It’s Beautiful in Poland

I get to live HERE for 16 months:

Seriously, though, you guys.

I think I’m gonna like it.

What Are Men to Rocks and Mountains?

Have you ever seen the modern, LDS version of the film Pride and Prejudice? It takes place in, where else but, Provo, Utah and there’s a scene that the two roommates take a break from their men-hating lives and take a drive up the canyon to study.

Venice and I had the same idea this week and decided to take action and go see the leaves. Thankfully, it was before the freakish Utah weather decided to snow. We brought our books, games, and camera and had a wonderful time!

We obviously did a lot of studying….

Autumn leaves are probably one of my favorite things!

My most precious roommate and best friend.

She made an autumn bouquet to put in a vase and on our table.

I Climbed The Great Wall!

I consider this to be one of my greatest achievements in life! That was hard work!

Here are pictures (to prove it) and some interesting facts:

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups.

The Great Wall of China is one the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World.

The Great Wall of China is 25 feet high in some places and ranges from 15-30 feet wide.

During its construction, the Great Wall was called “the longest cemetery on earth” because so many people died building it. It cost the lives of more than one million people.

The main wall is around 2,145 miles long with an extra 1,770 miles of branches and spurs.

The manpower to build the Great Wall came from frontier guards, peasants, unemployed intellectuals, disgraced noblemen, and convicts.

Signal towers were built upon hill tops or other high points along the wall for their visibility.

Facts taken from http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/04/18_great-wall.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

My Paradise…

It’s called Pinecrest and if you haven’t heard me talk about it…. we’re probably not friends.

This is where the wonderful Barth Family Cabin is and oh I have missed it the past couple of years.

Now normally, (normally as in, in my childhood years) most of my siblings would come but they all decided to grow up, have families, and that jazz. Therefore, I got to invite two of my very best friends, Ms. Venice-Slim-My-Roommate-Practically-Perfect-In-Every-Way-Ada and Mr. Andy-Roo-Boy-Who-Lights-Up-My-Life-Tyler.

We went cliff-jumping…..

Hiking….

Yosemite-ing….

Tanning….

Sandcastle Making…

Cuddling…

Nerts-Playing…

Logging…. (way harder than it looks)

Boat Driving….

Marshmallow-roasting….

Among other things… My roommate and I looking at Pinecrest Lake

3 of my favorite people.

This boy that I sort of maybe like….. a lot.

And the Crew.

Finally got a Big Ben heel-click!!! YIPEE!

If you didn’t catch this comment before,  I lost all my pictures from London and Paris….

I was most sad about losing my Big Ben heel-click.

Happily, I have friends who took pictures for me!! They must have known….

I WILL live in London someday.

I realize that I’m not jumping in this picture. I just like how there’s no one else in it.

Rainy days in Germany… Priceless

Honestly, the title and picture say it all.

Buddhist Temples and The Yellow Crane Tower

There’s this joke going around my friends that I’m an inactive member of the church now and I’ve become either Buddhist or Catholic… well I did go to a Buddhist Temple in China and participated in a Catholic service at Westminster Abbey in London… not to mention that I’ve only been to church 3 times this summer. Anyway…

Sometimes in China, when we weren’t rehearsing, we didn’t have anything to do besides shop. Well eventually we got a little sick of shopping (even though the deals there are outstanding). We were walking down a street one day and found a Buddhist Temple!! We were pretty stoked.

 

We climbed that huge tower by the way.

The Yellow Crane Tower is one of the “Four Great Towers” in China. Although I consider Wuhan not to be a tourist city, this was probably the most “tourist-y” thing there. We were still the only white people and had the Chinese coming up and wanting pictures with us so maybe it is only a big deal in China.

Now I’ve had my fair share of climbing things this summer and this Tower was one of them. Here’s the view from the top:

 

(China is really smoggy)

It was actually our last day in Wuhan that we went to the tower and when we looked over the city, we could point out all the places that we had been and it was so neat. I really felt a part of China in that moment.

I miss it.