Apps and Plug-ins for my creativity

So my Mom told me about this app. It's called 'Flipgram' and I must say it is quite the program. There's nothing super fancy about it. You select any number of photos and choose some music and it makes a quick little slideshow for you. I've done two and I've only had the app for a half hour. I put them on Instagram too. [Gram, make sure you click above to watch them =)]

I was thinking about all the different things I could do with this program… The two that I made already are based on the idea of recapping 2013. The first one was a montage of selfies from Instagram and I had to do it because selfie is the word of the year. The second was all the fun pics from Kindergarten this semester; Fall 2013. Up next could be a Christmas one, or a New Years… Or even a stop action clip. I love creative outlets!!!

Speaking of which, I rediscovered a program I liked. I've used it before and forgot bout it, but it came to mind and I thought I'd give it a whirl again. It's called Wordle.net and its a site that creates 'word clouds.' For example, I could enter the text of the Constitution of the United States, the lyrics of We Didn't Start the Fire or anything else and it will generate a cloud of words. The fun part is that the words are scattered in varying directions, and the size of the word is based on how often it appears in your text. So in the case of the Constitution, the words President, United, States, and Congress are significantly larger than the other words. I think you understand… The point of my telling you about this site is because of a little feature it has that allows me to enter the address of my blog, and VOILA!! all the words I've ever typed in "Great Wall Adventure" appear in a word cloud. I am pretty excited to see how it changes over the next semester and which words become more prominent.

Here is first semester's word cloud….

I'm thinking I might make a posting of just words… I think Great Wall Adventure should appear a little more often don't you think? Haha.. might be cheating. 

Until next time. 

Merry Christmas

Shengdankuaila! Merry Christmas! Frohe Weinachten! Feliz Navidad!

The sentiment… Whether in Chinese, English, German, or Spanish, means the same thing. It means well wishes to you on the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior. That's the reason for the season. People all over the world decorate their homes, give gifts and eat way too much food. But not everyone knows that special reason for the season. We are not just celebrating a birth… I do that every August 30, October 4, November 21, January 30, and February 2…. Being born, while super special, isn't something that takes a lot of practice and training to accomplish. (No disrespect to all mothers) But the real special event is that the baby born is human and G0d. The purpose of this little intro is to set the focus. The focus of this day is the special baby born to save us all.

Which that being said, I'm going to go on a rant… bear with me.

Things I miss from Christmas in America…. in no particular order. Snow. Bacon wrapped water chestnuts. My wood burner. Mom, Dad, Twig, and Hannah. Gram and all the rest of my family. Snow. Vacation from school. A plate full of christmas cookies, chocolate covered peanuts, and pretzel dip. My Grams…and most of all my mom.

Things I like about a Chinesey Christmas….. No snow. The new friends I've made. The tacky decorations. (and there are a lot of them) The joy of sharing American Christmas traditions with Chinese friends. Food…I'd say Chinese food, but I'm in China. And I love the food here.

I would be lying if I said I didn't wish I was at home. Of course I wish I was with my family. There was a saying I found on the internet that fits the situation, and it goes something like 'everywhere you go takes a piece of your heart, so your home is in multiple places'. I'm sure the actual quote is much more poetic. But the concept applies. A piece of my heart lies in Appleton and Neenah, WI. A piece in New Ulm, MN…Wayne, MI…LaCrosse, WI… Seattle, WA… and those are just the places with people. There are many more places that I've visited that now hold a small piece of my heart too. It has something to do with experience. My Mom and Dad share many of the experiences I have from birth thru age 18; New Ulm, MN has a fair share of experiences too; and now Shaoxing, China holds a chunk too. If I was at home I'd miss this too. Location isn't the important detail - the reason for the season is the real importance. That knowledge makes Christmas wonderful.

To my family and friends in America: I miss you. I love you. In one wish I want to be with you at home, and I want you to be with me in the Orient. Have a Merry Christmas, and I'll see you for Christmas in July. Much love

Until next time.

Cookies

I have a confession to make. I think about blogging way more than I actually blog these days. I apologize for that. I realized today that I have this list on my phone of things I want to share with you, and I just haven't sat down to type it out for ya. "Come on Meg, get on top of these things"

Well, today's tidbit is a few days old at this point, but still worth a tell. On Thursday this week, we invited a few friends over to make cutout sugar cookies for our Christmas party. Our friends had never cut out cookies before. (Gasp!!) I know--shocking--but, hey that's China. We made the dough ahead of time, and then used a de-labeled beer bottle to roll it out. (it was the size of a wine bottle, so it worked well) Then, as soon as I got it thin enough for cookies, I would say "Alright, cut away" and these four Chinese girls went to town! They cut out trees and stars, bells and ornaments, hearts and gingerbread men. And of course, to make the scene perfect Laura jumped in to make sure each of us has a dash, or a smear of flour on our faces.

