Kimmy and Nathan

I made it to China a little worse for the wear but still alive. I love it here and am having a wonderful time.

Nathan, Becky, Halsey, and Ryan drove me to the Portland airport on Sunday morning. We had breakfast at St. Honore’s and then they ditched me at the airport. Or better said I ran away from them because I was excited to get going.

I flew from Portland to Tokyo and then Tokyo to Beijing. I was fortunate to have an empty seat next to me on both of my flights! I also had my own little tv on both flights. I watched 5 different movies between both flight. The Tokyo airport is amazing filled with free smiles from McDonald’s, green tea kit kats, and pocky for men (pictures coming soon). When I finally made it to Beijing I sailed through immigration, found my bag, and sprinted through customs. Skippy was waiting for me with yummy snacks. We quickly found the airport bus and made our way to the hostel for the night. I slept all night without waking up- no jet lag for me!

Today has been an absolute blast as we have spent all day sightseeing. First we had breakfast at Starbucks (lame but delicious) then after checking out of our hostel we went to the Olympic area in north Beijing. Skippy and I scoured the National Indoor stadium for Shawn Johnson but she was nowhere to be found. Micheal Phelps was equally elusive at the Water Cube… Either way the Water Cube, Indoor Stadium, and Bird’s Nest were just amazing. I was very impressed with the whole area but still have the dang Olympic song stuck in my head…

From there we went an expensive shopping center for lunch. We had ramen that was absolutely delicious. There was a small misunderstanding about the spiciness level we wanted but thanks to much persistence and arguing and begging on Skippy’s part we got the right food (oh and coffee too!). Just outside the shopping center was a street food area where they take fruit, stick it on a stick, and then cover it in melted sugar. Sooo tasty… seriously you have no idea. Not even the little scorpions on a stick awaiting their fate on the grill could lessen my appetite for those tasty fruit sticks.

Next was the Forbidden City and Tian’amen square. At the Forbidden City, Skippy and I were more of a tourist attraction than the buildings! People kept coming up to us wanting to take their picture with the foreigners… strange but I was more than happy to be cheesy and oblige. Now many Chinese people will be showing their friends the pretty foreigners they found.

The Forbidden City was mind blowing and an absolute blast. So much walking but just a fantastic experience… I will post pictures soon because I can’t describe it in words.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with shopping where for some reason shop keepers kept telling me I was cheap. I bought Skippy a cute purse from an angry little lady. I got a good deal- she did not. As we walked around shop keepers kept pulling me into their little stores. When I say pulling I mean literally grabbing my arm and yanking. Yanking was normally followed by whispering to me about the fantastic deal I was about to get. Creepy.

After resting we grabbed some dinner on the little street where the fruit on a stick was. This time we had beef, chicken and Tofu on a stick- yumm. After dinner I found these little balls of fried dough covered in sugar which were absolutely amazing. I am in love with the food here…

I am now on my way to the train station with Skippy to catch a night train to Changchun. We should sleep well as we are both pooped. Hopefully I should be able to upload pictures to facebook tomorrow.

Be scared….

I am married to the absolute best person in the world.

Nathan and I were supposed to go to New York with tickets from a T-mobile promotion. Well the company T-mobile has hired to issue the tickets are absolute tools and never got us our flights. I was very disappointed and to console myself I began filling out a vacation request from work for Christmas time. I realized I was going to have 19 days off and wondered how much tickets to China would cost. When I looked up the tickets they were well over $2000 but there was a little ad button flashing cheap tickets to China for Thanksgiving! I quickly told Nathan about it who then insisted I purchase the tickets on the spot and go!

So long story short I fly out on the 23rd of November and come home on the 7th of December! I am so excited to see Tiffany (my sister) and Katie (my best friend). The trip will be two very short weeks but I am sure I will have a blast. I can’t wait.

On another note Jail and Bail season is (finally) over at work and I get to work on March for Babies now. I enjoy coming in to work now and am looking forward to a successful fundraising season. Yey March for Babies!

Hello!

So as you know I work for the March of Dimes- a wonderful organization that strives to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

I am in the middle of my jail and bail fundraiser for Corvallis and have been asking all my jail birds to register online and send out an email to everyone they know so they can raise their bail…. well I figured the least I could do is try it as well.

Jail is this Thursday at the Hilton in Corvallis. Community members will turn themselves in and call everyone they know to bail them out! While I won’t be jailed per se, I will be running the jail so I will certainly be there.

Help bail me out so I can tell my birds I raised more money than they did! Go online to jailandbail.marchofdimes.com/kimmygustafson and donate to help keep me out of jail (or stay in jail if you prefer). Every little bit makes a difference so even if you can only do $5 I will be completely thrilled.

The babies and I thank you!

Kimmy