Bathroom Decor

This is my new decor for my bathroom on the main floor. As you can see from the woodwork and wallpaper its a very casual, country style bathroom. I purchased the shelf unpainted, painted it red. The bucket is left over from a friends' wedding reception decor, and since it was already the exact colors of my bathroom, it was perfect for hanging from the peg. I have known for a while that I wanted to put tin items on a shelf in this bathroom, so I have been collecting the tin items, as I have found them on sale.

Now all need to so is get the toilet in this bathroom fixed, and perhaps people can then enjoy the decor is the bathroom, while taking care of business of course....

Fly me away.

The trip began with my arrival at the SLC airport at 3:30 p.m. for my 5:00 p.m. flight to Phoenix. As I approached the ticket counter I assumed that since I was flying internationally self serve was probably not an option, yet to the self serve I was directed. I explained that I was traveling internationally and the ticket agent instructed me to use the self serve. Of course my flight was not located and he asked me where I was traveling, I responded “Beijing.” A silent pause on the part of the ticket agent and I said “you asked.” He agreed that he did indeed ask. Finally he was able to locate my reservation, however because of the length of my travel he could not book me all the way to Beijing and could only get me to Seoul, and recommended that once I arrived in LA to have the ticket agent there complete the booking rather than trying to communicate in Seoul my desire to travel to Beijing. Apparently he could detect my lack of language and communication skills.

A before shot...(that is before a 25 hour trip to China)

On to the first segment of my flight… I would like to personally thank the airlines for the decision to charge for checked baggage. What is the result? A nightmare boarding. When my row was called to board I was Johnny on the spot, because dang it I need space for that all important carry on. When I arrived at my designated row I discovered many empty seats, but the overhead bins for the five rows ahead of me and the five rows behind me were FULL. I tried rearranging, to no avail. I finally decided my carry on was the flight attendant’s problem. Should have cleared that with her first…I told her I could not find a spot for my carry on and she told me that if it did not fit in an overhead bin I would have to check it to my final destination. I explained my final destination was Beijing, and checking it to my final destination was not an option. Again I was met with resistance and told that she could not move around luggage in the overhead compartment and I would have to check it to my final destination. Just to make herself sound more official she threw in the threat of FAA regulations for good measure. (Apparently she missed in my bio that I teach Aviation Law…) Now I was not about to check my overhead with all my medications and $3,500 worth of electronic equipment to Beijing. I again explained I had a several long flights and I had medication in my carry on that I needed and checking it was simply not an option. By this time things began to escalate between myself and the flight attendant, because we clearly had differing views on the fate of my carry on. Finally a passenger agreed to move his backpack from the overhead bin and place it under his seat, hence making room for my carry on. First crisis adverted… NOTE TO SELF: Give extra credit to any student who can successfully persuade the airlines to do away with their checked luggage charge.

Security line in LA for international flights.

In LA I met up with Julie and we proceeded to the ticket counter to obtain boarding passes for our overseas travel. Now the point of this trip was vacation with my friend, something that was clearly lost on the travel agent, because he booked me sitting in row 14 and Julie sitting in row 22. How that is considered traveling together seems a little puzzling to me? (More on the woes of the travel agent later….might be a blog post in and of its self…) The best the ticket agent could do was two middle seats behind each other. Yes, that’s right I sat in a middle seat in the middle of the airplane for the 13 hour flight from LA to Seoul. For those of you who would like the effect of being run over by an 18 wheel truck without the physical damage, fly 13 hours in a middle seat of a large airplane bound for a foreign country. And for added measure, do it during the time you normally sleep. I did use my friend Ambien, however my sleep was only what I considered to be “junk” sleep. I never did get very relaxed. Plus the unlike American flight crews who cannot be bothered to provide service, the flight attendants of Asian airline provided too much service, starting with the service of a steak dinner shortly after takeoff. Only problem, take off was 12:20 a.m. Who eats steak at 2:00 a.m.? Apparently I do. Being afraid of how long it might be before I saw edible protein again, I ate my steak. Then breakfast came a few hours later…..

Check out the flight attendant hats for our crew! Very retro.

Thirteen hours in the airplane left me tired, with a headache, and ready to hurl at any moment. Korea seemed like a welcome relief, just to be out of the airplane. Now other tours I have traveled on provide either a guide to help you through the airport, or explicit instructions. Again travel agent fell short on both accounts. By our wit and charm Julie and I managed to navigate ourselves to the gate. With time to spare we decided to treat ourselves to McDonalds, absent Diet Coke…. (Travel agent BIG FAT LIAR about the availability of Diet Coke).

