Bye 2012

       CRAZY!!!!! After tomorrow, we will arrive 2013! After tomorrow, REALLY only one week in this cute town (Silver City, New Mexico). Two weeks ago, I was thinking what I should plan to do in this town. But now it has been more than half way through. :( Time never lets you know it flies!

       Even though I didn't do so much things like my friends did in California or in Florida. However, they didn't do what I am doing either. To be frank, I really enjoy the life here, relaxing, getting spoiled, and not thinking about school.

       This week, Dr. Murphy, who is Eric's friend, are visiting from Chicago. They went to China together and had a great time in China. He told me that the food over there was the thing he loved most. I do too. Haha. Eric and I went to Tucson airport to pick him up. The road trip back and forth to the airport was nice. You can see the obvious changes between two states. More mountains in Tucson. AND SAGUARO!!

      I like saguaro (that's why I hugged them) and those palm trees over there. Even though I am not sure why they have palm trees there, those made me think I was in Hawaii. Eric and I went to Trader Joe's to get some yummy stuff. Eric and Jo have been teaching me simple way to cook delicious food. I appreciate it so much. They might figure out that I would live on chips and cokes when I am in nursing school and get lazy to cook at all. :P

     
       Since Dr. Murphy was here, we went hiking for a couple of days. The first hike was at the City of Rocks (picture on right), where I fell first time this two-year hiking. Ouch. Yes, it did hurt. I shouldn't have hiked up a huge rock and jumped. I never fell at the trip to Southwest and trip to Rocky Mountains. Well, it just happens. It is not a shame anyway. :P Our second hike was pretty easy. We went to Gila Cliff Dwelling (Picture below). It was so cool to see where the Native Indians lived. It is about 700 hundred years old and above 7000 feet. The caves are very tiny. I wonder how people lived there! They must be so skinny and little then.

   
      Today I didn't go hiking with them but staying home with Jo. We talked for a long time, which was so good! I love talking to her and getting to know her more. :) We went to a local restaurant for sushi tonight. It was pretty good. I have been having so many first-time things since I came here. I had the yellow package mustard, which I didn't actually have a pack of mustard in my sandwich. This is kind of a big change. I have never known that I would like the yellow mustard. I thought it was so gross because of the color. OK...I confess, it is because of the color I had never had that. :P 

       In China, it is not common to find the mustard, cheese, butter, or something you think it is very normal. So I am just getting to like butter on the bread, butter and salt on the corn, melted cheese, or a slice of just cheese. I can't believe that I did eat them! AND how could I miss them?! That's ridiculous! Now what I need to deal with is how I can get those stuff when I go back to China. I am pretty sure there are some in some stores, but not sure where. We will see. I will definitely post them when I find some while I am in my own country. :) 

       Actually I haven't started my Health Assessment that I brought. Shame on me. Even though I really want to move into the dorms and explore a new life experience, I am not too excited for being all-nighter. 

       Tomorrow we will have dinner at a nice place. Gosh, I forget the name again!!!!! It is so me. Today I finally remember the Italian icecream store, Alotta, after people talk about this again, again, and again. Their iceream is so darn good!!
(Picture on the left is the Alotta store. Looks yummy, doesn't it? :P)

       Gonna finish Life of Pi before I leave for Illinois and get the nursing stuff started, hope so. :P
       Learned to how to play chess at the Javalina coffee shop after hiking with Eric and Dr. Murphy. It was fun. It is kind of like Chinese chess too. I think everything in this world is some sort of similar everywhere. The rule how to play Chinese chess is kind of similar to American chess. Dumplings from China, Germany, or whoever has dumplings, are similar. It just tastes differently. Ha :P But the concepts are pretty close.. 

       Actually I stopped for Eric's popcorn and Psych so I don't really know what I was going to write and what was in my mind. I will dig it out sometime. 

       Good night people. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

       

how I spent the so-called end of the world

       It was a relaxing and luxurious day today. Actually it has been like this since I came to this town.
       First of all, the weather was pretty nice in this winter time--50F. I walked down the street and passed by the Silver City Museum. Then I turned back and walked in. The building is very cute so that you can't really just pass by. The lady was so nice and explained everything to me, even though I was just thinking to walk around by myself at that time. :P Actually, everybody is very nice in this little town.
      After this, I kept walking down the street. Arrived all kind of antique shops. The owner of the first antique shop is an Indian American. How did I know? Just like you know right away which continent I am from when you see me. :P Seem like it is redundant too explain. I have to say sorry though because I was scared when I saw the owner. I guess he was the first Indian American I saw. Not stereotype.
      Then I walked around the other antique shops. The first time I went to the antique shops was two years ago. I was very excited and amazed how expensive and how cheap things could be. There are not many antique shops in Shenzhen where I am from. Everything is NEW, NEW, NEW. They can tear down one building and build another one in one month. Crazy.
      Done with antique shopping, I went to the coffee shop called JavaLina Coffee House. I guess it is the biggest coffee shop in town. When I walked into the shop, I was surprised that there were many young people inside and they watched me like I was an alien...Well, I am though. "Alien" can be described as "foreigner", I suppose? Anyway, I got my caramel latte and sat with my book. It was a lovely time. Life of Pi made me giggle a lot. Like the expressions.
     Later on, before all the shops close or the town kind of shut down, I left the coffee shop reluctantly. BUT! I had a great time walking around the galleries and shops! They kept me busy looking. It was my second time to walk into some shops. I guess they owners will recognize me when I walk in the third time..."that not buying but looking at everything Asian girl." :P
     About 5p.m., twilight fell. Walked back home in 5 minutes. Yes, it is THAT convenient! Sounds like an awesome day, doesn't it? Come and spend time here! :)
     Never be tired of walking around here because you can always find something new and delight your day. (Woahaha...should I be Silver City commercial lady?) They should think about it. :P

Wonderful wonderful--New Mexico

Aloha people!
OK...The title of this post is about New Mexico, but I just love using "aloha" to say hi. Why not? :)
Currently, I am in this artistic place, Silver City, New Mexico, visiting my friends, Eric and JoAnne, who just moved to this town this summer.