We weren't sure how they would turn out because the dough was a little crumbly-ier than I thought it should be, and it's China. And we'd never made dough from scratch before. But they turned out fine. A little more like biscuits… they were sorta flaky, or rather layered. But that might have been from rolling it out…. it didn't like to roll. Super elastic. I would roll it out and it would shrink right back up. Took some real elbow grease to make it cooperate. (Ha, sorta like me as a kid… hahaha)

Well, jump forward a day to the party. Before our friends arrived I made the frosting… and the sprinkles. We found powdered sugar, so I mixed powdered sugar and water until we had frosting! Super simple, I threw in a splash of vanilla extract to improve the taste, but it didn't do much. Then I separated out a little to make green, yellow and red frosting too. As for the sprinkles. We looked around town and couldn't find any. So, Laura had the idea to use regular sugar and food coloring. I figured some sort of shaking device would work best… So I poured the sugar into a cup with a couple drops of food coloring. Placed a slightly smaller cup inside the bigger one, and shook it like a martini. Worked like a charm!!! After about 20 minutes and a lot of shaking, I had sprinkles in blue, red, yellow, green, orange, and purple!

The party was a great success. I wasn't around the cookies, but they were all gone so they must have been good. I was upstairs with the snowflake cutters. Teaching our Chinese friends to fold paper, and cut out shapes was a blast! They were all so afraid of making a mistake or didn't know what to cut. But, I told them it didn't matter, and showed a few examples and they were off and cutting. We taped our finished snowflakes up on the curtain and we had it full in no time. (Cutting snowflakes is my favorite thing to do.)

The meiguarens (may-gwa-rens = americans) had some street food after all our friends went home as per tradition and to congratulate ourselves on a successful party.

Until next time.

p.s. There was a fair amount of frosting, and a bunch of sprinkles/sugar left over… so we're having cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. And they're gonna be rainbow because of the colored sprinkles. =)

Pencil and Paper

So, I am sorta computer savvy. But, I've been using one for 16 years or so. I chalk it up to experience. ;)  Anyway, when I tie my computer-ness with my creativity I tend to get rather happy.

When I was in college, if I had a spare moment I would create subway art on my computer. Some of you may know of my work. Well, I love to make them. (My mother is a fan too) Sadly, all my work is on my old laptop so I can't share any of it with you here. And even more sadly, I haven't found a computer program equivalent to Microsoft Publisher for my Mac to make subway art again. I've looked, I've googled, and I've come up empty. Ah, well… I'm not one to give up easily. To satisfy my creative outlets I decided to hand make some subway art. Now, these examples are not exactly what subway art is.. but it's close. =)

This first one is shown in it's original form, and then its colored/edited form. I use my computer to enhance the drawings once I'm done. Either to draw out colors, or make them brighter.

This one is edited and finished.

I'd also like to make a little shout out at this time. To those of you in possession of these (Gram, Grama, and Mom)

Enjoy. I made them for you…

I did not intend them to be emotional, but I know that you're missing me just as I'm missing you during this holiday season. But I'm never far away at heart.

  

Now, this one was fun to make. I had planned to do a regular 'O' for Joy… but then as I attempted to make a perfect circle it turned into more of an oval… Which prompted me to make it into an ornament. This is the edited version. I decided making it black and white gave it a more old world feel. And 'joy to the world' is a old classic.

The 'Hark' one took me a little longer. Obviously it has more words… but the trick was deciding how to arrange them. The top of this page is filled with practice arrangements, swirls, and practice cursive. haha. I wanted something with more meaning, and so I wanted to include both of these lines. I could have ended it after King… but then you miss a good chunk.

I also went with purple, blue and black for the coloring.  Purple and blue being regal colors seemed fitting for the King.

The black and white version is great. I really like how the light stems from the center and gets darker around the edges.

I didn't want the black to be so dark on the second to last line, but my marker was convinced dark was best. So, I went with it.

In the colored version the purple and blue get lost in the blacks and remaining pencil marks. The black and white evens them all out.






I hope you enjoyed this little look into what I do in my spare time. I really enjoy making them.

Until next time.

Year in Review

There's this trend on Facebook right now where you can look at your 'Year in Review'. It shows you the 20 most popular posts or events you had on Facebook in 2013. Now, looking at my own year in review on Facebook I was wondering how they picked the most important things in my life... First because not all of my life is on Facebook. I know... Shocker! But second, because I believe the year is not about the things that happened, but who they happened with and where they led you. 

