vietnam cont'd

my goodness.  it has been a while.  last time i posted was when i was in vietnam and that was about a month and a half ago.  i think i was dreading going through all my pictures and writing up a post about them, but i decided i needed to get some details written down before i forget them.  this has the potential to be the longest post ever. 

we had some fun excursions planned for our second weekend in vietnam.  on saturday, a group of us traveled into ho chi mihn city for a cooking class/shopping trip.  we met the chef at the market and picked out all of the fresh meat and veggies and then headed to a nice restaurant to cook our lunch.  our cooking class was really fun and we made seafood fried spring rolls, banana leaf salad, and pho (pronounce "fuh?").  we had a great time and while i am a bit of a picky eater and didn't like the idea of baby squid, octopus, and shrimp mush in my spring rolls, i ate them all and admitted that they were indeed good.  that afternoon was spent shopping and we had a fabulous time.  one of the ladies in our group read the lonely planet book and found some small shops that used all the proceeds to help battered and abused vietnamese women help get back on their feet and support their families.  i bought some awesome souvenirs from them including a hand stitched baby quilt for my future (not near future) baby girls room.  we also headed back to the market and shopped until we couldn't carry anything else.

 on sunday a group of us took the longest bus drive ever to the cao dai temple.  cao dai is a religion that integrates teachings from taoism, buddhism, and confucianism, with a little bit of christianity and islam.  there are about 3 million followers, all in southern vietnam, and they hold services 4 times a day (6am, 12pm, 6pm, and 12 am) every single day.  the service was very interesting and we were able to watch it all from the balconies above.  the temple was part pagoda, part cathedral, and part mosque and used beautiful colors, textures, and symbols to show the integration of the different types of religions.  we watched as rows and rows of men and women (young and old) came in dressed in white robes and barefoot, knelt down together before the alter, and spent about an hour praying.  there was a group of children that sang from the upper balcony with a few musicians (playing who knows what instruments) and a gong that would ring every few minutes.  it was so interesting to watch these people worship and really was a beautiful service.

i would say one of the funnest days we had was the 4th of july.  of course, they don't celebrate our national holiday in vietnam and we were all a little bummed that we wouldn't be getting our patriotic parades, bbqs, and fireworks.  but our vietnamese friends wanted to celebrate with us the best way they knew how.  we all wore our red, white, and blue.  our cook made us the most "american" meal she could- our fruit fries (yummers!) and beef that she said is as similar to hamburger or steak that she could get.  we also all drank our ice cold coca-cola light.  and that night, we went karaoke-ing with our students.  let me just tell you- those vietnamese people sure love their karaoke.  there are karaoke bars all over the place with about 20 rooms at each place.  they brought in a bunch of food and drinks and we had the best time ever.  we would switch off singing songs in english and in vietnamese.  some of us even tried a few vietnamese songs and totally butchered them.  we taught them some classic american songs (old mcdonald, yankee doodle) and they taught us some of their own songs.  we danced and sang our hearts out for about 4 hours and loved every single minute of it.  it was the best way that i could ever think of celebrating the 4th of july while on the other side of the world.

like i mentioned before, we ate some really good food and then some food that was a bit questionable.  the cook at the school we worked at had a team of cooks that would get to work early every morning to start preparing the meals for the day.  if you walked past the kitchen in the morning, you'd usually see them out cutting meat, preparing vegetables, and doing dishes to prepare for lunch and dinner.  while i was a little hesitant to eat some of the food that was prepared for us, i always made sure to at least try it once.  i would have to say though, at the end of the trip i didn't want to eat another bowl of rice for a very long time.

these are just a few pictures that show how the vietnamese people travel on their motorbikes.  honestly, their transportation was the craziest thing to see and i am still amazed at how many people/how much stuff they can pack on to a small 250cc scooter.  no pictures will ever truly show how chaotic their streets were with people going here, there, and every which-way.  ps- notice their power lines- talk about an electrical fire waiting to happen.  can you see now why it was necessary for us to use surge protectors with all of our computers and electronics?!

here are a few pictures of our audiology students.  we had about 17 students in our group ranging from ent doctors, nurses, hearing aid dispensers, nuns, and people who were interested in learning more about audiology.  having such  wide range of experience was a little difficult, but they did a great job teaching each other and were so willing to learn.  they showed up early every day and half the time didn't want to leave when lectures were over.  the first 2 weeks of the month long program (the only full 2 weeks that i was there) were spent teaching them about testing children, equipment, calibrations, etc.  the last 2 weeks (which i sadly wasn't there for) was when parents brought children and our students would test them and fit them with hearing aids.  they fit about 30 hearing aids!  i seriously loved our group and loved how strong their desire was to learn.  it made me realize how grateful i am for the education i have been given and i am so blessed that i have had the opportunity to share with them everything that i know (in a very condensed form, haha).

