Neil is here~~

Neil landed in Las Vagas on the 19th of August. Neil is my cousin Megan's boy friend. They've been dating for at least 5 years, which is very common in China. My in-laws were kind enough to pick him up from Vegas and bring him up the next day. He's going to Selnate, a private language school to study English to get ready for BYU Business school.

We've had some time showing him around Provo. It happens to be our anniversary weekend, so we haven't had time to do much with him yet.

We went to Jamba Juice, where Megan started her first job EVER. John had a coupon from a research study he participated in. So he decided to use his money to add the grass drink he's been so curious about. It turns out, they don't blend it in your drink. They give you a separate shot of pure wheat grass drink. It's so strong that you have to drink another shot of orange juice to get over the taste~~ Anyway it was fun!
John's 2 dollar grass drink~~

@Macaroni Grill

We went to the Hinckley Visitor Center

On top of the JFSB

We went to IKEA to get Neil set up for his new apt

John's must-eat @ IKEA: Swedish meat balls

Neil's been having a hard time adjusting to American soil. He's had nose bleeding and fever for three days.As Chinese as my food can be, but I'm sure he misses REAL Chinese food. Poor guy. Hopefully he'll soon get over the fact that you can't just go on the street, spend a quarter, and get some GOOD Chinese any more~~

~~A Beautiful Sunday~~

This time last year, we were sweating like pigs in Shanghai, a city with a 100% humidity! That was not fun. So we're especially grateful for the beautiful weather lately! I can't believe I had to wear long-sleeves at night in the middle of August!! Love it~~

This Sunday, Megan came over for her missionary discussion as usual. We had dinner and a lesson on Testimony. John shared his testimony about how important it was to have a testimony. He's great!

Then we decided to have a walk around the beautiful BYU campus. We had some fun taking pictures under the big BYU Bell. That's where I had my graduation pictures taken in 2006. Good memories~~
Me and my parents in 2006~~

Fighting, Megan~~

Megan took the GMAT on Monday. BYU business school requires 680, and she got 630 :-( She has to take it again in a month. She's pretty disappointment. I felt bad for her but didn't know what to do other than giving her encouragement. Maybe I'll study the GMAT and figure out some strategies to help her. I wish she's taking the TOEFL.

Anyway, John and I decided to take her for some icecream and get her mind off the test for a while. So we went to Cold Stone. She seemed to like it.

In order to work off our calories, John and I walked to the cougar statue outside the stadium and had fun playing with the cougar.

They just put a new bench outside our window for the bus stop. My hot hubby :-)
I hope Megan will feel better soon and ace the test next time :-) I know she will! Fighting~~

End of Semester Fun

I finished my classes at Selnate last week. Now I only have one more week of ELC and then, VACATION!! I can't wait. I'm very grateful for my job. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father gave me something I really enjoy doing and have become good at. I feel great being able to make a small difference in the lives of my students. They gave me very high ratings at the end of the semester and I'm grateful for that as well. It made all my work worth it.

Closing social at Selnate
in front of our phrasal verb wall

My ELC level 1 students were learning about food. So we had a recipe showdown. It was great fun.
We had food from Japan, Equador, Mexico, Venesula, Chile, and China!

Very Full~~

July 24: Utah Pioneer Day

I had Friday off and enjoyed a long weekend for Pioneer Day celebration.

On Friday, John and I went to Taste of Utah Valley in downtown Provo. It was so much fun. We paid $10 each and was able to taste delicious food from 25 local restaurants. Our favorites are Rooster, Sizzlers, and Spoon Me. Oh john also liked the Sweet Ham place, whatever it's name is.
John at the Tucano's line. Our hands were so full that I only took one picture from the fair :-)

We were gonna have a BBQ with soem friends in the evening, but we had to cancel it because we ate so much food and took so much home. But we did go over to my friend Kate's house and cooked some SMORES in the evening!!
Picking tomatillos at Emily's garden


The apple something hotdogs are very tasty!

Then on Saturday, we took Megan to the Oquirre Mountain Temple Open House. This is the first time I've been to an open house as well. So it was a lot of fun! I LOVE THE TEMPLE. Megan was very impressed at how beautiful the inside of the temple is. she's also surprised that people could get married in it. She decided she'd get married in the Temple someday. Yay!! Mission accomplished!

Megan and I happened to wear the same outfit :-)

A couple more weeks, then comes my BIG BREAK!!

My Names

Yesterday was a big mail day! I got my Green Card with my new name on it; I also got my marriage and birth certificates back from the government; Naisi also sent me two letters.

So 300 dollars and 4 months later, I officially became Sherry Li Carr. Hopefully this is the name I'll use for the rest of my life. NO MORE name changes!!

If you're bored to death right now and have nothing better to do, you can read on about my name stories. But this post is for my posterity to come, so they don't get confused in their geneology work :-)

I have four names, just secular. My parents started me with Li Yong李勇, meaning brave, which is 100% a boy's name in China. But I was the only girl of all my cousins on my dad's side. So they decided to blend me in with a boy's name. I didn't mind it at all. I grew up as a Tom Boy.

This lasted till I had to get my ID, which is almost the end of high school. In my dialect, the Y and R sounds are the same. So the ID officer put down my name for Li Rong李荣，meaning glory, because it sounded more like a girl's name. Somehow, my mom didn't see it and it stayed on my ID and couldn't be changed.

So up till college, all my friends know me as Li Yong. And after that, people know me as Li Rong. It's very confusing when my friends from high school and college get together and would call me differently. I almost had identity crisis in college.

In college, I met my first foreign teacher from America. He had such a hard time remembering our names that he decided to give us English names. He passed a name list around and when the list came to me, Sherry was the only one that sounded nice. So I became Sherry Li for my foreign friends. I continued to use this name after I came to America. But legally I'm still Rong Li, and I HATED it! Why? Because they always call me "Wrong". "Are you wrong?" "Uggh... No!! YOU are WRONG!"

"Honey, you're wrong!" "No sweety, YOU are Rong(Wrong)! " John never gets tired of this silly inside joke.

So when I married John, I decided to change my name into Sherry Li Carr. But beause it involves the change of my first name, I had to go to court. When we got there, the clerk in the hall asked me "why are you changing your first name?" I answered, "because it's wrong (Rong)". "Wrong? How can a name be wrong?" She got really confused and we got a big kick out of it :-)

Now all my legal documents show me as SHERRY LI CARR except my Chinese passport, which will remain the same until I get an American passport! My life seems so much simpler. I hope I'll never have to explain to my employers about my names any more.

Okonomiyaki, aka Japanese Pizza

Every month on the 1st Friday, Selnate has a Student Food Day where students would bring food from their own countries. They would bring all the ingredients and demonstrate how to cook it in front of everybody. They also give out recipes so you can go home and try it yourself.

Today happens to be Japan Day. So two of my Japanese students showed us how to make Okonomiyaki, a Japanese style pizza. The word Okonomiyaki means "favorite food" in Japanese. And indeed it was, in Rachel Ray's word, YUMO!!

the "crust" is a mixture of flour, water, cabbage, and green onion. You can add any topping you like: shrimp, squid, octopus, rice cake, beef, pork, chicken... the sky is the limit :-)

Chef Akihito and Chef Hiryo

This is mine :-)

I love my job because I learn new and fun things everyday :-)