This is the back of the downtown of Silver City. Tour from yesterday. I have never thought that I would live in the downtown of anywhere in this country. Downtown for me means busier people and more things to do (maybe IT IS what downtown means.:P)

This was from the second day of my trip here. Hiking on the Dragon Trail. How nice it is to hike around where you live! Oh my goodness!(-->wo de ma ya, "oh my goodness" in Chinese.) People probably will think it should be very warm in New Mexico. So did I. It was about 40F that day. It snows somedays, but it is sunny for the most of the time. The snow melts when it hits the ground. I saw some snow outside when I got up in the morning, but they melted about noon.

                

Eric and I found petroglyph on the Dragon Trail. When I saw the post, I was scared of anybody would come out and use the spear and shoot me. Blame on the cartoon.  :P

                 

This is the downtown of Silver City. From the picture, you can't really see the town. However, this is most wonderful town I have ever been! It is so artistic and so friendly. The road is not just flat. It goes up and down. Can't have a good picture of the road yet. :( I walked around the downtown yesterday. It was just about half hour and I fell in love with it! You can turn at one corner then you will find some cute galleries or shops. Eric and Jo told me about the coffee shops. I did see a few lovely coffee shops around, even at the corner. :) It is just a veeeeeeeerrry lovely town. So many hidden treasure. :) Just like you will run into some good stuff when you just randomly wander around.

Yesterday Eric, Jo, and I went to two stores to buy Christmas tree. People here cut their own trees so there is nothing left in the stores. Then Eric and I went to the Gila National Forest Ranger Station to buy a permit to cut a Christmas tree. How exciting! I have never cut a tree before...of course not  Christmas tree either.  It just sounded very fun. So today Eric and I went to the C Bar Ranch Road to find a tree. Surely, Eric did most of the work. I was responsible for taking pictures. :P My first time to smell Christmas!!! :)

Last picture of this post, it is a typical New Mexico view. JUST VERY COOL AND DIFFERENT from other places. 

Plus, my friends Eric and JoAnne are just the people to make this town more wonderful! So thankful that they are willing to host me for THREE 3 WEEKS!! Sounds like a long time, but it has been going by so fast! It is already almost Thursday! They always make good food. That's why I say they know how to eat. :) And we have good talks. They are just sooooooooooooo sweet, nice, and thoughtful!! You can't ask for more because you already have the most wonderful companies! 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU TAHNK YOU...n+1 times! Even though you don't like math, it means same thing as thank you for millions or billions times. :)

Close to say goodbye to 2012

December 1, 2012
Had too much surgary treat today so my brain is very slow right now...don't know how they are relative to each other, but seems like sugary stuff has so much power to get people fat and slow...

After Thanksgiving break, I feel 2012 is getting closer and closer.
So during Thanksgiving break, I had hotpot with my Chinese friends and one American...Why that American (Ryan) is so special? Because he is the host's boyfriend...It is reasonable that he was there...
Our stomachs almost exploded!!!!! We kept eating for hours...
Here is a picture about the material and how it was before we ate.

                                               

So the balls are meat balls.. the organish ones are fish balls..the white ones are pork balls..the dark ones are beef balls...the dark pink ones are shrimp balls...beef flavor is my favorite.. :) The meat in the container is beef..the white stuff you see is tofu...the seafood on the right is shrimp...and also we had mushrooms, cabbage, bok choy...so on.

Actually these are just part of material that we will put in that pot when we are in China...It is just different when you do anything in the foreign country...I think...but they are still very very very good!!

Other than this hotpot, I had three Thanksgiving meals...AND I GAINED FOUR POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!

That's scary...I had six Thanksgiving meals this year..all happened in one month. I didn't have any turkey before I came to this country...so I guess I am trying to catch up and make up my turkey-missing-years.

So what is above is my third Thansgiving.....food part.

the other part? SHOPPING!! It was not crazy...but tiring. Longest shopping time I've ever had in this country...I went to shop with two Chinese girls and Ryan (again). Ryan was there for his girlfriend..He didn't shop at all but driving the car for us. So nice! We stayed up all night shopping on Black Friday. It was people everywhere. Christmas music was on since 3 or 4 a.m. It was not that crazy as I thought...It is just like normal weekend at the shopping center in Shenzhen where I am from in China.

I spent some time with my American sister Tess on the break. It was so nice and awesome. It was just like the old time...SO GOOD!! She is such a sweet girl.

Really...I can't imagine how my life would be without my first host family. Last night was monthly international student night at my American parents' house...A Chinese boy was a little bit impressed by my English, even though mine is not good enough to impress a lot of people. It is all because of my American family. My American mom corrected papers, grammar, and oral English for me. I have spoken the most English in my whole life during last two years with my American family. Although there are still many grammar probems of my posts, it is still an encouraging thing for me to do. I bet I would never write anything long like this post in English before I came to this country and actually learned something. I think what I learned most is to be confident with speak another language.

I am just so so so thankful that I stayed with them, truly, truly. LOVE THEM!!

This semester is really getting close to the end. I am going to New Mexico to visit my friends JoAnne and her husband Eric after finals for Christmas and New Year. They will be my first Christmas and New Year in this country. SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :))) The warm place makes me more excited! :P

Here is a sugary picture for starting this month. Wish a sweet and nice month for everybody!!! :D

Maybe next post will be in New Mexico! Adios!:))))))))))