This was the McDonalds drink fountain in Seoul. Do you see any Diet Coke????

Yummy American breakfast in Seoul.

On to Beijing. For this flight the flight attendants thought we would enjoy a meal of beef and rice, with a side of broccoli. Only problem it was 9:00 a.m…… Just the smell nearly made both Julie and sick….Haven’t these people heard of Cheerios?????

Feeling the need to relieve myself upon my arrival at the Beijing airport, this was the first bathroom stall I encountered…..uh NO.

Again Julie and I were left to navigate ourselves from the gate, to the luggage claim, (FYI, luggage made it to China, even though by this time owner of the luggage was questioning if she wanted to be in China.) through quarantine, and customs. By now we had identified others on the tour by the same bewildered look on their faces.

Finally at the exit we see the first signs of an organized tour with sign for our tour group. We boarded the bus for our first sights of Beijing.

An after shot....(that is after 25 hours of travel to China)


Check out my swollen feet and legs!

Day 1: Jet lag and other fun side effects.

It hard to say if my first impression of Beijing was fair…I mean I had a splitting headache, I was hungry, things seemed to smell, and I wanted to throw up. It’s probably not fair to judge anything when you are in that condition.

The hotel


The room.

We proceeded to the hotel…Actually it was a very nice hotel with a few Chinese quirks, like you have to put your room card into a special slot in order to activate and maintain the power in your room.

Want power? Insert here.

First order of business after hotel check in, an authentic Chinese lunch. Yeah, just what I wanted….but in an effort to be a good sport I tried the food, at least some of it. It was palatable...kind of…Bottom line, did not cure my hunger, despite the large quantity of rice I partook of. My body wanted something else…

It was off to Tiananmen Square, and tour through a nearby park where we were introduced to a tree planted by David O McKay in the 1930’s with a proclamation about bringing the gospel to China. It was also talked about how President McKay had to travel by boat, was sea sick, then did not have the aid of bottled water and suffered terrible sickness upon arrival in China. All of the sudden I felt like wuss for my complaints about jet lag and headaches.

Don't I look cute with the Chairman in the background?

This is Henry, our local tour guide. He lead our group by carrying an American flag. So here we are in Tiananmen Square following around a Chinease man carrying an American flag....

Finally it was shopping. Now this is a sign of how tired I was, and how crappy I felt, not even shopping sounded like very much fun. I just wanted a bed, a good American meal, and a diet coke, none of which seemed to be in my immediate future.

The Ya Xiu market is a total assault upon every sense. (As if every sense in my body wasn’t under attack…) It is five stories, with different articles found on each floor. Of course Julie and I started out in the basement with the purses, shoes and luggage. It is one of the most brutal bartering systems I have ever encountered. Now normally I am quite adept in bargaining, however I was severely handicapped due to my physical condition. (As the days went on and I physically felt better, my bartering became much better.) You approach a vendor, and they literally physically drag you and badger you about what you want. They apparently don’t understand the concept of window shopping. I want to see everything and not make a decision in haste. Once in then they refuse to let you leave. On more than one occasion I had to physically remove someone’s hand from my body to escape. The first night I purchased myself two purses. I fell in love with a third….but could not get the price down. I was actually quite surprised that the prices were not better. I wanted really good deals, and they were hard to come by.

I can’t go into too much detail about the other goods I purchased, because they are planning on making their debut at Christmas time….

Finally it was back to the hotel and bedtime. Almost too tired to sleep, and still had the pesky headache. Woke up at 4:00 a.m., with that pesky headache still bothering me. Sent Rick, and about half a dozen of my friends an email about how they are to never again let me get on an airplane and travel half way round the world…. Also decided it would be a good time to blog a few details, only to discover that blogger does not work in China. Now the whole purpose of hauling my computer half way across the world, through several different airport security systems, was to blog everyday about my trip for my friends and family to enjoy. I specifically asked the travel agent if I could blog from China. “Oh yes” I was assured, blogging no problem. Travel agent is an idiot. Blogging is considered social networking, and social networking sites such as Blogger, Facebook and Myspace are not allowed in China. Blogger does not work in China, hence no daily blog.

Day 2: Yes, I wanted to hurl...