when planning for this trip, i was told that i would mostly just help out with the other audiologists and professionals and be more of an assistant than anything else.  while i was there, i ended up teaching many of the group settings (with the help of an interpreter) and i loved it! we also were able to bring about $5000 worth of audiology supplies and toys that we were able to give to each of the 100+ teachers and parents that came to the program.  it was awesome to see how grateful they were for every little thing that they were given that would help them provide better services to the children with hearing loss that they work with.

one day we took a break from lectures and went on a "field trip".  we traveled back into ho chi mihn city and toured their 'pediatric one' children's hospital and their ent hospital.  it was eye opening to see what kind of facilities some of our students worked in and it was amazing to see what kind of support the hospital administrators had for us and for our programs.  they are desperately trying to get as much training for their staff as they can and wanted to see what more we could do to help them help the people they provide services for.  i couldn't even believe what i saw at the pediatric hospital- there were parents and children everywhere!  they said the see an average of 6000 children a day which is absolutely mind blowing.  even though our medical system here in the u.s. isn't perfect, i honestly can say that i am so grateful for the facilities that we do have access to that are within just a few miles of where we live.  some of the people we saw had driven for days on their scooters to get their children help and had to wait for hours and hours to even be seen by a doctor.  

 here are some pictures of our students (teachers of the deaf from all over southern vietnam) on the last day of class for them.  this is the group of teachers that came last year and were back this year for more training. when this group left, another group of about 40 came to start their training.  these students were so fun and so excited to take what they had learned back to their schools.  they gave us such sweet gifts to thank us for coming and teaching them, sang us songs, and gave the sweetest farewell speeches.

 i got to work with the greatest group of people ever.  the audiologists that i worked with each day were so fun and knowledgeable and even i learned a ton from them.  the other audiology grad students (ada from hong kong and christi from dallas) were so fun to be around, too.  the other professionals (speech language pathologists and deaf education teachers from around the country) were so awesome too- i was truly in the presence of some of the most amazing professionals that are in my field and i felt so lucky that i was able to rub shoulders with them and learn from them.

 and this is what it really is all about- the children.  these children deserve to have access to listening and spoken language as much as any other children anywhere else in the world.  i think the global foundation for children with hearing loss is an amazing organization because it teaches the people in vietnam the tools that they need to provide quality services to their own people.  it is one thing to go to other countries and do the work for them, but it is a whole different thing to teach those who want to learn how to do it themselves.  the smiles on the children's faces and the light in their parents eyes made this entire trip worth it.  i hope to be able to head back next year!

and if you haven't had enough, you can check out these links:

ksl news article

global foundation for children with hearing loss blog
helen woolard photography (one of the students that came with us is an amazing photographer and writer!)

i'll post about korea later

a little piece of home

i hate to say it but i'm a bit of a picky eater

but i've decided to buck up during my stay here in 'nam and step out of my food comfort zone

some things i've eaten:

squid (with tentacles) stuffed with a meat of some sort

frog legs

octopus

bamboo

baby squid

shrimp mush

pigeon (yeah... we thought it was chicken.  little did we know)

morning glory

clovers

clams

catfish

some of these meals were good. some not so much.

let's just say i've eaten a ton of rice and soy sauce to fill up.

but the other day for breakfast i just couldn't do it

i wanted food my tummy was used to

so i busted out the instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal...

and the chopsticks... because apparently our hotel doesn't believe in spoons

even though it took forever to eat, it was absolutely amazing and i savored every bite

vietnam- sensory overload

well kids, after 3 airplanes, 29 hours of travel, a mad dash through the seoul, korea airport to make our flight, and cab driver that didn't know where our hotel was, we finally made it to vietnam and are all settled in.  we spent the first two days (sat and sun) sight seeing and getting a feel for the vietnamese lifestyle and culture and have spent the rest of the time here working at the school (more on that a bit later). 

our first day was a tour of ho chi mihn city.  

first thing to mention- the traffic.  from what we can tell, the only law governing movement of vehicles is  "he who honks loudest has the right of way".  i think we all expected to see deadly crashes left and right (we actually did see one fatality), yet somehow traffic flowed at a reasonable pace in all directions... simultaneously.  lucky for us, we were in a van which gave us a clear advantage over the thousands of two-wheeled competitors.  oh my goodness- bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles were everywhere.  like cockroaches.  they swarmed and scattered through the streets and allyways.  and, like the determined insect to which i compare them, they can carry a load exponentially greater than their own mass.  i saw entire families piled on to one tiny moped (babies in arms), stacks of big boxes, large glass window panes, 100 lb bags of grains and who knows what else, and even a small refrigerator.  you name it, we saw it on the back of a bike that day.

