me the right way to go - Cleaning supplies - Being able to laugh at a woman singing on the bus and she doesn't know we are making fun of her - Glasses - Porta potties - Sharpies - Brownies - Birthdays - Computers - Chinese techno - Headbands (to tame the greasy hair) - Deodorant - Being able to wear shoes where I want to wear them - Carpet - Central air conditioning - Heaters - Vacuums - Chapstick - Sunday dinners - Fitted sheets - allrecipes.com - Microwaves - Four seasons - Guitars - Cake mix - American butter - lds.org - MTR - Body Pillows - Ovens - Apples - Photobooth - The words 'pengyou' and 'dui bu qi' -Photography -Kenny G -Niel Diamond - Spice Girls - Facebook - Laxatives - The Book of Mormon - Metamucil - Elephants and machetes - Smart people - 'In God We Trust' on money instead of the face of Cherman Mao - Hair dressers - Listerine - CHINA!!!!

Only In China...

1. You sleep on a slab of wood every night and enjoy it

2. You stay in your pajamas for over 24 hours

3. You eat meals that are staring back at you

4. You can fall asleep on a 5 minute bus ride and go through an entire REM cycle

5. You order food off menus you can't even read

6. You are required to give exact change when purchasing something and if you don't you either can't buy it, or you get old sticks of gum back for change

7. Your church pulpit is made from dressers covered with a mosquito net

8. DVD store owners move an entire trick wall aside to reveal a wonderland of black market movies

9. Fourty girls can live together with minimal fights or drama

10. You can make pretty much anything in the microwave

11. You spot a mosquito from all the way across the room and kill it in one gigantic leap and smack

12. Mother nature calls and you walk to the side of the road and proceed to answer her

13. You go grocery shopping in boxer shorts and eat all your groceries on the bus ride home

14. You only shower twice a week (maybe) and have no problem with it

15. You smell like feet the moment you step out of the shower

16. You watch disney movies ALL DAY

17. You don't leave your apartment until 5:00 PM on a good day...and that's to go get dinner

18. You can talk about strangers sitting right next to you and know they have no idea what you are saying

19. You freeze your butt off at 60 degrees

20. The temperature drops 2 degrees and scarves, coats and gloves are suddenly a necessity

21. A family of five can fit on one motorcycle

22. An entire family's belongings can fit on the back of a bicycle

23. Grandmas spit loogies on the ground the size of baseballs

24. You see a guy get pulled over on his bicycle for the PVC pipe he is carrying being too long

25. You walk around with your neck stuck out to convince yourself that you don't have rice cheeks

26. You eat rice at least twice a day

27. You answer the phone screaming "Wei?! Ni hao..."

28. The street sweepers spend all day sweeping the leaves off the street and then they turn right around and spit on it

29. Members of the same sex holding hands is a common occurrence and seeing couples of the opposite sex holding hands weirds people out

30. You have to allot time on vacations for photo shoots with random Chinese people

A Day at the Market

They eat every part of the animal in China. Here we have the hearts, brains and livers of the chickens.

This little market is right down the street from where we live. It's crazy because we go straight from Beverly Hills to like third world China in just a few blocks.

This is Halloween!

The mosquitos are getting serious

I wake up every morning to at least three new mosquito bites. I have no idea where they come from seeing as how I rarely see actual mosquitos in my apartment. They seem to have discovered a new liking for my fingers and toes. I've decided that, of all the many places I have been bitten in the past three months, these two are definitely the worst.