All Roads Lead to China!

Ack! I never did update about my second day in Lancaster. My friend Jes is never going to forgive me. Well real quick, the second day there consisted of waking up late, eating a glorious breakfast complete with a caramel macchiato procured by Mr. Wonderful himself, Duane (Jes' husband). Then we drove around the surrounding area and even stopped to take a look at a bald eagle's nest. That thing was huge!!! Of course, there was more Sonic but after that it was time to go :(. I had such a great time and I can't wait to go back!

Now onto our next adventure...China. We leave in just about three weeks. Wow, three weeks. I never thought I would ever in my life say "In three weeks Im leaving for China." Im excited and nervous all at the same time. Josh has been happily procuring more and more photography equipment for the trip, mostly at my encouraging. He's got a great lightweight tri-pod, a new fisheye lens AND a brand new Nikon D300.

I have been busy planning what to take. We are planning to pack extra light on this trip so I think Im going to invest in some good quality travel clothing that can be quickly washed out and dried. Good quality travel clothes can be expensive but, if youre like me, they can also be worth the cost because the quality is so much better. Paying more once for something that will last for years through trip after trip after trip is much more cost effective than buying cheaply made clothes that fall apart after one or two trips. I put clothes through their paces so I want something sturdy. Today I was looking at both Cabella's and Columbia Sportswear who both seem to have some great items like zip pants that can turn into shorts and long sleeve shirts with tabs so you can roll up the sleeves. Also, they are all made from good quality, breathable materials which will be really important. So Im off to do some shopping!

Back to the Future

This is the first chance I've had to post about my whirlwind tour of Lancaster County, PA but, as expected, the trip was wonderful! I don't have any pictures to post at the moment as Josh has been hoarding the card reader so I'll just relay the trip in written word.

The drive: This was the furthest I've driven on my own in years and it wasnt bad at all. I woke up super early thinking I would give leaving super early a try but I just couldn't do it so I went back to bed and got on the road at about 7:30. It was only a three hour drive (well it was suppose to be...I MIGHT have made it in less time he he) so we only stopped to get some drive through grub. The only advice I have here is get yourself a DVD player. They are a life saver!

Day 1. Honestly, I did so much the first day that it really felt like two or three days. We got there and went to my friend's son's first ever soccer game. He handled the ball like a pro. I think there might be a future footballer in our midst if he takes a liking to it. After the football match we went back home for a quick change and then we went to my mecca, Sonic Drive-In. If you've never had Sonic, you haven't lived my friend. If all I had to eat was their Chili Cheese Coney, I'd be a happy camper the rest of my life. AFter Sonic we stopped off at my friend's husband's store, BB's Grocery Outlet. This place was GREAT! It's not your usual grocery store but it had all kinds of name brand things at ridiculously low prices. I cleaned them out of spices. I probably looked like a freak with 8 jars of rosemary, thyme, and the like. After that we went home, took a short break then Jes and I went out to a couple places that had caught my eye. The first was Olde Peddler Wools. When I get my pictures downloaded I will definitely be posting some of the ones I took of this store because it's a yarn lovers heaven. Beautiful wools of every kind. Hand dyed, imported, specialty. I could have spent hours in there. I will definitely be going back to buy more. Darlene was a wonderful guide to all of the options and helped me pick out some lovely yarn to make a shawl. After that, we headed off to The Flower & Craft Warehouse. This place was crazy. I've never seen so much stuff in all my life. I ended up getting a fantabulous metal flamingo for my garden. Yes, I love flamingos.

As we were checking out we realized that we were suppose to meet up wth some of Jesica's friends for a private buggy ride! We zoomed back to her house, picked up Maya and then headed out. Let me tell you, taking a buggy ride with two teenage Mennonite girls is more fun than I think most people can handle. Jes and I were leaning out making faces at her friend Pauline who was riding her bicycle beside us taking pictures. We dubbed her the "Mennonite Papparazzi." Alta, who was our driver, did an excellent job taking us all around and even let Maya hold the reins. We had so much fun and Im so thankfully they took time out of their day to do that for us.

After that it was dinner, then...whew! I can't even remember what all else we did. Like I said it was like three days all smashed into one. It was so much fun though. A little later, I'll post pictures and a write up of day two!