stops on the tour included the reunification palace (formerly the south vietnamese vietnamese palace), the war remnants museum (very sad place), a pottery factory, a taoist temple, a roman catholic cathedral, and a massive wholesale market.  during one part of our tour, we rode rick-shaws (?) - which are a bicycle with a seat in the front- through the crazy, never ending street markets.  i entrusted a total stranger with life and survived to tell my adrenaline-charged tale of a hundred near misses and only some minor collisions with other rick-shaws.  

we got out and walked the massive wholesale market.  i have never seen so many people and so much stuff crammed so closely together.  the walkways were single file and i learned that pushing is not rude, it's expected.  they had all sorts of dehydrated fish, meats, herbs, and vegetables.  i suddenly felt homesick for FDA regulations.  i won't even try to describe the broad range of aromas that assaulted my olfactory senses.  i fear that attempting to do so might trigger my gag reflex.  but if you let your imagination run wild, you'd probably be close.  like i said, it was total sensory overload.

the next day we did a tour to the cu chi tunnels.

the cu chi tunnels are a network of connecting underground tunnels that were the location of several military campaigns during the vietnam war and were the viet cong's base of operations.  the tunnels were used by the viet cong guerillas as hiding spots during combat and the tunnels spanned over 200 km of area- all the way to the cambodian border.  the tunnel systems served as communication and supply routes, and were used as hospitals, living quarters, and food/weapon stations for the guerrilla fighters.  we saw the booby traps and weapons that they used to fight the US soldiers.  many were barbaric so i decided not to post those pictures.  visitors to the tunnels can actually pay to shoot m16 rifles or ak-47s or machine guns like the m60.  it was a bit un-nerving to be walking around the tunnel systems listening to guns firing off in the background.  we actually got the chance to crawl through a portion of the tunnels and it definitely made me feel for the cu chi people who lived in those tunnels for years with very little access to food, water, and air.  

we also saw how rice paper is made, learned how they used old tires to make shoes, and ate a typical meal from that time- lotus tea and cooked tapioca which tasted a lot like a potato.

and yes, it is blasted hot and humid here.

 after the tour we enjoyed an amazing meal and a cute little restaurant right on a little river and then survived a torrential rainstorm as we jetted back to our van and made a trip to the local market for some ritz crackers, water, and coco-cola lite.

run, drive, sleep?, repeat

ragnar 2011... i survived and it was awesome!

19 grueling miles

6 girls packed in a suburban

no showers

3 hours of sleep in about 40 hours

way too many bagels and not enough protein

lots and lots of powerade

freezing cold temps in logan and super hot temps in eden

all added up together equals one of the best and most exhausting weekends i've ever had

yes it was hard

yes i should have trained a little more

especially running up hills.... really really long hills

and yes, my entire body ached for a few days

but yes... i'm already committed to running it again next year!

my team was so fun (i feel bad we didn't get to see van 2 very often)

it was awesome getting to know each of the girls better

i loved running for a cause

and i really enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

if any of you are thinking about running ragnar in the future... do it.  you'll love it (once it's over)

our awesome team raised just about $5000 for the american cancer society!

my love = 3.5 years cancer free 

i also ran for cortney wiles, my friend lindsey's beautiful MIL who is currently fighting the cancer fight

nicole meier, my friend megan's young cousin who passed away from leukemia

and gene hillis, josh's grandma's husband who also lost the battle with cancer

it was awesome to run on behalf of loved ones and i was proud to wear their names on my shirt

this video is awesome.  check it out.

"48 hours ago i was a ragnar virgin... i fully intend on becoming a ragnar hussy"

no backing out now

i'm headed to logan tomorrow so we can start our ragnar race bright and early friday morning.

by early, i literally mean 3:45 am.  yikes.

i've got all sorts of emotions going on... i always psych myself out before a race

i never think i'm fast enough or strong enough or prepared enough
and i really don't know if my knees can handle running the hills

i found out yesterday that other people who run ragnar keep track of how many "kills" they get.  

a "kill" is every time they pass someone.  i hope i'm not that someone too often.

but at this point, there's nothing more i can do

other than get a good night's sleep, drink a lot of water, and say a prayer that my shoes don't give me blisters.

but i'm definitely excited.

i'm running with a great team and for a great cause.

