I've been blessed!

Hey guys!

SOme of you have heard through email, but my BEST national friend (Hannah) came for a visit! She's been gone for only two months, but it seemed like she'd been gone forever!! Before, we'd see each other every day. We were both missing that. I've been blessed with great friendships while she's been gone which are hy and xy. Still, I've missed her tons!!

About four days ago (Thursday), I was having a bad day. After I had finished school, my mom asked me to walk down to the highway with her. I thought I had done something bad but I couldn't think of anything. :o) haha Anyway, My mom WOULD NOT tell me what we were going to do or talk about. Finally, a car pulled up with Hannah in it!!!!!!! I was surprised OUT OF MY MIND!!! We hugged like never before and the driver had to remind her to get her bags and pay. haha We have had a great time. THe first day, we went to the TC side and talked to everyone for a long time. THen, we came back to the house and got ready for bed. THe first thing that was on her mind was to take a shower. She hadn't taken a shower in hot water and good water pressure for a long time. That and being able to wash and dry all her clothes in an hour was probably the highlight of her trip! :o) We talked through most of the night. She has been doing well and is actually getting married next month!! Here, they get married twice. Once at the guy's house and once at her's. The biggest wedding will be the second one, and that one will be at her house. I'm actually going to be her maid of honor! I can't wait. She makes me feel so honored. :o)

The next morning, we got up and went into town. We went everywhere and saw everyone! IT was lots of fun. Hy's brother was here too so all four of us went into town and ate lunch together. We laughed SO hard!!! That night, we also went to the youth group. All of the TC staff, including Hannah and I, got to dance and sing together. When we finally arrived at the house, we hit the pillow like hard rocks! :o) (PIC- my two best friends!) I wish I had better pictures.... THis picture was taken when we were in town.

THe next morning, Hannah decided she wanted to wash more clothes and clean the house for fun. :o) haha Afterwards, we went to the TC side and just walked around. She talked to xy and dadai for a long time. THen, she wanted to go down to the village below our house to visit some friends. She did that as I took a nap. :o) She came back at about three thirty. We watched Freaky Friday. Haha ... funny. I know. Then, after watching the movie, we went into town with xy. We ate at dicos.... Hannah was really looking forward to that! :o) THen, Marshall caught up with us and we went to the park. We rode the "log ride" and the bumper cars! SO MUCH FUN...... Oh! I just remembered... before that, marshall put on a show for us. :o) He tried to walk like everyone at the tc. IT was hilarious! When we went to ride the log ride, we made Marshall ride first by himself so that we could watch him for fun. IT was great.. he put on a show for us. :o) When we got home, we watched a movie. BUT it wasn't just any movie. We watched a Clint Eastwood movie!!! haha... It was funny though... very good! :o)

The next day, I didn't have to go to hc. I had that with staff. :O) Then, we all went on a hike. It was beautiful... :o) On our way back, we had races. I just had to compete agianst xy becuase he's as tall as me :o( but he sure is stronger. I lost big time and then he decided he could run backwards and I could run forwards. Then, I won!!!!! yea! :o) I was so tired after the hike... :o)

Well, today was the day she left. She actually just left like an hour ago. I already miss her SOO much. I just got through crying really hard! :o( :o( I called her to tell her thanks so much for the wonderful note she left me and she was beside herself. It made my heart break. :o( I'm super sad because none of my other friends are here either. Hy went with my dad to work in a village. Hannah rode along with them because she's headed to the same place. Hy will be back on Wednesday. My spirits won't be on high until then. :o( I've just been so blessed to spend time with her and to encourage each other!! Thank you, Cai xiang (Hannah) for blessing me and spending time with me! SHe won't ever see that but I just wanted to say it. :o)

Mybeautiful friend .........

Don't foget to remember hannah as she prepares to get married and finds a new job. Also remember her as she is going home to help out her mom for awhile. Her mom is not always kind twords her and her mom is also not crazy about her boyfriend becuase he's not rich. Hannah is a wonderful girl and is going through a lot right now. Please remember her. Also, remember me as I'm missing hannah and the wonderful friendship that I have in her. Maybe I'll go over to the TC side and help ge cao(cut the grass) to keep my mind on somethin.Hy won't be there to help me though... :o(

Until next time,

Holli :o)

PS I'm not going to proofread this, I usually don't. :o) haha My blog is just like a open journal. :O) Hope y'all don't mind the bad grammar and spelling. Thanks for all the comments. IT's a big encouragment!

