Hello again!

This letter is to let everyone know that I'm finally home from one of the shadiest adventures of my life. This vacation was crazy, absurd, and ridiculously shady. But hands down the best vacation I've ever had. Where to begin, where to begin......

Okay, so there was that executive chef, One Loose Shoe, I have no idea how to really say his name, but that sounds close enough, that invited us to his restaurant for dinner. Saturday we call his assistant Sunny, and arrange a time for us to come and eat, for free. We dress up, supposedly this place is super fancy. We take a taxi to get there, which in and of itself was quite the adventure. The taxi driver, which was actually just a guy with a bike and a wagon, took us to the wrong place, some other man yelled at him and we had to load back up and try again. We finally get to the right place, and all the workers are in formals. Good thing we dressed up. We start talking to people, no one speaks English, and no one has heard of us. No one can find Sunny or One Loose Shoe. They take us up to the restaurant anyway and lead us into this private room. The table was beautiful, there was this huge tv, and huge couches. We were extremly confused. Finally we find Sunny and establish we can eat at this 5 star restaurant for free. So we're eating, some things good, others disgusting. We finish eating and Sunny and our waitress tells us they want to take us clubbing. We agree, it sounds like a good time. So we wait for them to change and they come out and bring the su chef, who is quite the stud, and of course I tell him this in Chinese. They take us to this bar and buy us all this stuff. They were really bummed we didn't drink alcohol. But we loved the smoothies! So we stay at this bar for a while, and then they decide they want to take us clubbing. We still have no idea where One Loose Shoe is.

We leave the bar and attempt to find a taxi, which I have discovered is the most difficult thing in the world to do. And there are 10 of us so we need a few taxis. We finally get one and they take us to Club Salsa, which they all prononuce as Sarsa and it's hilarious. We get there and they take us to this VIP room and there's even more food and karaoke, Chinese love karaoke. Still no sight of One Loose Shoe, who we have now dubbed Daddy Warbucks, our wealthy emotionally detached father. We go out to the dance floor and the Chinese people LOVE to just be near us and to touch us. Everything we do, they imitate. Somehow I lost my friends and was surrounded by a million chinese kids with their eyes glued to me. I start doing ridiculous dance moves and they all follow me! All the boys tell me how beautiful I am and pay me a million compliments. Some of them try to talk to me in Chinese, but I have no idea whats going on. But they love me and it's great.

We go back to the VIP room and Daddy Warbucks has finally showed up. He's so stoked to see us, and all these people keep coming in the room just to look at us. So we do karaokee and hang out and finally decide it's time to go home. Daddy Warbucks begs us to come back tomorrow and to go to his other restaurant. We can't figure out for the life of us why this man loves us so much. Why he would go to such lengths for complete and total strangers, people he randomly met at the airport. We can't even remember why he started talking to us in the first place. It seems kinda shady to me.

So we go back the next day and it's all the same. I really can't figure out why this man spent so much money on us. It's the most ridiculous thing. We didn't even see him yesterday. They were really mad that we left early, but we were tired and had an early flight to catch the next morning. But it was more food and more clubbing. They taught us this ridiculous drinking game, about a pretty girl and a bad man and a cop. It was really lost in translation. And it was just dumb, drinking games aren't nearly as funny when you only have a coke. The Chinese people all loved it.

The whole situation was just so bizarre.Why did this man love us so much? I think they thought we were someone famous or something. Not 7 random girls from Utah. I don't know. So many miscommunications. We kept asking why he did all this stuff for us, but we never got an answer. It was really shady. But, free meals are free meals! I'll take them where I can get them! Oh man. Emailing this story doesn't even do it justice. It's still just so surreal.

On Sunday we went to Church which was amazing. It was the smallest branch. 21 people. 7 were us. But it was great. I'm really glad we went to church. It was such a great expereince.

One of the lady's in the branch ran a foster home so she took us there to play with the babies. I'm so in love with them. I found the one I wanted, Nick. He was adorable. 8 months and 25 pounds. I love his little chubby body! I could not put him down to go home. I love him. I'm so glad we got to play with the babies. The foster home was really nice, I was surprised. There was so many babies though. One of them had a seizure while Janae was holding him, it was so scary. He turned blue and I thought he was going to die. He wasn't responding to anything. Luckily he pulled through.

The bus ride home from the airport today was ridiculously shady! These random guys came up to us and said they would take us home for 600 yuan, it's a 2 hour drive. We bargained and bargained until we settled on 420, this was a very tedious process. So these guys just seemed really shady off the bat because they were taking us in some "mini bus" and their price kept changing. They spoke very limited english. Reluctantly we got on their bus which was a mini van, and this other guy we'd never seen starts driving. After about 15 minutes, he pulls over on the side of the road next to some other van with 3 other guys we'd never seen. Things got shady fast. This other van then pulls over next to us and our driver gets out and starts talking to them. We decide as a group to lock the doors and not get out of the car. The driver comes over and he's kinda mad we lock our doors, for some reason someone lets him in, and he tells us to get out of the car. Again, for some reason I'm not sure why, we all get out of the car. The driver tells us to get in the other one, but we say we'll only do it if he comes with us. He tells us he will, which was a total lie seeing how he had left his car running on the side of the road. Somehow we end up in the car with some man we'd never seen and didn't speak any English. We have no idea where he's taking us. Our address does not seem familiar to him. This is all too shady for me. We're driving and then he pulls over too! We have no idea whats going on! He gets out, and I suggest we say a prayer. Things were really scary and really shady. It sounds really funny and dumb now, but at the time, we were pretty scared for our lives. So I said a group prayer asking that we make it home safe and not be killed. The girls made fun of my prayer, I guess I worded it boneheadly, but in my denfense, I've never had to say a prayer before begging not to be killed. But we did make it home and everyone was okay!

