The Hair

My mom finds it humorous and odd that I don't brush my hair. I keep telling her that you just don't brush curly hair, apparently people with straight hair don't realize this very important fact. Here are some pictures for my mom to prove this point.




All I did was brush my hair, that's it. I didn't even us a boar hair bristle brush. No product of any kind was used in the taking of these pictures. And also, I'm just drinking water out of that coffee mug. I can't stand drinking out of plastic so sometimes that means drinking water or orange juice out of mugs. It's just something I inherited from my father (along with the hair).

Playing Catch-Up

So I know I haven't done a real post in a while, sorry. The reason why is because I've wanted to post pictures to go along with my post and my pictures have been divided between many different friend's cameras. So I guess I'll start with late October and then go from there.
One day that my friend Leslie and I both had off work we went to Red Butte Garden. It was absolutely beautiful. The fall colors were amazing and overpowering. I loved it. We took about a million pictures, we just couldn't help ourselves.










And then a few weekend ago I went with Leslie to her parent's home in Emery County. Emery County is in Central Eastern Utah. It's another one of Utah's beauties. We didn't do too much while there but I did meet her parents and some cousins and eat some delicious homemade food and see a dinosaur foot print. We had fun and it was nice to get away for the weekend.














Sorry for the bagillion pictures, but I can't help how beautiful everything is around me. But I suppose I can help my blogging frequency. Whatever. Other then that, nothing too exciting is happening in my life right now. I'm still just working, driving around in circles. I've spent the past few days thinking more seriously about grad school. but...that still may be a while off. Mary spent the week here for Thanksgiving, it was fun having her around. We went to my cousin's house in West Jordan for Thanksgiving and we both had a lot of fun with them. More family get-togethers are a definite must. I'll be going home for Christmas on the 24th, I'm very much looking forward to that. That's about all I have at this point.

I'm so totally a celebrity now

CLICK ON ME

So I'm just lying in bed being very unproductive. Sleep would probably be the most productive thing I could do right now. whatever. Anyway, my adorable friend Jackie had these surveys on her blog and I felt like doing them. I'm a copycat.

I am: acne face freak
I think: a lot
I know: not so much
I want: purple shirt
I have: great friends
I dislike: bills
I miss: my family
I fear: not
I feel: content
I hear: phil collins
I smell: clean
I crave: a good book
I cry: too often
I usually: sleep in
I wonder: what the next big change in my life will be
I regret: stupid stuff
I love: cooking
I care: but sometimes I don’t
I always: go out of my way to step on crunchy leaves
I worry: I’m not doing good enough
I am not: finished
I remember: my shoe size
I believe: life is short
I dance: badly
I sing: worse
I don’t always: remember to brush my teeth
I argue: too much
I write: poorly
I win: hardly ever
I lose: a lot
I wish: money wasn’t one of my problems
I listen: to NPR
I don't understand: love
I can usually be found: thinking
I am scared: of losing loved ones
I am happy: being loved


The Second Tag


8 TV SHOWS I LIKE TO WATCH

1. The Office
2. 30 Rock
3. Law & Order
4. House
5. Gilmore Girls
6. Pushing Daisies
7. Psych
8. That 70s Show


8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS (today)

1. Albertos
2. Buritto Loco
3. Bombay House
4. Curry in a Hurry
5. In -n- Out
6. Happy Sumo
7. Barbacoa
8. Red Iguana



8 THINGS THAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY

1. Worked
2. Called old landlord
3. Blog-Stalked
4. Ate late night pie with Leslie
5. Watched 1/2 of An Affair to Remember
6. Made french toast for breakfast
7. Showered
8. Decided I need a new job, quickly

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO

1. Snowboarding
2. Christmas
3. The weekend
4. Sleeping
5. My next paycheck
6. Being made perfect
7. Christmas baking
8. The holiday season movies


8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST

1. New job
2. Updated music
3. New Clothes
4. New shoes
5. New apartment
6. Car
7. Photographic Memory
8. The Love of my Life

I need a new life...

Work started out pretty good today. I had some friendly passengers who were pleasant conversation; An old anthropology professor was on board, and totally remembered me; And a railroad crossing sign came down on my bus. See, pretty good. But then I had some annoying/rude passengers, I had to switch buses, my stomach hurt, I was behind schedule ALL DAY, and I left my book on the bus. So it's official, I'm sick of my job. I REALLY REALLY need to get job in my major field now. Today was just the motivation I needed.

On a more unpleasant note, Max was fired on Friday. He is sort of a lose cannon. One day after work he was giving me a ride home and started asking me about my love life. He then proceeded to tell that all I need to do is bat my eyelashes and I can have any guy I wanted. Also, after I got back from Yemen he said I had been very missed and was very loved. He can be very off-putting at times but he was always nice to me. His wife also works with us and she's also very nice and is also a fan of me. (I apparently like to use the word 'also').

Also, Mary came to town last weekend and We went to Lagoon with some friends of mine. We had fun. Here's a couple of pictures from that fatefully fun night.

Updating My Life

It's been a very busy past few weeks for me. Things have been kind of crazy. I moved at the beginning of the month into an apartment with my friend Crista. We've been painting and cleaning and we both work and she also goes to school, so it's been a very slow process to say the least. My sister Mary came down for conference weekend from Rexburg and helped us do some painting as well. She's a good couple inches taller then either of us, so she was much appreciated.