many of my fabulous family and friends have donated to the acs

i'm going to make some new friends 

and rekindle friendships from high school

the weather is supposed to be nice and cool and maybe even a little rainy

i'm going to push myself to run further than i ever have

19 miles total to be exact

i've got some great new tunes that include the new adele and lady gaga cds

and i was able to find new headphones tonight that i've been looking for for the past 6 months.

it was meant to be.  

we'll be sure to take lots of pictures so i can do a post dedicated solely to the run so i can show you just how awesome team "running for birthdays" is.  

we're still fundraising to raise the last little bit to reach our goal.  

if you'd like to donate, you can go here.

thanks for all your support... see you at the finish line!

april showers and may flowers

it has been a busy past few weeks... and very little of it has been documented with pictures.  but i will do my best to fill you in.

slc 1/2 marathon

the little sis and i ran the slc 1/2 together.  it was actually a fun and relatively easy route and was really nice once we warmed up and dried off (stupid rain).  we started off doing really well- we were much faster than anyone expected (ourselves included).  in fact, our cheering fans (aka: family members) almost missed seeing us along the route because we were about 15 minutes ahead of schedule.  sadly, around mile 10 i started getting some gnarly blistery pains in my foot and (gasp!) had to stop to walk.  i was really bummed because we were doing so well but my feet just couldn't handle the pressure and pavement like they normally do.  lesson learned- don't get new running shoes 2 weeks before a race.  and if you must, at least stick with the same brand as your previous pair.  i learned the hard way.  despite walking on and off for about 2 miles, we finished up at 2 hours 12 minutes.  i was so proud of my little sis and am sad that i'm the one who ruined our killer time.  but- we've already got our sights set on our next 1/2 and a goal of less than 2 hours.    

i love that chana girl works all the events selling cute workout clothing... we love seeing her!

balloon animals aplenty

as a fundraiser for our upcoming trip to vietnam, a few of my classmates and i had a balloon animal making/face painting booth at baby animal days. we were taught a few basic balloon animals but never in my life did i think i'd have to create a turtle or rabbit on the spot by request for some kiddos- i told most of them to use their creativity.  now i can add balloon animal creations to my list of random talents.

easter 2011

we decided to spend easter in logan this year.  we kept it super low key- no egg dying, no easter baskets, no easter egg hunt.  i've decided most holidays are only going to be fun when we have some kiddos.  since it was our last holiday in logan, we went to hamiltons steakhouse for their yearly easter brunch.  we decided that even though it was a bit pricey, we'd make up for it by eating our weight in the endless king crab legs and mini creme brulees.  josh was so excited about the crab legs.  it was an amazing meal and i think we both passed out for about 4 hours afterward.  

3 year anniversary

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."

- Dr Seuss

we were in slc the weekend of our 3 year anniversary and i hadn't put much thought into what we would do to celebrate.  luckily my sweet hubby decided to do something a little out of the ordinary and planned everything himself.  he surprised me by taking me to the gateway to go shopping, a delicious dinner at tucanos, a room at the anniversary inn complete with rose petals everywhere, flowers, and chocolates, my favorite chick flick (while you were sleeping) and a full body massage the next morning.  it was a much needed mini-getaway and i loved that he put thought and effort into making it special.  i sure got myself a good one and am looking forward to what this next year has in store for us :)

last week of school

i finished up my last few classes and turned in my keys- what an amazing feeling!  during my last final, i couldn't wipe the grin off my face... sometimes i thought the day would never come!  at our end of the year awards ceremony i was given the student of the year "golden otoscope award".  it was nice to be recognized for all my hard work, but i was especially grateful to receive my very own beautiful otoscope :)  i was also excited that i achieved a big goal of mine-to get a 4.0 in all of grad school.  so glad all that stress and anxiety is off my shoulders now! 

moving day

finals week was spent packing up our townhome and getting everything ready for the big move to slc.  it was a bit sad getting everything boxed up- logan is where we've lived the whole time we've been married and a lot of our dating life took place in logan.  we've also only lived in one place the whole time we've been married and i didn't realize how much stuff we had accumulated over the last 3 years even after 5 trips to the d.i.  we were lucky enough to have our amazing families come up to help us load up the truck (and 3 suv's and 1 car... and we just barely made it all fit), play an amazing round of furniture/box tetris, and get our place all cleaned.  then half of our possessions went into storage at my grandmas house and half of it went to our new home (aka my parents' basement).  we are grateful that they have let us stay in their basement apartment so we could get our job situations figured out, get a little more $ in the savings account, and find the perfect house for us to set down our roots.  we already miss our good friends in logan terribly but we are excited to go up and visit them often!

