Get comfy! This post is gonna take a while!
Holy Cow. What a busy and fun few weeks we have had. By the end of it we were so exhausted that we have spent the last 2 days laying around watching General Conference (2 weeks late!) and movies. We have been getting some much needed rest!
Three weeks ago we went to Shanghai for District Conference. It was our first time exploring Shanghai and we had a ton of fun. But the highlight was definitely District Conference. So many great talks to strengthen marriages. It also gave us the opportunity to meet so many awesome people that are in our district. We went out with 3 fun couples from the district, including our “China Family”, Bekki and Tyler. We went to an excellent sushi restaurant called Haiku. Joe and I have fallen in love with sushi rolls that only contain vegetables and rice thanks to Bekki and Tyler introducing them to us. We had way too many of them in a two week time span.
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| Super awesome entrance into Apple Store |
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| Shanghai District Conference |
The weekend after Shanghai was the beginning of our 12 day vacation. We left Friday to Yangshuo with 2 of our friends, Mckenna and Emma. We had 2 options in getting there. Either a 25 hour train ride (yikes!) or a 2 hour flight. We chose the flight. Traveling in China is no simple task. We left at 8am and didn’t arrive in Yanshuo until 9:30pm. Five minute tuk-tuk ride. 45 minute bus ride. 1 1/2 mile run in the rain with our giant backpacks on. 1 hour train ride. 1 hour 40 minute metro ride. Then a 2 hour flight. We thought by then we were on the final leg of the trip by getting in a taxi that was to take us to Yanghsuo, an hour and a half away. 30 minutes later when we arrived at the Wada Hostel in Guilin we realized we took the wrong taxi :) oops! The taxi we were supposed to be taking was still waiting for us at the airport. We thought we had seen our name on the paper the current taxi driver was holding. When we looked again more closely while sitting at the wrong hostel, it said “Kinkel and Jon.” Double OOPS! In case you were wondering, we have NOT changed our names to Kinkel and Jon. Nope nope nope. Still Joe and Kelsey. FINALLY our taxi we were supposed to have taken from the airport arrived at the Wada Wada. It’s no wonder we didn’t spot his sign, it looked german to us! “Gn mes Kesy”! Rest assured it was the one though so we climbed in the taxi, sighing in relief that we were finally almost to Yangshuo and yet laughing hysterically at the events of the day. The day has been nothing short of crazy! We arrived in Yangshuo, so excited to be there. We threw our things into our room at the Bamboo House Inn and hit West Street, the busy pedestrian street for some late night exploring.
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| West Street |
Scenes from our bike ride
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| Banyan Tree Park |
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| 1400 Year Old Banyan Tree! Those branches grown down into the grown to add support to the tree. So cool! |
Monkeys!!! We couldn't resist.
Climbing the 800 steps to Moon Hill
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| On top of Moon Hill!! |
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| Moon Hill! The pole was at the very top of that! |
Sunday - began with a bamboo raft ride on the Li River. Beautiful as expected! We did a ton of walking and exploring the town and shops. We could see this small Pagoda sittng on the top of a mountain so Joe and I sought out to find it! Sure enough we did! We decided it was a must to have a picnic at sunset on this mountain so we climbed down, and invited Kenna and Emma to join us. We all got the foods we had been craving. I found a shop called Cafe Mimosa that served hummus. The first I had seen in China and it sounded too good to pass up. The lady that owned it made the hummus fresh for me right then and there! She let me watch her mash the garbanzo beans and add the ingredients. And she even let me sample it to see if it had enough salt for my liking! I loved her! So much so that we ended up buying banana bread from her later that evening. I am not exagerating when I say that this loaf of banana bread weighed about 10 pounds. It was the most dense banana bread any of us had ever tasted. We enjoyed it for the next few days :)
Back to the picnic... Joe and I shared vegetable sushi rolls, indian naan, and hummus. An excellent meal surrounded by amazing natural beauty at sunset!
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| Water Buffalo! |
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| On top of the mountain round 1 |
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| On top of the mountain round 2 -- Picnic at Sunset |
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| In front of the Li River |
Monday - Joe and I headed out on another mountain bike ride. Every time we ventured out into the country side it became more and more beautiful. The little villages in the midst of these mountains were phenomenal and all of the people within the villages were so nice and welcoming!