So, in the spirit of doing my life a little justice, I'm here to present my own version of my Year in Review. I've made it a bulleted list to save you from my myself. I seem to be a story teller... hmmm. 

- Janurary: return to finish 2nd semester of school knowing I'll be done shortly. (small victory dance) We played Ultimate Frisbee in the snow sometime during the winter... it could have been January. That was fun. 

- Mid January: still unsure about teaching, I talk to a professor about options abroad... Wanderlust leading my curiosity and landing on China. China? Yeah. Let's do it. Without consulting (or even informing) my mother... which I know she hates, I applied to go to China. I don't make big decisions lightly. It may seem like I rushed this one, but it felt right. The fact that I stick to my decisions helped me feel confident too. 

- Fast forward thru the next few months and you'll breeze thru portfolio presentation (nerve-wracking for me), classes, Easter, and a ton of time spent with friends. We all knew our time together was growing short, and as much as we promised to stay in touch... In our hearts we knew it would never be the same. 

- After all that we land at Graduation. I don't know if it's the same for other people, but being a college graduate snuck up on me. (or perhaps being an adult is what did the sneaking). My favorite part of graduation was the last minute things. Hanging out with my rooms (Sarah), Candace and of course my best Samantha. Getting ready the morning of, and everyone wandering in and out of their rooms realizing that the gigantic shared closet we all used over the semester was all packed away. (we wore each others clothes often). 

- Summer: It flew by as I took online summer courses, worked, ventured to New Ulm for a class, spent some great time camping, and then off to Minneapolis/St Paul for China training. (Still not knowing anything about my China paperwork.) I wouldn't trade anything for a weekend spent with the 7 best friends camping group, or the two weeks I spent at my college during the summer. It was strange - but I enjoyed the emptiness of it. And in July I had a three for one party to celebrate my graduation, birthday and going away. I loved being able to see all those people that I usually have to wait for a big event to see. I have to make a point of seeing them more often.

- August 30: still anxious waiting for paperwork that I'll admit I never thought would come, and was okay with it. (I know better now, I should have been more excited.) Oh, and this day is my birthday. I was blessed to spend it at home. 

- September 14: Jump two weeks after my birthday and I'm in China. Luggage-less, utterly exhausted, and rather bewildered. But I had my best Laura to help me. And after a little while, some new Chinese friends too.

- December 12: another jump 3 months later... (Tomorrow, the 13th is my 3 month anniversary here… it's my longest relationship. Haha) I know, it seems like such a long time. But only 3 months, and I'm still exhausted sometimes, but much less bewildered. I can actually say "I'm living in China." I can now navigate fairly well, I bike in crazy China traffic (always trying to keep up with Laura), I have Emma, Marie, Amy, Lucy, Rella, and others to call friends. I have been traveling within China and after the new year will venture into SE Asia too. 

The year will be over soon, and everyone can say they change in a year. It's the natural progression of time... we change. But looking at myself from Jan 1 and now at Dec. 10 there is a long list of things that are different. Just to name a few... On January 1st I was a 21 year old college student, living at home in America with my family and friends close at hand. Now, on December 12, I'm a 22 year old certified adult (college graduate), living abroad in China. If you had asked the average 21 year old college student what they'd be doing in a year... I don't think they would have predicted that kind of change. But then, that is what is so great about life. I get my own story, my own adventures... and Facebook doesn't know the half of it. ;)

Until next time. 

Re: Iron Chef - The pictures

 

As promised… Here are the pics from Iron Chef.

<< The winning team

Iron Chef

Tonight our community of foreign teachers held an Iron Chef competition. I had planned on attending to watch the showdown. But this morning, Christi asked if I would take her place as she wasn't feeling well. Sure, I said, I'll step in to do some chopping or whatever.

I showed up, and was briefed. Shortly after, we got started, and boy… did things get going. It was girls vs. boys. We had a host, four judges, a small crowd, and two teams of four chefs. The competition was 60 minutes and it was intense from the get go. The secret ingredient was sweet potatoes.