Moral of this story. Think things through. I put myself in many a boneheaded situation this week that could have ended very poorly. The movie Taken was flashing through my mind the whole time, as well as the other girls. Ha ha ha. This whole thing just sounds so ridiculous and I love it. Perhaps I can do this story better justice once I am home. I love you all and I will try harder to be a little more safe!

Hello friends and family!

Lets start by saying I love you all and miss you all quite terribly! We took a trip to Xi'an this week, I wish I had pictures to show right now, but I'm just using a shady computer right now, no pictures. Xi'an is beautiful and crowded! It's a complete mix of old China and new.

We're staying in a hostel, my first, and I'm in love. While it reeks of pot, I still love it. Our beds are so comfy and I don't feel completely disgusted using them like our apartment, there are western toilets, and legitimate showers that produce hot water. Thats sad when you're hostel beats your home. I don't ever want to leave. I'm considering moving in.

Our trip to get to Xi'an was long and very adventerous! We used just about every mode of transportation to get here. We started with a jaunt on motor bikes to get to the bus station. A two hour bus ride, and while on the bus it started raining and the bus leaked. Poor Julia was drenched. Finally a chinese woman hung her umbrella up to catch the rain. It was the most ridiculous thing. Then we took a taxi, we weren't sure where we were going and prayed it would get us to the airport. At the airport there was more confusion. But we got on a plane. Two hours later we were back on a bus, and finally at our hostel. Quite the traveling day.

When we were at the airport we ate at Starbucks. That was the best ceaser salad wrap I've ever had. We also met a couple from Chicago who had just adopted a baby. It was way nice to speak English again. It feels like we've been here months, not a week. I can't belive it's only been a week. America seems so long far away, well, technically it is. Ha ha, right now there's Justin Timberlake playing in the background, maybe it's not as far away as I thought.

Also at the airport we met this man who was an executive chef at some restuarant in Xi'an. He was very adament we come to his restaurant while we're here to get a free meal. He found every person he could to translate for us. He was in love with April and did not want her to get on the plane. He had her talk to his assistant who spoke English to set up an arrangment. Supposedly we're getting our free meal today. We shall see!

Xi'an is amazing. It's such an exciting place! We took a tour yesterday and saw such amazing things! I need a new word other than amazing. Hmm.. We saw the Terrocota soldiers, they were spectacular! We also went to the Banpo musuem. I'd never heard of that, but it was cool. It was ruins of their ancient homesteads and apparently they were terrified of tigers back then. We saw how they made silk, and got to help a bit. Not much though. Our tour guide, Urma, who hated us, dropped us off at this fancy restaurant and we had no idea what was going on. They just kept bringing us food and we had no idea what was going on. Half of it wasn't that great, but it ended up costing us 300 yuan. Not really that much in American, but a lot for China. Our tour guide seemed very annoyed with us throughout the day, but she did tell us we were like a picnic "always laughing and singing". I don't know what kinda picnics she goes on, but I'll accept that as a compliment!

Last night we also went to a dance performance! It was so beautiful! It was set in the Tang Dynasty and included dances and music from that time period. The costumes and setting were gorgeous, and the overall expereicne was great. Getting there and getting home, more adventures. By this time it was POURING! And we had to take a bus. We waited 20 minutes in the pouring rain for a bus that never came. We then waited 10 minutes for a taxi that never came. We then walked back to the hostel and waited for a driver which took another 5 minutes, in the pouring rain. We finally got to our show, late, but it was all okay. When the show was over, it was still raining. We needed to catch a taxi. We stood in the pouring rain for another 20 minutes trying to catch a taxi. I waved down every car I saw. Finally I told the girls whatever car stopped, we'd get in. I said this somewhat jokingly, but finally a car stopped, and we got in. I'm not sure he really was a taxi. He only had one seat in the back. So most of the girls had to stand in the back of his car. I rode shot gun! This man had no idea where we were going and it was just crazy. Luckily we made it home. I was somewhat concerned at first, but I told the man I loved China and he took good care of us!

That is another thing I've learned to say in Chinese. I love China. The people love it when I say that. I think they're more just laughing at how boneheaded I am. I say it wish so much enthusiasm and I love it. Urma told me I was confusing the children when I said it. But I say it to everyone and they instantly become my friend!

Well the girls are ready for breakfast! I must be going! I love you all!

Cam