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| A make shift treadmill! |
After the bike ride we joined up with Kenna and Emma for rock climbing!!!!! We were all so excited to try real rock climbing because all of us had only ever tried it in a rocky gym setting. Our guides named was Ruthie. She was awesome! She had her own cute little shop (that I could have spent way too much money in(!) but I restrained myself and only bought 2 items -- teva flip flops and a super cute roxy sweater all for only $13!!). We rode our bikes to the climbing spot, put our gear on and started scaling the mountains :) . I loved it so much I wanted to go back the next day, but unfortunately we had other plans so Joe promised he take me again some time soon! I am holding him to that!! We were all so spent by the end of our climbing that we filled our bellies with our last meal in Yangshuo, veggie burgers that were to die for and more veggie sushi rolls (what did I tell you? We couldn’t get enough of them!). We were all sad to leave Yangshuo. We loved it so much and are committed to going back again some day. Out of all the areas we have been to in China, that is the only one we truly would love to go back to!
The view surrounding our rock climbing spot!
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| A strong climber, that One! |
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| Can you spot Joe in the tree line? :) |
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| I blend into the wall a bit! Hint: right half, above the tree line. |
Tuesday - A day of MISERY! We signed up for a tour to go visit the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces. It’s a very popular and well known place. We were told it would be a 3 hour bus ride. Yeah not so much. After a grueling bumpy, winding, and cliff teasing 6 hours we arrived at the terraces. Now it’s no surprise that I was sick as a dog by the time we arrived but even Joe and the girls were completely car sick. It was awful! We hiked for a couple of hours through the terraces, saw some beautiful sights, and boarded the bus once again for a 4 hour ride back to Guilin where we were staying for the night. What I loved above the rice terraces was seeing these people work so hard in their fields. The terraces were amazingly constructed with water irrigation set up using half slices of bamboo to guide the water. It allowed you to see just how strong these people really are. Old ladies would strap “the white peoples” luggage to their backs and climb endless stairs to where some of the people would be staying for night. While the chinese men carried “white” men and women in carriages on their shoulders as if they were royalty. For some reason seeing this bothered me.
We were all so relieved to get to our hostel by the end of Tuesday. It was such a long nauseating day!
The Spectacular Rice Terraces
Wednesday - We had an early flight to Xiamen, our next destination. Xiamen is a coastal city with a little island off the coast named GulangYu. We checked into our hotel, the Mode Inn, and were surprised to see condoms for sale on the night stand by our bed (more about that in a minute!). We brushed it off though and quickly set out to experience Xiamen and Gulangyu. We were surprised by how unbelievably packed the island was! So many people everywhere!! We walked around for a few hours. Touched the Ocean (how many people can say they’ve touched the South China Sea!), saw a baby in a styrofoam box just sitting against a wall, no mother around, likely being used as a ploy for people to give money. This was so upsetting to us all! We sat there and watched this beautiful little baby all alone in the midst of a sea of tourists on a small little island. We couldn’t believe someone would leave there baby like that. It was heartbreaking. After a few hours, we had our fill of GulangYu, which was surprising because we had intended to spend 2 days there! That evening we returned to our hotel to find that a prostitute business card had been slipped under our door. We were so grossed out, we couldn’t believe it. When we connected the sleezy business card with the fact that there were condoms for sale by our bedside we just couldn’t take it. So at 10 pm that night we checked out of the Mode Inn and took a taxi to a new place called Antelope Inn (you may think, “Yeah that sounds a lot more promising!” But I assure you, it was!)
When we arrived at 11 pm, the lady that owned the little retreat welcomed us with open arms. She was so sweet and we were so grateful to be out of the crap hotel. It was such a cute place in the middle of a village!
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| Antelope Inn -- So unique! |
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| Village surrounding the Antelope Inn |
Thursday - JOEY’S 24th BIRTHDAY!! The first half wasn’t anything like a birthday should be but the second half ended up being much better. He received his admissions e-mail from BYU that morning. We heard back from all of the other law schools back in January and have since been waiting and waiting to hear from BYU. They informed us he had been put on the wait list. It wasn’t the best news to hear, especially because I really wanted to live in Utah!!! But it was okay. We were happy to have heard from them so we could move on with our law school plans. After the e-mail, we decided we were all ready to head back to Shanghai (2 days earlier than planned) so we packed up and headed for the train station. But all of the trains were SOLD OUT! We were a little bummed but at the same time I was happy because it meant we could actually have a fun day for his birthday instead of sitting on a train for 9 hours!