I couldn't tell you exactly what the guys made. There was a smoothie they served in hollowed out sweet potato cups. A coleslaw of sorts, fried chicken with something and sweet potato chips I think…. Oh, and their team name was "food dudez"

Our team name was "KAL" …. which stands for kick-ass ladies, of course!! We made a sweet potato soup with a croquette and fetta cheese garnish, grilled pork with sweet potato and white potato au gratan with a vinaigrette sauce, and for dessert we had a plate swirled with carmel and a sweet potato tartlet with honey whip cream on top. We didn't get to eat much of it while we were running around crazy, but we tasted everything during clean up and …. YUM!!!! (don't worry folks I have the recipes… I'll make dinner sometime) My role was to peel a bunch of potatoes.. obviously. Then, I put the crust into the tartlet tins, dices carrots, and cut green onions. I made the whip cream from scratch… aka I beat whipping cream. I dished up the soup, and I dolloped the whip cream on the tartlets at the end. (Twig: tartlets…. tartlets…. tartlets….. word has lost all meaning)

The judges totaled up the points after we served them our dishes. It was close. Out of a possible 60 points, the boys had a total of 44.7 points…. And unfortunately, us girls has a total of 49.8.


Yes, that's right, WE WON!!!  We didn't win anything other than pride and bragging rights, but that's all we needed. I just had so much fun cooking with people I had met, but hadn't really interacted with much. Uh… It was a great night.

Plus, we made such a mess!! While cooking, and scurrying about I didn't notice, but afterwards, when we started to clean all four of gals just marveled at how messy we made our station of 5 tables. I was pretty proud of that mess.

The best part just occurred. We had left over tartlet ingredients and my neighbor across the hall was going to make a pie and save me a piece. Well, turns out her family doesn't eat wheat flour, so she made the pie, and just brought it over for me. (I got the extra honey whip cream too) I can't wait to eat it!!

Ahhhhhh… the Meghs is happy.

Until next time.

P.S. We did have a photographer… I'll have picture update when I can.

Chinese Trim

That's right folks. I got a haircut!!! Don't faint mom… it's fine.

I took along my very good Chinese (but practically American) friend, Emma. She is great. We went to this place that was empty and away from a lot of the traffic.. but Emma has her hair done there, so I was feeling good. After explaining what I want done, I head to the back to get washed. I have to describe these two guys to you. One was the owner, and the other was an assistant clearly. He washed my hair. He was wearing ocean blue pants, leather slippers with the fur cuffs, and a leather jacket that matched his shoes/slippers rather well. He has what I can only describe as a bieber-esque hair cut with bangs that he had to smooth every 2 minutes or so. To top it off, he was singing while he washed my hair…. coulda been the biebs… haha. Well, I moved to the chair, and the owner took over trimming my split ends. I have to describe this guy for you too. He would have fit in 'Twilight' I swear. He was an awfully white chinese with square glasses. Both of his wrists could have fit inside one handcuff. (I have no idea where that metaphor came from, but let's roll with it) I asked for about half an inch taken off, and he did a good job. At the very least, he appeared to know what he was doing. I didn't think to put my contacts in, so as I sat with glasses in hand he could have gotten away with a lot… however, Emma was watching for me. Then, when I was getting styled, the beibs assistant came to blow dry my hair, but it was taking a long time. I have very thick hair, I wasn't surprised. The funny part was they grabbed another dryer, and both of them dried my hair for about 10 minutes. Quite the service.

 

Two hair dryers…. Oh, yea!!! (that's the biebs guy)

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention, I got a little streak of color put in…. 

Here it is, the finished ponytail look I was going for. Bam!

Keep life colorful, people. 

Until next time.

Hiya!!

So, there's just a few random thoughts that I've been meaning to tell y'all.

Today, I've mid westernized the far east just a bit. I did the hokey-pokey with my kids in class. Now, we have been learning hand, foot, arm, leg, fingers, and toes…. so theoretically it should have been a hit. Actually, it was mediocre. Ah… c'est la vie. In other school related news, I found out today that the parents of my students will be visiting next week. One of my teachers told me and wanted to make sure that I used easy words and had the kids sing. So, it's put on a play for the parents day. I'll keep you abreast of the happenings.

Oh, and this is great… the other day Laura and I were going to ride the bus back into town with Emma and Marie, who live on our campus. While waiting, we were considering staying another night out at Zion. The bus came and we hadn't made decision - so Emma and Marie hopped on the bus. Well, we decided to go home and waited between 10 and 15 minutes for the next bus. The ride into town is about 50 minutes. As we got within 10 minutes of our stop, we noticed another 188 bus (thats the bus number we ride). The thought crossed my mind, and Laura's, Could Emma and Marie be on that bus? Did we really catch them? Then, here's the kicker, at the stoplight our bus passed the other 188 bus. So, when we arrived at the stop and stepped off, we turn and there is Emma and Marie just getting off their bus. Oh… How funny is that!! We had a good laugh about it.

In very minimal news, my manicure from two weeks ago is still going strong, and hasn't even been chipped yet. I'm loving it! (plus, its red. I love red nails)

Until next time.