Going Dutch in Lancaster, PA

This weekend Josh and I are going our separate ways. Don't worry! Not like that. Nope, we're doing something we've never done before. We're taking separate trips. He's heading of to St. Louis to get his baseball fix while Im heading to beautiful Lancaster, PA for some good ol fashion fun with my great friend Jesica! I can't wait. She's even arranged for us to have a buggy ride with one of her friends. Maya is very excited about the prospect of that. Im very excited about getting to spend some time with my friend seeing as she's practically my twin. Ohhhhhhh the trouble we're going to cause. It will be a short trip but well worth it as I love Lancaster.

Lancaster is a very different place to go to that has this almost schizophrenic way of doing things. The Amish are very private people and generally keep to themselves. That's not to say they aren't nice...just private. And yet the big draw there is, of course, "Come see the Amish!" I wonder if they get annoyed at people coming there just to try to get a glimpse of them. To them, they're just, well, themselves. They work hard, keep their beliefs close to their hearts, and make some darn good food. To the rest of the world they are an oddity, something to be looked at almost like a zoo animal. I have great respect for them. They've kept their ways for hundreds of years and few have given into the temptation of modernity. It will certainly be interesting to get to go around the area with a local. Jesica LOVES to explain Dutch country to me and I love to hear about it. It's like traveling to another country that's only 3 hours away. Maybe I'll learn some Pennsylvania Dutch while Im there. That counts as another language right?

MandarinTube: Learn Chinese From the Comfort of Your Own Home

So I was poking around on the Chinese Embassy's website and saw this link to ShowChina.org. It's actually a pretty interesting website that has all kinds of information about China. On there I came across a link to MandarinTube.com, a site where you can sign up for free and watch all kinds of videos to help you learn Mandarin. At first I thought it was just a bunch of videos of people in everyday situations speaking in Mandarin with English subtitles. Not very helpful. BUT then I looked around some more and it's actually a really good resource. In addition to the video they have a link to another video called "Understanding Video" where they go through the dialogue step by step showing you the written words, the English translation and slowly going through the pronunciation.

We'll see how actually learning this language goes. I took Japanese in college, but this is much harder. Spoken Japanese is pretty easy as the romanji (the way of writing Japanese in western letters) actually looks like what you are saying. Their language is made of fairly simple phonetics such as ka, sa, ro, ni, etc. Mandarin, on the other hand, is a whole different bag. Even though you can write it in western letters it still doesn't sound anything like what it looks like. Then there is the trouble that you can have the same word but depending on your inflection it can mean several different things. I can only hope I don't tell someone their mother looks like a monkey's butt.

Windsor Castle: Some Castle in England with an AWESOME dollhouse

OK, OK so Windsor Castle is more than "some castle in England" being that it's housed monarchs for centuries but seriously the best thing about Windsor Castle, for little girls *cough* and moms *cough*, is Queen Mary's Dolls House.

This thing is ridiculous. It was originally planned as a gift for Queen Mary (of the 20th century) by one of her neices but it quickly turned into a major project to promote the craftsmen and historical traditions of England. It is filled with custom made miniatures by some of the world's most well known artists. Cartier, Faberge, Daulton China, Rolls Royce, even writers such as Rudyard Kipling and A.A. Milne. You name it, it's in there. It has working elevators, electrical lighting, even working plumbing. There are miniature exact replicas of everything you would find in a "normal" upscale home at the time. It's just amazing. I could have spent hours looking at it. In fact, Maya and I went to see it twice because we loved it so much. If you're ever at Windsor Castle be sure to go to see the dollhouse and for 4.50 GBP you can also pick up a book about it in one of the gift shops which tells it's history and has some great close up shots. Since you aren't allowed to take photos when you're in there that's really the only way to get a lasting view.

You can also go online and find some illegally taken images that other people have done. I like the book, though, because it's quite complete and gives you information that you would never get from someone else's grainy blurry illegally taken photo. However, since you guys can't see the book, here are some of the said illegal images I found of it to give you an idea of it's wonderful display :
http://www.nsrider.com/gallerymain/England/dollhouse.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sangster/237745019/