We went for a nice walk along the coast in the rain. Took a 2 hour nap (unheard of for me! I wasn’t feeling too good.) then found an excellent Italian restaurant for dinner. Have you ever had gniocchi’s?! Man oh man are they delicious! We told them it was Joey’s birthday so what did they do? Bring out molten lava cake with ice cream for the BOTH of us... for free! We were thrilled. It ended up being a good day just the two of us! I love birthdays! And I knew the celebrations would continue into the weekend when my parents arrived!
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| Joey's Birthday present he got in Yangshuo! |
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| Musical in the middle of the little village -- Indeed a special treat for Joey's birthday! :) |
Friday we boarded our train back to Shanghai. 9 hours to just sit and relax. It was much needed after the past weeks events! We did so many fun things and so much happened during our trip that I had to document it all before any of it faded from memory, so I spent 7... whole...HOURS journaling! 23 pages later I had what I felt was a complete and thorough story of our trip! :) I had a dent in my finger from writing for days.
Saturday - we checked into our hotel that we would be staying at with my parents! We were so excited to have them come!!!!!!!!!! We were in heaven when we walked into our giant room at the Doubletree Hotel. It was complete luxury! Best part about the place -- free big cookies! A true treat! We threw on our swimsuits and headed for the pool. So fun!
That night, we headed for the Pudong Airport to pick up mom & dad. It was so awesome to see them!! We have missed both of our parents so much and we felt lucky to be able to catch up with one set of parents in China. We wish our Grimes parents would visit us!!!!! :)
We took the Maglev Train back to their hotel. It goes 300km/hour and doesn’t even touch a track. It levitates and moves by magnetic forces! Pretty cool huh? We got them all checked in and headed out for dinner. More INDIAN food!! Yum!! Kebab on the Grille was delicious and I am crossing my fingers Joe and I will go back before we leave China.
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| We were hiding so they couldn't see us :) |
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| We all ordered coconut water. We were shocked when they weighed down our table with giant full coconuts! |
My parents were b-e-a-t from their travels so we all hit the hay hoping for a fresh start on Sunday.
Easter Sunday! I hope your Easter was wonderful as it should be! Ours was rather unique. Due to the time differences in China from the U.S., General Conference is watched the week following the live broadcast, so everyone was watching conference on Easter here. Since my parents had already watched last weekend, we skipped watching it again that day. Instead we went to the Knock-Off markets! Definitely not meant to be a Sunday activity but it was our only day to hang out in Shanghai. We stocked up on some goods, practiced our bargain skills, and left exhuasted. Bargaining at these markets is an art if you want the cheapest price!
That evening we went to a fancy dinner on “The Bund”. The Bund is an area composed of european architecture that faces “The New World” of Pudong across the river. It is definitely a sight to see! The restaurant was on the 9th floor of a beautiful hotel. We were the only ones in the restaurant the entire time! Kinda strange, but pleasant. The portions were too small but the view was gorgeous! My mom took most of the pictures here so I need to get them from her! Or maybe I’ll just link to her blog once she gets them put up.
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| "The New World" Pudong |
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| "The Old World" on The Bund |
Monday we got up early to head to Changzhou. We thought we were supposed to be teaching at noon so we were racing to get back to the school. It was a stressful morning! When we arrived at school, 20 minutes before our classes started, we were informed “No ILP today. All students and teachers at Dinosaur Park.” We were relieved yet bummed, we were excited for my parents to meet our kids! And our kids were excited to meet them, after all ,they were bringing “American Candy” (their fave!).
We headed back to our hotel. Probably the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. Our rooms were awesome, so nice in fact we didn’t want to leave the rest of the night! So we didn’t. We told the in house restaurant that we were vegetarians so he offered to have the chef whip up an Indian dinner just for us!! Dinner was amazing! Dessert was fabulous! The meal was a true experience and being the foodies we are, we were in heaven.
So many awesome things to be happening in the LeSueur family! Avery is honestly one of the most adorable babies we’ve ever seen. Joe and I can’t wait to hold her in a couple months!! My parents and JT arrive back in the U.S. on Monday. I knew this would be one of the hardest parts of coming to China at this time, being away from so many fun and memorable times in the LeSueur family is difficult for us. Our day to see everyone one though will soon be here. Today we hit our half way point of this crazy adventure.
Here’s to the second half being the best half!