Ge Cao Time!

Hey Guys! Yea! I'm updating again! It hasn't been long between posts! Score! :o) haha

Last Sunday I had a busy day! After lunch I went over to bbsit. That was the fun part of the day.... :o) Then, I went down to find Hy. She and I went on a quest to find something to do but couldn't find anything. Finally, we decided to cut down the grass. THe grass is used to feed the animals. xy was feeding them by himself so we decided to go help him out but just cutting down the grass. It was FUN! It was also my first time to do that, and even though I didn't do a good job, I enjoyed it! :o) These are several pictures of hy and I. We cut down ALL of this!! yea!!

I've been reading a really cool book called Where There Is No Doctor. It's this book on medical care in villages where there is no doctor. I really want to be a nurse and work in a village so this book is so interesting to me! :o) Thanks so much Germaine... :o)

Hey Michelle... I've been wanting to reply to all the great comments you've given me but we have like 5 email addresses for y'all. Could you email me the right one?? Thanks :o)

Well, that's about it. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Don't foget that you can click on them. Love you guys!

In Him,

HOlli

just a couple stories....

Hey Everyone!

It's been forever and five days since I've updated! So sorry.... I have several stories and other things to share. I hope I have time to write it all!

I'll start off by sharing an experience that you can only have here! Ok, so, one day I was going to the TC to find someone to hang out with. My idea was to go find our language teacher, who has become a VERY close friend to me. I was walking up the trail to her house when another friend called me over. He was running down across a hill twords the basketball court. He looked excited so I was curious to find out what was up. Anyway, I followed him to the basketball court and then suddenly, my eyes laid upon a HUGE, long snake still slithering. I'm not all that scared of snakes so I thought it was kind of neat. I walked up to it as my friend was beating it on the head. Now, a huge crowd had gathered and they decided that since a nice juicy snake had been found.... make it a feast! THey shouted at yu jie to slaughter a chicken. SHe immediatly went and killed one of the TC's chickens and then took it to the bb court. THey were cleaning the chicken and the snake on the bb court with blood all over the place. It was SO great. Now, I wish, so badly, that I had my camera to take a pic of it. I didn't think about it at the moment, but I should have run home to get my camera. Ugg, I'm so mad at myself now. Oh well..... Back to the story.... I was squatting there (chinese squat) watching the slaughter. It was so cool! I didn't end up eating any though. :o( :o( :o(

You'll understand why the bactine bottle was my best friend after you read the story. Ok, now onto another story. THis took place quite recently. Now, this story cracks me up when I think about it. When it was taking place, I was more scared than I can ever explain. One lovely morning, I went outside to take the dog to the bathroom. When I was walking around, trying to get the dog to go.... a thorn got in my shoe. Throughout the day, the thorn slowly rammed itself up my foot. I didn't realize it until my foot started really hurting. I tried to get it out but I couldn't do it. My dad wasn't home so I couldn't ask him to do it either. I kind of limped all day. When my dad got home, I asked him to take it out. Well, by that time my foot was REALLY sore. I couldn't stand it. I wouldn't let him get it out. I know... I'm a sissy. The next day, Marshall and I went on our daily morning jog. I knew that I couldn't do it because of the thorn but I went anyway... don't know why. The road that we jog on goes up through the mountains. I went up about three steps and told Marshall that I couldn't do it. I told him that I would wait for him on the bottom of the trail. He said that he didn't want to go by himself so we both came down. I was super thirsty so we went up to the tc kitchen to get some water. All of the guys were eating. Marshall decided that the noodles they were eating looked quite delectible so he sat down and slurped up a bowl. All of the guys finished eating and marshall was still eating. Then, xy came up. Xy is the guy that went to the village. His picture is in the "village" post below and at the bottom of this post. He got a bowl of noodles and started talking to marshall. I walked over to get more water and xy realized I was limping. He asked me what was wrong. I told him that I had a thorn stuck in my foot. After thoes words came out of my mouth, I knew I would end up regretting it! He said, "Oh! I'll get it out for you! No problem."

