What the Folk!

I would like to take a moment to put in a shameless plug for one of the funniest things I have seen this week, in my house, on a dvd. Recently my bro, Clark, introduced me to Flight of the Conchords. They used to be "New Zealand's 4th most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo". Now they are "the almost award-winning fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand." I became an instant fan. But really, what is not to love. Basically it is a show about two guys from NZ, Bret (pronounced "Brit") and Jermaine, who come to New York and are trying to make it big with their band F of the C (that is street slang for Flight of the Conchords). Each episode takes you through a week of their lives with them occasionally breaking out into song. You can see for yourself in this clip from a F of the C episode. It is definitely in my top three!

So did his dance moves "seal the deal" for you?

Ding Dong John is Gone!

After much anticipation the day finally arrived and my brother John entered the MTC to prepare for his missionary service in Japan. While many (mostly my mother) have been greatly anticipating this day I, on the other hand, have not. Though I did my best to suppress my emotions through the use of lame jokes and laughter, inside I was crying my heart out. John is one of my favs. I know he is doing a good thing and I am proud of him but the selfish part of me is sad that I won't get to see my bro no mo' (at least for 2 years).This is John eating his last bean burrito at Betos. No more beans for 2 years. Poor John he'll probably starve.

The Token White Girl

Over the holiday break I stopped by my dad's house in Cali for literally a day. Since I was in town my dad decided it was a prime opportunity to get family pictures taken. Apparently this is "the family picture he always wanted" or so he kept saying during the photo shoot. As much as I love getting my picture taken I especially love family pictures where I stand out like a sore thumb. Luckily with the white background it isn't so obvious.His, hers and oh yeah that one child from his young, wild, mormon days (that would be me)!

Me and my Dad (precious)

Me and my bros Tones and Mateos

My favorite thing about this day was that no one had anything "matching" to wear so Matt suggested wearing a white t-shirt and jeans (because that is what he wanted to wear) but Tony vetoed it by saying that we would look like cholos. That would have been awesome!

An Elephant Blessing!

As previously mentioned, my most favorite experience in India was receiving an elephant blessing in the Meenakshi Hindu Temple. Well we weren't allowed to take in cameras without paying a fee so Rafiq offered to get us a few snaps of the occasion and he sent me these today!!! Imagine my surprise when we rounded a corner and there stood this real live elephant.... ...decked out for the occasion, of course! The Hindu reverence for the elephant intrigued me as it might for others. Here is a little background: One of the Hindu Gods, Ganesh, the son of Shiva and Parvati, has an elephantine countenance with a curved trunk and big ears, and a huge pot-bellied body of a human being. He is the Lord of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles. He is also worshiped as the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. Receiving an elephant blessing is a sign of good luck and fortune. I think I have had pretty good luck since I am just waiting for the "fortune" part to kick in.
Here I am patiently waiting my turn while Rochelle gets slobbered on (I mean blessed)!

India- Kondu Vanga!

Over the Christmas break I went on a mini-vacay to India. Rochelle, Tara, David and I flew together from L.A. to meet our Indian friend Rafiq (whom we are pretty sure is in the Russian Mafia. He was always on his phone and he often spoke Russian ironically enough). I had the time of my life. India was a fascinating place. I loved learning about the people, customs, language. Not so much the food except the naan, "You can't go wrong with naan". That was my motto.
I also learned a little Tamil from Rafiq while I was there. I
learned a few useful phrases like "I like your mustache" but my favorite was "Kondu Vanga" which means "bring it on". That is exactly what we did. Here is a brief synopsis of the trip...







December 23rd: Layover in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur was a surprisingly nice and clean city. They even had public sinks such as this one.










But for some strange reason we kept having this reoccurring urge to "kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia".







December 24th: Day trip to see the 5 Rathas in Chennai followed by an evening of...







Midnight Mass at the Santhome (St. Thomas) Basilica.








December 25th: Meenakshi Hindu Temple in Madurai. The highlight of this temple was receiving a blessing from a real live elephant. It only cost 2 rps. Totally worth it!
Unfortunately cameras were not allowed in the elephant blessing room.




We met some people who were doing their end of the year pilgrimage. They walk over 400 miles to visit different temples all while "fasting" which means just eating vegetarian.






December 26th: Another Hindu temple in Madurai. Worshipers were washing themselves in the water that came down from the mountain.






We were feeding bananas to the monkeys.











December 27th: After a 6 hour car ride up a windy mountain we arrive at Coir Village Lake Resort.








Sippin' on coconuts!







December 28th: We stayed on this posh
houseboat on the Kerala backwaters.
We even had man-servants on the boat with us to cook and clean. Need I say more.






They even let me steer for a while.







December 29th: A hot and sticky ride on the Indian Railways from Alappuzha to Calicut. Total time on the train... 6 hours.







December 30th: We stayed at the Vythiri Resort in the mountains of Calicut.







It was a health resort so we enjoyed Ayurvedic massages and mehandi body art aka henna tattoos.







December 31st: New Year's Eve BBQ on the beach in Goa... indi-style!







January 1st: On the beach in Goa...











plus some on-beach entertainment.








January 2nd: The Taj Mahal...











via camel cart.








January 3rd: City tour of Delhi. Main highlights were homeless people camped out on the side of the road...







and men holding hands (that is common and very normal, also not gay).







January 4th: Stranded in Singapore!
I had a 10 hour layover but for some reason the airlines didn't have a confirmed seat for me on the flight out so I had to wait it out in their luxury suite. Poor me!

Singing Praises...Hallelujah...

To help bring a little Christmas Spirit into my life I decided to join the ward choir... just in time for the River Hills Ward's production of "The Prince of Peace" a live nativity. It was quite the spectacular event. I especially enjoyed the fact that we had to wear matching scarfs and the most incredibly itchy hats imaginable.
What you can not see is the amount of clothes I am wearing. Since we were singing outside I had to triple layer it with thermals, spandex and then jeans. Ahh the joys of winter in Utah!

"Let's go shake their hawnds"

One of my favorite movies has always been Cool Runnings. The best part of that movie is at the very end when the Germans win the bobsled race and they see the Jamaicans who have just lost (sorry if I just spoiled the ending) and they say "Let's go shake their hands" with their thick German accents. I don't know why I think it is so funny but yesterday we had the perfect opportunity to use that phrase. My family and I went to a Thanksgiving program in Millcreek. We played in their community orchestra and then they had special guest speaker Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf. After the program Elder Uchtdorf hung around to greet people and Clark suggested we "go shake his hawnd". As we were waiting Clark, John and I were double and triple dog daring each other to say something in German to him but since the phrases we know are pretty ridiculous none of us really did except John who threw in a couple of "ja"s into the conversation. Anyway after he shook our hands we walked to the back of the room to pack up and leave but before we did we ran into Elder Uchtdorf again and he said "hi again" and shook my hand again. I know what you are thinking... twice!!!I took this picture right after the incident so everyone can see the hand that touched Elder Uchtdorf's hand twice! It really was a great way to start Thanksgiving Day. Elder Uchtdorf is a spectacular man.The rest of Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We ate dinner at my mom's house. Clark, John and I made pilgrim hat cookies for table decorations and since we had left over frosting we decided to use it to write our names on our plates.
I think my mom was a little bugged by our immaturity but it sure was fun!