March Madness!!

March was a crazy month for us. It started with the birth of my first official nephew on March 2^nd. Although I already had 12 nieces and nephews, he was the first one born when I was a part of the Hill crew. It was fun to go see the little guy. At the time we went to go see him, he still was unnamed. I remember telling Mike I wish he had a name so I could talk to him. For some reason, I thought it strange to talk to an unnamed baby. To my relief, a few days later he was named Matthew.

Shortly thereafter, Mike and I were going to be separated for 10 days. I had been on some weekend tennis trips, but nothing this long since we were married. It was sad to be leaving, but it was a great opportunity. I was able to go to China with some fellow MBA students. It was a requirement for our graduation to go on an international trip. We could either go to Japan, China, Italy, or England. My family has talked about going to Italy for a while and I was lucky enough to go to England when I was younger. Thus, it came down to China or Japan. I chose China because I thought it was an opportunity that would not present itself to me again. It was a really neat trip and I was glad I was able to go. The best part is that it was covered by my tennis scholarship. What a blessing, eh? The only downfall is Mike was unable to go with me.

In China, we were able to do a lot of sightseeing. Fortunately, our group leaders and chaperons were more interested in sightseeing than the business aspects. Good for me, bad for the “school aspect”. We first flew into Hong Kong which is much more city like than I expected. It was very crowded, people trying to sell you items, weird smells, big buildings, and a nice subway system. In Hong Kong we went to the temple grounds, Disneyland, the markets, and saw the big sights. Disneyland was fun and really tiny compared to Disneyland in America. The rides were smaller and there were not as many attractions but the lines were way shorter which meant more rides! Even though I couldn’t shoot the space aliens, like Buzz Lightyear, it was a lot of fun.

Our next stop was in Guangzhou in mainland China. Here we did more business stops than usual. We went to Hino Motors and the Toyota factory. Toyota is very efficient and it was cool to see the cars come together so quickly. However, we spent most of our time in the city of Beijing. Here we had a few business stops as well. However, the highlights of Beijing were the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, The Silk Market, Olympic Bird’s nest, and my surprise at the Beijing Institute of Technology.

I was just sitting in the classroom and a boy I didn’t even know brought me a bouquet of flowers because he said I was pretty. It probably helps that I was the only girl in the group, but I felt like a superstar! My favorite was the silk market though. It was so fun to bargain with the Chinese and get some really good deals. I got Mike some fun things. His favorite was a Gortex jacket. I got ripped off, yet I still got it for hundreds of dollars cheaper there than in America. Yes, it does work just as well. The last city we visited was Xian. We took a sleeper train on our journey to the ancient capital. It is here they have the Terracotta Warriors. They were a sight to see. Many of them are still being discovered and put together. There are thousands of them. Much work is still to be done.

Mike and I were able to talk through emails and occasionally through Skype when our schedules and internet connection would line up. Mike was able to join his friends on a trip to St. George over Spring Break. They had a good time doing outdoor activities, like slot canyons and biking. So as you could probably guess we didn’t get to talk too often. However, my favorite email was when Mike told me of his own Mickey Mouse adventure. Here is the story in his words. “As I opened the passenger side door the floor lights came on as usually and I thought I saw a mouse run up under the dashboard. I was pretty surprised but not certain I had seen one. I looked around and checked a small bag of trail mix I had left in the car but there was no chewing on the bag. So I figured I was just seeing shadows. I told Danny and Haley at DQ and they came and searched the car with me. Danny left two peanuts on the floor just to check. After DQs I drove home to our wonderful place and left those peanuts on the floor. And, as sure as I am writing you today, the peanuts were gone the next morning.”

Getting back from China did not slow things done one bit. Tennis season was in full swing and I left shortly thereafter to San Jose and San Francisco. Too bad we didn’t even play any matches due to heavy rain. The team also traveled to Moscow, Idaho. Nevertheless, Mike and I made good use of our time we did have together. We were able to go to the Willow Park Zoo and Backcountry sledding! We saw lots of fun animals at the Zoo including eagles, birds, an albino porcupine, game animals, and even pet rocks. It was fun to go exploring around and see the different animals. At a later date, we were also able to go backcountry sledding. It was my first time. Mike truly does make my life more adventurous. We went up Logan Canyon and found a good spot with lots of snow. We put on our snowshoes and hiked up the mountain. Once you got to the top, you got to cruise down huge hills of untouched snow. You said it, we are pretty adventurous.