"Adventurous-ness-es"

I've needed to post on here for quite some time. About two weeks ago a new side of Carly that no one, not even myself, knew emerged. It started with a hike. A bunch of people in our ward wanted to hike Mount Timpanogos on Labor Day. They wanted to start at about midnight on Sunday so that we could hike it in time to see the sun rise from the top. I from the get go told them I would not be interested. I'm not a hiking mountains kinda girl.

Sunday afternoon rolled around and I REALLY wanted to do something fun for Labor Day since I had the day off. Becca SOMEHOW talked me into going on this hike. So we leave and head up. It was a good thing it was dark. If I had seen that mountain and how much I had to climb in the light of day there is no way I would have done it.

After about six hours we made it to the top! Wow! What a feeling. I took some beautiful pictures. We stayed up there for about a half hour and then headed down. Everyone said that the hike down would be SO much shorter so I was excited for it to be over with. The way down seemed to take SO much longer than the way up. But after four hours, Chase-one of the guys in our group, said that the sign was coming up. The sign that started our journey. Much to Becca's delight (she still tells the story) I shouted "The Sign?!?" and started RUNNING as fast as my exhausted legs would allow me. We got to the sign (which I kissed) and knew the end was coming. We kept making our way down when Chased said that he heard a car. I once again, shouted "Cars?!?" and started running. I would not be stopped until we had reached the parking lot. The cute park service old men at the end of the trail could not stop laughing when they saw me coming. I'm sure I was the sight to see after a ten hour hike.

So that was Monday. On Thursday I got a text from my friend Austin asking if I'd like to go skydiving on Saturday. He was doing it for his birthday. After several hours of tossing the idea around in my head I consented (WHAT IS UP WITH ME?!) and started planning on jumping out of an airplane on Saturday at eleven.

We drove out to Toole where the skydiving place was. There were so many people that our time kept getting pushed back. Finally at 2:30 it was our turn. We started getting our gear on and my jumping buddy, Blake, and I started talking and I found out that he is a part of the Meibos family! One of my favorite families. So we felt very bonded at this point. We went up in the plane and I was introduced to the Channel 4 weatherman who was sitting in front of me. He asked me what I was thinking and all I could say was "I can't believe I'm doing this!" Finally....we'd made it to 13,000 ft. I put my toes over the edge of the plane door and next thing I knew we were falling for TWO WHOLE MINUTES at 120 mph. Then Blake pulled the chord and the parachute (hallelujah) came out.

We started floating in the clouds. He even let me hold on to the handles of the parachute. Then, after about six minutes of that, we went in for the landing. I completed a PERFECT landing on my feet. So thrilling! I would do it again in a heart beat.

My mom wrote on my facebook wall: "Sky diving-check, Rocky mountain climbing-check check, Next...2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu? I love your adventurous-ness-es."

Me too :)

Speak English?!

The company I work for deals with customers all over the world. On Monday we have a program in Shanghai with Microsoft. The materials we needed for the conference were shipped out WEEKS ahead of time. As of Friday Chinese customs STILL wouldn't let the materials through. Even though we'd provided them with all the necessary paperwork.

So...we came up with plan B. If by noon on Saturday (Shanghai time) the materials hadn't arrived we should just plan on them not being there. So we found the phone number for a FedEx Kinkos that was close to the hotel were our Client Partner is staying. Peter asked me if I would please be in charge of calling them, explaining how we wanted the materials printed, and making sure they would be done in time. When I expressed my concern about the language barrier he responded..."Don't worry. It's an international company. They'll have someone there that speaks English."

I dialed the number for the Kinkos in Shanghai. A woman answered saying SOMETHING. It just sounded like a bunch of sounds to me.

"Uh. Hi. Speak English?"

"A little."

Oh great...this will be fun trying to explain everything to her. I started speaking in the simplest, shortest sentences I could think of. I'd ask a question....

"Ok."

"You understand me?"

"Ok."

Ya....not working. I tried asking if there was ANYONE else I could speak to.

"Ya. Ok. Great. Bye."

I started yelling in the phone. "NO BYE!"

After wayyyyy too long. She communicated that a man who speaks better English would be there in twenty minutes. Great. I'll call back then.

He did speak much better English. MUCH better. Not great. But it worked. And everything was finally figured out. But here are the lessons I learned from this experience:

1. Chinese customs does not care if you need your package.
2. Just because FedEx Kinkos is an international business does not mean that they will have someone who speaks English.
3. Google is very useful when converting RMBs to USDs.
4. If communicating with people in China you MUST be up all hours of the night because thats when they're up and doing business. AKA-I'm EXHAUSTED.
5. My boss owes me BIG TIME!

And...last but not least....

6. Speaking louder does not make it ANY easier for them to understand you. But it sure does make you feel better.