The wakeup call on day two, Saturday, came at 7:00 a.m. and both Julie and still felt punch drunk tired. Now in the process of preparing for my trip to China I did extensive research on electrical converters, and duel power converters, allowing you to use your 110 volt appliance in a 220 volt outlet. Well my research was a little lacking because Julie plugged in her hair straighten and in a matter of about 10 minutes it blew out the duel power converter and was creating smoke in the room, along with the smell of burning electronics. Now I know from personal experience (don’t ask) that small smoke can equal a big problem. It does not take much to set off a smoke detector, resulting in an evacuation of the whole hotel. (Did I mention we were still punch drunk tired?) So we are trying to limit the smoke and damage and limit our exposure to an international incident. We had to get the duel voltage converter to stop smoking so the best thing I could think to do was put it in the sink and turn the water on. Well the thing was hot, so of course it created more smoke, via steam. Julie opened the door, and here we are two crazy American women trying to dissipate the smoke and smell in our room…Good news we were able to control the damage without a fire alarm or building evacuation, but it was close….

The converter Julie and I blew out...

After the breakfast buffet at the hotel, of which I found acceptable food in the form of ham, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and pound cake. Again, Cheerios?????? It was off to the Great Wall, headache still in tacked of course. Big mistake sat in the back of the bus. Two words, motion sickness….. But hey if you are in China, you have to see the Great Wall. We came, we saw, we hiked, we smell all sorts of smells, we people watched, and people watched us.

Julie and I at the Great Wall.

Next stop the Jade factory. I am now fully educated on Jade and the importance to the Chinese people. I did purchase a lovely Jade necklace and pendant. After all a girl can never have too much jewelry.

My fun new jade jewlery.


The bus, oh I mean the "private motor carriage."

The traffic on Saturday was awful. We spend way too much time in that bus, or excuse me a private motor carriage. I thought I was going to die. Here I am still jet lagged from the flight, and now I am stuck in a bus that is making me motion sick, on top of my still continuing headache, with rice and creepy food in my stomach. All I could say to myself was “I HATE CHINA! WHAT THE HELL IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO GET ME OUT OF THIS COUNTRY?”

And where were we headed, more shopping of course, at the same market that Julie and I were brutally attacked in the night before. I could not fathom it again. My body and my mind could not take the brutal assault of the sale people. I was just too tired. Kashi bar to the rescue. I packed it for a necessary food emergency and this was indeed a necessary food emergency. It was the first thing I ate in two days that sounded good and tasted good, and it gave me energy to boot. I still had the pesky headache of course. On a side note I thought the pesky headache was due to a lack of caffeine, but having supplied my body with sufficient caffeine I determined that was not the cause. I have decided the cause is the air in China. The air in China is so thick is unbelievable. I have yet to see the sun. Everyday it’s like the city is cloud covered, but in fact is it is just the pollution. Every time I went outside I found my sinuses congested, sneezing and my headache worsened, due in large part to the pressure on my sinuses. I packed Claritin but that did not do the trick, however the Afrin I packed, did. It’s the only thing that has allowed me to breath in China. I have decided the perhaps I need to re-think my stance on environment law, I now believe it’s a good thing.

By the time we reached the market the protein bar kicked in and I felt much better and was ready to do battle. What did I want to battle for, the pink Marc Jacobs purse I had seen the night before. I fell in love, and decided that I could not leave China without THAT purse. My battle gear was on. Julie and I played bad cop, good cop, and I got MY purse. Still, a little more than I wanted to pay, but for the quality a very good deal. We sealed our deal with a trip to Cold Stone Ice Cream. Suddenly China was looking better….

Day 3: I will survive...I think...

By now I had caught up on sleep, pesky headache was going away, but still could not breathe…I have learned one of the best things for me to do is start the day with a LARGE breakfast at the hotel. I have determined the acceptable food on the hotel buffet, which includes protein, vegetable, and a grain, it can be both nutrient and filling. It looks as if I am gorging myself, when in reality it is about the only meal of the day I eat, since lunch is always at an authentic restaurant, and I am pretty much over authentic Chinese food. Dinner has been an on the go snack.



To honor the Sabbath, we went to church in Beijing. I had no idea the Church even had a branch here, but they do and it is one specifically for ex-patriots, because nationals and foreigners are not allowed to co-mingle when it comes to religion. Of course our group doubled the population, but they are used to visitors straggling in and out, and I think they enjoyed the energy we brought.

Buda, my buddy.

After church it was on to the pearl factory. Now I love pearls so I really had to contain myself. However the prices helped me do that. While I did find a great set for myself that I fell in love with, it was still rather pricy, and not the good deal on pearls I expected.

Julie and I at the Pearl Factory.

More fun new jewlery.

