Dawn's Blog

I took a week off of service and went home. I went to Taylor's third birthday party, and it was really good to see a lot of my family there.  I even got to spend a whole day with Taylor and my mom. Taylor made these cupcakes, and she was very excited about them.

I also visited Bear Lake Camp which was a very good thing.
I went running a couple times with the one and only Brittany Cook.
I got to see several of my friends at home. We went to Mexican restaurants and played Euchre (we like to have cultural experiences).  I don't think I need to write a whole lot about my time at home because most of the people reading this were there when it happened.

Alayna (my college roommate) got married. Mozy (my other college roommate) and I took a road trip to Iowa for the joyous occasion. It was a ten hour trip, but it was definitely worth it. Highlights included making hundreds of chocolate-covered strawberries, dancing for several hours, and seeing Alayna and Mozy again. 


This is the Mississippi River ->











Alayna got married!






Due to a crazy coincidence ( or not?) our friends Anthony and Emily Parrott live very close to where the wedding was, so we visited them and decided on a whim to go to South Dakota (why not?) since it was only an hour and a half away. They also took us on a night bike ride around the town of Okoboji, which was quite magical.

Here's me at the Sioux Falls falls. I was practicing my peace sign picture taking so I can fit in in China.

On our way back, Mozy and I took the route through Minnesota and Wisconsin to get back to Chicago, from whence I then flew to Atlanta.

All in all, a very successful week. Saw family, saw friends, visited four new states.

To see more pictures of my adventures, go here. 

Two posts in two days!  Here's the pictures of our Americorps community garden.We have black-eyed peas, several peppers (not sure what kind), some zucchini, cucumbers, and I think squash. We also have some tomatoes in another location.

These are the black-eyed peas that I planted. Yay! They are so big!











I went out one morning and found this in the garden.











Turns out it was fake.



Our scarecrow. Seems to be doing a pretty good job, animals have not eaten anything as of yet.

China! (insert shouts of excitement)   In honor of my new plans, I have a new schnazzy template for my blog.  The horse's name is Philip. Anyway, after much thought, I have decided to take on the adventure.  I will be teaching English at a school just outside Beijing for the next year, starting in August.

So let the preparations begin! For the next two months I plan to learn as much Mandarin as possible as well as learn more about the history of China. I will also work on not capitalizing the H in CHina which seems to happen every time I type it. Weird. I will also spend as much time as possible with my family and friends back home (which regrettably will not be much).