birthday #26

i honestly don't feel that i could be 26, but i guess there's not much i can do about it.  i feel like i should still be 19, living a selfish and foolish life of boys and shopping and roommates, and having very few cares and stresses. but i'm a married woman with a career ahead of me and a hubby and a dog to take care of and very little desire to blow all my hard earned money on clothes and jewelry.  so, while i don't feel old enough to be 26, i'm excited to embrace it with open arms.  i think it's going to be a great year and i'm looking forward to some big life changes that will *hopefully* be taking place soon.  my birthday was extended out for a few days and that's just the way i think it should be.  i was able to do a fabulous dinner with my old roommates at porcupine, lunch with my co-workers and zupas (yum) dinner with my family at morelias, we went and saw water for elephants and were the only people in the whole theater, we did dinner with my murray friends at sugar house bbq, and dinner with our logan friends at iron gate grill.  i was also spoiled by my family with flowers, clothes, money, shoes, giftcards, my favorite white cake with cream cheese and raspberry topping cake, and my grandma made me my favorite banana cream pie.  needless to say, my diet/workout plan started the following monday. 

it has been a busy past few months and we are excited to slow down a bit and spend some time together in the warm weather this summer (assuming this rain quits sometime soon).  we've enjoyed being around our families more, it's great to see more of our murray friends, i've started up another bootcamp class with my parents and sis, and am still training for some races this summer.  i was already called to be assistant camp director in my new ward and i'm looking forward to our upcoming girls camp!  i've really enjoyed work so far and realize that i still have a lot to learn and am so excited to do so.  i've also been amazed at how much time is in the day when you only work an 8-5 job and after having the last few saturdays off work, i realize i never want to work another saturday again!
xoxo,
liz

love in the air

i have so much to blog about and now that school is over (yahoo!) i hope to get caught up before work starts on monday.  so... rewind back to february and march for some lovely weddings...

february 17th, my little sister laura married her sweetheart, zac.  we all really like zac and are so glad that they found each other.  their wedding was beautiful!  a beautiful sealing at the slc temple, beautiful weather outside the temple (freeeeeezing, but beautiful none-the-less), and their wedding dinner at la caille was perfect as well.  highlights of the night included some a-ma-zing food, all you can eat creme brulee, a photobooth with some fabulous props, a dad who doesn't know how to light a sparker, and some beautiful flowers (bouquet, boutonnieres, corsages, etc) made by yours truly :)

one thing i really like about zac is his awesome family.  half his family and half of ours traveled together to disneyland where laura and zac got engaged and had a fabulous time.... plus, his little sister, megan, and i worked together at the restaurant and i adore her.  i also think his other sisters are amazing, his brother is hilarious, and his parents are super nice.  i honestly felt like i gained a whole new set of in-laws when these two kiddos got married.

laura's wedding video was beautiful, too.  we saw the full video just the other day, but her videographer was able to do a same day edit "trailer" that was shown that night at the wedding dinner.  i think this link will work... you should definitely check it out.  beautiful.

http://www.vimeo.com/20084111

in march, we traveled to beautiful san diego to see josh's brother spencer and blakely get married in the san diego temple.  it was a fun wedding especially since there were so many family and friends that were able to attend.  we were expecting warm weather but san diego was getting their fair share of rain showers that weekend.  luckily, the wedding day was warm and beautiful and the rainstorms came later that night and lasted the next few days.

i took advantage of a beautiful morning run past the temple while the gang was at the beach taking pictures.  nothing says awkward like standing on temple grounds in running shorts and a tank top just trying to get a decent picture.

how cute are these beach pictures??!

beautiful day, beautiful colors, and a beautiful, happy couple!

after the ceremony, we all went to a nice wedding dinner at mimi's cafe and then the happy couple headed off on their honeymoon while josh's parents, josh, and i headed with the rest of the hankins family to a wonderful beach house in encinitas (just north of san diego) for a family reunion.  i had a great time getting to know josh's extended family better and even though it was rainy most of the time we were there, we all made sure to have plenty of fun and eat a lot of really good food.  highlights of this trip include a trip to the local farmer's market, hot tubbing on the deck with a full moon and the sounds/smells of the ocean, playing with josh's cute little cousins, shopping at the outlet stores, eating the most amazing dessert (lemon bar brulee at claimjumpers) that i think i have ever had in my life, returning the next day for seconds of the mouth watering brulee, and watching the sunrise while i ran along the beach.  

the sun finally came out the day we planned to leave san diego so we decided to take advantage of the warm weather and headed to seaworld instead!  i don't have many pictures of our fun-filled day, but it really was so fun.  josh had to see the sharks- twice- and i loved the beluga whales and the penguins.  the weather was amazing and it was fun to take advantage of one more day of no work/no school.