Birthday!

I am 21 years old!

As soon as I got back from class, I opened up my presents :)
Mom got me a Chinese CTR ring, a pretty diamondy heart ring, lots of candy, Pokemon White, and some UW sweats. Dad got me a Korean phone charm and Hello Kitty stickers. Kelsey got me some animal print undies :)
Thank you! I loved all of my presents a lot!


Stacie, Courtney, Kelsey, Ray, Lee, Alicia, and I went to YinYang for dinner. Afterward, we went back to my apartment and ate cheesecake and watched a Korean movie called 200lb Beauty. I hadn't seen it before, but Ray and Alicia said it was really good. I loved it! And Joseph stopped by for cake and ended up watching the second half of the movie with us. He said he was surprised that he actually kind of liked it. Hahal

Accepted!

A few days ago I was officially accepted into the study abroad program. Beijing Fall 2011. I'm soooo excited!! Here are some pictures of the University I'll be studying at.I don't really know what else to talk about. I've been going to Kelsey's a few times a week, like usual. We usually see Ray and Lee about once or twice a week as well.
A few weeks ago one of me and Kelsey's old roommates, Heidi, came to visit. We went to Winger's for lunch.
I don't remember when this happened either, but I had bulgogi night. I made a biiig batch of bulgogi and we watched a Korean movie called Baby&Me. The bulgogi really didn't turn out very good, though... The meat was really tough and the flavor didn't really get through to it. The sauce was really runny and lacked flavor. I don't know what I did wrong, though :/ aside from my roommates, I invited Kristin, Trevor, Kelsey, Ray, Lee and Joseph. However, Joseph, Kristin and Trevor left only a few minutes into the movie. The subtitles were really small and hard to read, but I bet they would have left even if the subtitles were bigger.

Classes are going good. I REALLY like my Chinese teacher, brother Paul. He's probably my favorite teacher I've ever had.
Also, my dance teacher reminds me of Jessica :) I wonder if they knew each other while Jessica was at school here. Her name is sister Brusko (I don't know if I spelled it right, and I don't know her first name). I think she's a dance student and is just teaching our beginning class. She can't be over 24.

My Semester So Far

So I realized I haven't updated this since the end of last semester, after culture night.

Winter break went really well. I saw a friend just about every day. It was nice :)

This semester has honestly been probably the best one yet. I like all of my classes. I was afraid of American Foundations at first though, because the teacher was really scary and intimidating on the first day, but he seems a lot nicer now. I'm also taking Chinese 201, which is a really heavy workload, but I'm enjoying it, and I LOVE the teacher (Brother Paul). Pretty much all my friends from 102 are in my same class, so we all sit together. Today after Chinese stadium singing, my friend Lauren was talking to a girl in 101 who was having problems learning Chinese, and Lauren was comforting her saying that Chinese is really hard and everyone has a hard time learning it. I approached them to see what they were talking about, and Lauren reached back and pointed at me and said "except for Kayli. She's a freaking Chinese prodigy." Haha, Lauren always teases me about being able to pick up Chinese so fast. I try my best to help her too though. We've decided to form a study group with a few other people in the class too, and we'll try to meet once a week.
I'm also taking Social Dance. I was really nervous about it at first, because I'm really not a good dancer. We started easy and then added more steps. We just finished a basic foxtrot and we're moving on to swing next week. The class has forced me to be more social, and I now know by name all of the boys in the class.
Badminton is fun. I'm glad I'm retaking it, because now I have a slight advantage over some people who are taking it for the first time. My doubles partner, Mindi, has been in my ward for a few semesters.
Interpersonal Communications hasn't really taken off much yet. But I really like my teacher, and it sounds like it'll be a fun class.

Kelsey is back this semester, but she's living in American Manor. We hang out together a few times a week. Usually we invite Ray and Lee too. So the four of us have gotten pretty close.
On Saturday we went to Idaho Falls to see the Green Hornet. I mostly wanted to see it because a Taiwanese singer/actor I really like played the role of Kato. It was a really good movie, I really enjoyed it! Afterward we went to Kelsey's and we played telephone pictionary and then we went to my apartment and had pizza. Alicia sent me a text asking if I wanted to come over and watch a movie with her and some friends. I asked Kelsey and Ray and Lee to come with me, but once we got there, Kelsey was feeling too anxious so she dropped us off and she went home. Me and Ray and Lee went in, and they were playing cranium in teams of three. So the three of us were a team and we joined in. It was a lot of fun! After the game we started watching the A-Team, but it was getting close to curfew so we left.

The day before, Kelsey and I had decided to go to lunch together at YinYang (the restaurant is actually spelled "Ying Yang", but that really bugs me so I refuse to spell it that way). The day before, she had told me to text her when I got out of class at 11:15. So I got out of class and texted her. And then twenty minutes went by so I texted her again. And then twenty more minutes went by so I called her but she didn't answer. After repeated attempts to get ahold of her, I decided I would just walk over to her apartment to see if she was home. But right before I left (at around 1:30), she called me saying she had just woken up. YinYang is only open until 2, and then it opens again at 5. So we decided to change our plans to dinner. So I went over to her apartment and we watched the Bourne Ultimatum (over the course of the week we had been watching the trilogy) until it was time for dinner.