Next we decided to join about half of China at the summer palace for a tour. The original plan was for boats to sail across the lake to the palace, however the water level in the late was too low, and boating was not allowed. We walked the grounds, which were still beautiful.

It was dinner time and the plan was the Hard Rock Café, Beijing. Yay, American food! I had been savoring all day what I would choose from the menu. Would it be sandwich, would it be a thick juicy burger and fries? I knew what it would not include, rice. Upon arrival at the Hard Rock, my taste buds were salivating at the thought of the delights that awaited me. Ummm, it was closed. Apparently in Beijing you can rent out the ENTIRE Hard Rock Café for a wedding if that is your dream, and someone’s dream became the disappointment of my already salivating taste buds. It was Pizza Hut delivered to the hotel for dinner. Still a veritable American feast, however Pizza Hut in China is slightly different than America. Small is really small, and garlic to an excess is supreme. BUT IT WAS NOT RICE.

Julie decided she needed a massage. The mousse came to our room and I watched Julie get flogged, she apparently does not think coming to China is enough torture. I passed on the flogging. I have been tortured enough.

Day 4: Who needs 24 hour fitness???

We started the day by going to the Temple of Heaven, which is located in a park. Now the interesting thing about this part is the locals use this park for exercise. Now many a park in the United States is used for exercise, but not akin to what they do in China. They basically have a whole part full of work out equipment. No monthly membership fee, no stinky gym smell, no personal trainers, (other than the person working out next to you who might offer a tip on the correct method to exercise), no tight bodies running around in spandex. Seems like a much better system to me….

Exercising on the bars.


A dance class

Leg press.

Julie and I at the Temple of Heaven.

After the Temple of Heaven and lunch it was on to the silk market. Now the silk market sounds as it would only contain silk, but to the contrary, it not only had silk, it has clothing, handbags, luggage, shoes, toys, sunglasses, watches, and of course my favorite, JEWLERY.

The vendors stand like vultures, waiting to decend upon you.

One of the negative things about the silk market is the aggressive vendors. You can hardly look at the merchandise, because they are in your face trying to sell you something. You really have to learn to ignore them, but they also grab you as well, which at first is a little unnerving. Julie and I have master the good cop, bad cop routine in negotiating. There was more than one occasion I made her leave so the vendor would give us the price we wanted.

Alicia & the girls with designer jeans, price $12.

This is Sammy, Alicia's favorite jewlery designer in China.

Alicia introduced us to her favorite jewelry designer, who is incredible! Wonderful jewelry, great prices. I now have many a fine new piece for my collection.

This is Lily, she works with Sammy and she is making me a necklace.

Oh, yeah baby, purses, purses, and more purses.

Day 5: The real Beijing.

Day five began with a trip to the Beijing Zoo to see the pandas. After all you really can’t come to China and not see its most famous animal.

Do you see the cute pandas in the background?

Next it was off to the Olympic venues to see in person what we had all seen on TV last summer. TV nor pictures do justice to the Olympic venues, they were incredible.

The bird's nest.



Julie & I in front of the water cube.

While at the Olympic venues we passed by a family with a baby. The baby pointed to Chole, Alicia’s daughter, and was quite fascinated to see an American child.

Chole was quite a hit in China, attracting a lot of looks, and a TON of picture requests. Chole is looking forward to being anonymous when she returns to America.

Chole and the baby.

Our local tour guide arranged for us to visit a family from China to see how they live. The bus, or I mean private motor carriage dropped us off in old Beijing, and from there we walked a short distance to the home.

The walk was over dirt streets, with trenches, and other construction going on. It was clear to me based on the hazards I saw, the China is devoid of tort lawyers, which many might consider a blessing

No tort lawyers here!


A trench we crossed.

An outdoor washing sink.

Hang your laundry to dry.

Front door of the local home we visited.

The home was fascinating. One side the home had a bedroom, and living area, there was a court yard in the middle, with the bathroom, and kitchen area on the other side. The home had been in the man’s family for five generations and was 200 years old.

Living area.

Bathroom and wash area.

Kitchen.

Courtyard between the living area and the kitchen and bathroom area.

Patio furniture.

After leaving the home we were treated to a rickshaw ride through old Beijing. Again narrow dirt streets, filled with people, construction and other bicycles.

In the rickshaw.

A market was saw on the rickshaw ride.

Another market.

At the end of the day Julie and I treated ourselves to a foot massage in our hotel room to prepare our weary tired feet for the long plane ride home.

See my piggys getting a nice massage!

Julie's piggys were not left out!