I also had the opportunity to go to the Timpanogos Caves with a couple of friends. It was a really nice hike and the caves were amazing and the scenery on the way up was amazing. We actually went twice. The first time we went we just happened to show up on the only day in the history of the park that they were offering admittance to the park and cave tours for free. Tickets were sold out by 9 am. Needless to say, we didn't get to see the caves but we enjoyed the hike anyway. Then later on that week we went back and were able to see the caves. Here's some pictures.

Jake, Leslie and I

Inside the Caves





We also had the chance to drive up American Fork Canyon. It was so beautiful this time of year. I LOVE all the fall colors. Being from California where there is very little change in seasons, has given me a great appreciation for all the colors of fall.

Survey Stuff

My friend tagged me and I was bored. You're supposed to answer each question with as few words as possible. Blah.

1. Where is your cellphone? Floor

2. Your significant other? Heaven?

3. Your hair? Blonde/Curly

4. Your mother? California

5. Your Father? Work

6. Your favorite thing? Slurpees

7. Your dream last night? Roller Skates

8. Your favorite drink? Fresh mango juice

9. Your dream goal? Travel EVERYWHERE

10. The room you’re in? Bedroom

11. Your hobby? swimming

12. Your fear? painting

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Anywhere but here.

14. What you’re not? boy

15. Muffins? good

16. One of your wishlist item? A painter

17. Where you grew up? Santa Maria

18. Last thing you did? Text message

19. What are you wearing? pajamas

20. Favorite gadget? iPod

21. Your pets? Marshall The Dog

22. Your computer? MacBook

23.Your mood? good

24. Missing someone? Family
25. Your car? bus

26. Something you’re not wearing? socks

27. Favorite store? Target

28. Like someone? everyone

29. Favorite color? Yellow

30. When was the last time you laughed? Last night

31.When was the last time you cried? Last week?

Yemen and Stuffffff

I realized after I posted my last blog that I didn't actually let anyone know that I am officially back in Salt Lake. I got back on the 20th at about 11:30 pm. From the time my plane took off in Sana'a to the time I landed in Salt Lake it was a total of 32.5 hours of travel. On top of that, my flight left Sana'a at 12:01 am on the 20th, so that means I didn't get any sleep. I woke up on Friday at 10 am and didn't get to bed again until Saturday/Sunday at 2 am. I calculated that out to being 48 hours. Needless to say, I did not make it to my 9 am church Sunday morning. In fact, I slept until noon on Sunday. I completely needed it. So here's the last of my Yemen Trip Pictures.

These first ones are from Dar Al Hajar. Imam Yahya built this palace as a summer residence in the 1930s. Now it's just used for visitors/tourists but it still stands as the image of what Yemen looks like.




Here's a few pictures of the magnificent views from up on top of the 'summer home'.




A lady came to the center one night and I got henna on my feet. It was pretty cool. And it actually stays for a really long time on me. She was able to do it so quickly too. Both feet were done in about 20 minutes. Here's a couple pictures of what it looked like.



And here's a few pictures of Old Sana'a. Old Sana'a is my absolute favorite part of Sana'a. It's just so amazing and it's about as close to time travel as anyone can get.

Just your average, everyday brass store.
This is a Camel-Mill. The camel is blind folded and walking around in circles grinding sesame seeds into oil.
Just some neighborhood kids.

66-342

Things have been a bit crazy and I haven't been able to update until now. Right after I posted the last entry the internet in Yemen went down. There was no wireless for almost a week. Then when it did come back, it took far too long to upload pictures, so I just didn't update. Sorry. Sometimes it would take me an hour to just upload all the pictures. It was just getting far too time consuming.

Anyway, I think I mentioned in a previous blog that my bedroom is on the 5th floor of a building without an elevator. I walk up 66 steps every time I need to go to my room. I usually make 3-5 trips up the stairs a day. At school my first class is on the third floor and the second class is on the fourth floor. There are 32 steps to the third floor, 48 to the fourth. One day I calculated that I climbed 342 steps. I imagine that's about average.

This is what walking up the stairs to my room looks like.





Life was extremely exciting.

Another Weekend Trip

So it's been a while since I've updated. oops, sorry. It's just that here in Yemen the internet connection is quite slow and it takes a good hour to load all the pictures and everything. blah blah, excuses excuses. Things haven't been too busy here, just the usual busy. Last weekend I went on another day trip. The landscape here just keeps getting prettier and prettier.

The first place we stopped was in Wadi Dhahar. We really didn't do much there other then just go to this overlook spot and see the town/landscape. Here are some pictures from Wadi Dhahar:



After Wadi Dhahar, we went to Thula. Thula is about 55km northwest of Sana'a and is considered one of the major theological centers of the country. There is a solid stone wall surrounding the city and was considered the least conquerable in all Yemen. During the Turkish occupation in the 16th century this city remained unconquered. There is only one door or entrance to this city and up until VERY recently the Imam would close and locked it every night at 8pm. This used to also be a Jewish village.

I like these first two pictures because you can see exactly how the wall of the city looked.


This is just a cool picture of the city and of two women carrying jugs of water on their head. They still have to go to the community "watering hole" (I don't remember the actual word for it) everyday to get the water they need.



Then we went for lunch in Shebam. Sitting on the floor eating from low tables (if you even have a table) is how they do it here in Yemen. They place bowls/plates of food on the table/floor and everyone tears off a piece of bread and eats from the main dish. I can only imagine how many American health code violations they're breaking.


After lunch we went to the village of Kowkaban, walked around and took some more pictures from the spectacular view. The only door to this city is still closed and locked every night.