The first weekend of school, Julia drove up from Utah and staid two nights with Kelsey. So I was at Kelsey's apartment during most of those days. It was really fun to be with both of them. Ray and Lee came over once or twice too.

FHE last week was really good. I'm really excited about our group. All of the guys are cute, and the girls are fun. One of the guys served his mission in Taiwan, so he speaks Chinese. So after our activity, he came over and talked to me and we talked about Chinese and stuff. Before the study abroad to Beijing I'm hoping to go on was set up as an entire semester program, they had a program where they would study for a month (at the same University). He went on that and said it was really good. His name is David. I tend to have a thing for Davids.

I can't really think of much else to say. I haven't taken any pictures, so I can't put any up... I used to take pictures of everything, but now I keep forgetting to.

Culture Night

Wednesday night was Culture Night. I participated in the Chinese Culture Association's performance. We had been rehearsing for a few weeks, and it was so worth it in the end :)

Here is a link to a video of our performance: Dragon Dance
We all painted our faces for the performance, but after it was over and I went to wash it off, it took forever to get off! At first, it didn't come off at all. And then it slowly started thinning out. I was afraid someone was going to come home, see my face, and think I was attacked.

During the performance, the girl who was at the very back of the dragon fell down. None of us even noticed until afterward. Luckily, she fell right before the place where we put Steven in the audience to switch with her. Kristin (my roommate who came and saw us) said that the girl faceplanted.
After the performance, she said her cheek hurt, but she was okay.

Then on Friday night, I went to the International film. It was Ponyo :) It was the third or fourth time I've seen it. But this time it was in Japanese.
Holly and Courtney had agreed to go with me before. But at the last minute, Courtney decided she didn't want to go. And Holly was asleep. So I went by myself.
Luckily, once I got there and sat down by myself, Steven spotted me and came and sat by me.

Karaoke Night

Thursday night was the combined Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Mmong/etc Association party. They hosted a big Karaoke party. I went, and it was really fun! And I got Holly to agree to come with me for a few minutes!Afterwards, me and some friends went to "The Green Screen". It's an IBC business set up in the MC where you get 15 minutes to take as many pictures as you want and put them on any background you want.
Our first picture was the four of us with my favorite band, BIGBANG.

At first, Holly was going to go with me, but at the last minute she decided she didn't want to. So I had to rush and get together a few people so I wasn't alone. Luckily Elaine and Lauren agreed to go with me, and Lauren brought her roommate Hersshey.

I'm getting along good with all my roommates. Although we all have a hard time understanding Holly. She stays up until 4 or 5am, sleeps on the couch until her first class, and then sleeps most of the day when she gets home from classes, and then stays up until 4 or 5am again.
And she kind of stares at people. Like today I was doing homework on the couch and Holly was going up the stairs, and I noticed her slow down and then stop for a few seconds, so I looked up and she was just staring at me. When she saw that I saw, she smiled quickly and continued up the stairs. Almost every day Kristin complains to me about how Holly stares at her and Trevor and it makes them feel uncomfortable.
I dunno. She's a nice girl, though.

Various Activities

For FHE two weeks ago, I was in charge of the activity. So we played Minute to Win it. It was really fun! Everyone enjoyed it.
This game was called The Elephant WalkLast Saturday, I went out to dinner with some people from CCA. We went to the new Chinese restaurant called YinYang's. As soon as we got in, Austin started talking to the waitress in Chinese. She had no idea what he was saying.
When we ordered, Austin asked her to give us bowls instead of plates, so we could eat like authentic Chinese. She was confused, but gave it to us. I was a little embarrassed, but it was cool to eat like an actual Chinese person, haha.After dinner, we went to Austin's apartment and watched Mulan in Chinese.
I met his roommate, Kyle, and now I see him everywhere. He sat by me at devotional on Tuesday.

Yesterday there was a CCA activity where we went to South Gate's lounge (which has a movie theater!) to watch Kung Fu Panda. We were going to watch it in Chinese, but there were technical difficulties so we had to watch it in English.
Kyle was there, even though he'd not interested in Chinese at all. I asked why he came, and he said he had asked Austin if I would be here or not. But then he said he was just kidding.

CCA Potluck

All of these pictures were taken by Jesse Arnold, the "official cameraman" of the Chinese Culture Association.

On Wednesday I went to the CCA potluck. I brought butterscotch oatmeal cookies :)
I was one of the first ones there, so I got to meet the other early-comers.
However, after that, a bunch of people showed up and everyone started splitting off into their own groups.
I found my friend Lauren and kind of stuck with her.
After we ate, the main event was face painting. Lauren left before that started because she had to get to a meeting. So I just kind of floated around..
I didn't get my face painted because I didn't want to have to walk all the way home like that, haha. But I watched everyone get theirs done.
By the way, that's the Korean guy (Brian) that I think is cute.
Even though I didn't really have friends to hang out with, it was still a fun activity. I really like the CCA so far. I just hope I can get to know more people.

On a side note, my roommate vomited into our sink. She cleaned it up as much as she could, but now the sink is clogged and won't drain. She even tried plunging it, haha. Any ideas on how to fix it?