I told him that it was ok and that I'd get it out when I got home. I kept on saying that it was ok and that I would ask my dad to help me agian. He just didn't seem to agree. He told me to wait for him while he went downstairs to get his NEEDLE!!! I was freakin out then. Marshall was just sittin there looking at me with an innocent look on his face. HE encouraged me by smirking at me and saying that it would be ok.... you need to get it out anyway!! Oh, how I love my brother!! :o) I tried to put on a casual look as he emerged with the shining, crisp needle. Thank goodness it was clean enough. I know it was clean enough because I don't have an infection, now. haha I was very scared at that moment because I just new the needle wasn't clean and that I was surely going to die. haha He told me to sit down and give him my foot. Raising my foot up to greet his evil hand with the gleaming needle, was like lifting a 100 pound boulder. By that time, I just didn't care anymore.. that's how scared I was. He pinched the skin around the thorn and I flinched just a bit. I flinched becuase it was already SO SO sore. He looked up at me and kind of laughed. I could tell he was getting nervous too. Marshall was just swingin around laughin at me and telling xy about how I just LOVE to cry. haha that's not true....... I'm glad he was there so at least I could laugh. Marshall then asked xy if he was scared. His response was... a little. :o) haha .... that made me even more nervous. I told xy that if I flinched to just keep on going. I just wanted to get it over with. Finally, he plunged the sharpened needle into the juicy flesh of my foot. :o) haha.... Surprisingly, he got it out within just a couple seconds and it didn't really hurt that bad!! Praise Father!!!! haha haha :o) I probably spent too long on this story than I should have. It was just a crazy experience for me. :o) I'm sure you're bored to death so I'll move on to another subject... hmm...

School! That's what I've been doing a lot of lately! I have 49 video lessons/school days left. We will finish August 3rd. I CANNOT wait to finish. We get to take the month of august off. My mom is getting my supplies for next year. I'm still going to be doing the video program. Ninth grade! First year of high school. Doesn't really feel like it..... I'm going to have to start messing with transcripts and all that good stuff. I'm also going to have to send in all my work to be graded which means no mom telling me... it's ok... you're busy... you can move the deadline to next week. :o( :o( I'm a little worried. I LOVE to be at the tc and hang out with my friends. I'm afraid that I'm going to be in my room studying more than ever. Please remember that... thanks

This time, I didn't have any good pictures. :o( Sorry...

Last night, I went into town to go to the youth group. I was the only foreigner there. haha... Afterwards, all of the tc young people piled in the truck to eat sao kao!! Sao kao is anything you want smoked on a grill. The options are usually, pig ears, pig skin, shrip with eyeballs, various vegtables, and a lot more! My favorite tends to be either the pig ear or pig skin... seriously! yumm... making me hungry. A bunch of us were in the back of the pick up. We rode though town to the sao kao place singing songs. We were singing "good" songs. IT was kind of neat. :o) People were staring at us and they could tell we were really happy! :o) While eating, Some of my friends asked me if I could teach them english. THey're new friends so they've never heard me speak english. I told them that I was sorry because I couldn't speak english. THey looked at me funny and said... you're joking... surely you can speak english! Xy and my laguage teacher were following the joke so they told them that it was true. THey actually all believed us! Then, Sammy walked up and asked me a question in english and I answered! (woops! I lied! Sammy was at the youth group so I wasn't the only foreigner. I was just the only one that looked foreign) How silly I am! THey all laughed at me and I confessed. :o) Now, they bug me all the time about learning english. SOmeday, I'll get around to teaching them. :o) On the way home, we sang and talked in the back of the pick up. :o)

The dog's still doing well! She likes to chew everything up and act like a dog. :o) Today, I gave her a bath. She was good but I knew she wasn't enjoying it. Oh! Her name is yi bei cha. Yi bei cha means one cup of tea. WHile I'm doing school, she loves to sleep under my desk. SUch a lazy dog!

THis is a picture of our language teacher (hy) and xy. THey're my closest friends at the tc, right now. Yeah, the flowers were hy's idea. haha :o) That was a funny night. :o) Don't foget that you can double click on a picture if you want to see it better.

Wow! I just read everything I wrote. Hope you weren't as bored as I was. :o) Also, I know that I use NO form of grammar rules when I write in this. I just kind of spill my thoughts down with out thinking twice about gammar. Oh! and spelling! ha! HOpe y'all don't mind. WOw! I'ts getting late. My eyes are getting heavy. Thanks for reading!

Love you guys!

Thanks for keeping up with me!

E-mail me if you want more "details" on what's up.

All for now,

HOlli