We are going to China! For a week! Grammy and Pop are coming too! I can’t wait. It will be so much fun. I have never been to China before (not counting the airport).

I have been learning Chinese at school, so now I am going to get to translate. I know how to order Chocolate Cake and cookies in Chinese. I also know how to order steamed fish and milk, but I probably won’t use that. You can look at the hotel we will be staying at here.

We will go to Mc Donald’s and Starbucks and Hard Rock Café! We are going to the Great Wall and the Chinese zoo to see the pandas too! I hope they have monkeys! FUN FUN FUN!! It will be awesome!

After we go to China we are coming back to Mongolia with my grandparents! They will be here for a week. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!

Well, I haven’t done this in awhile. But I thought I would give you a little update.

When I first started at ISU I didn’t like it that much. I thought the work was pretty hard and I also thought that maybe people didn’t like me. But after a couple of months people started to hang out with and do stuff with me. I felt like I was being accepted at my new school. At first I was hanging out with the Mongolian girls. They were the first ones who wanted to to spend time with me! My Mongolian friends are friendly and a lot of fun to be around! Now, I hang out with all of the girls in my class and they are from all over the world. I have friends from Mongolia, Germany, Wales, India and Norway! How cool is that? When I was in the States I couldn’t imagine having so many friends from so many different places.

Last week I went ice skating with two Mongolian friends and my German friend. The Mongolians made an ice-skating rink right across the street from my apartment. We went the other night for about an hour and it only cost about 50 cents (that’s 600 Mongolian Toogrugs). After ice skating we were all freezing, so we went to Pizza King for pizza. It was a fun day with my friends. Now I look forward to going to school on Mondays because I love hanging out with all of my friends from all over the world.

Today was very hard because we had to say bye to our friends and to Franklin. Almost all my friends were at the airport today. It felt good having my friends at the airport because I know they will they would be there for me even if I am in a different country. The plane trip to Chicago was short and time passed quickly. During the layover in Chicago we got something to eat and relaxed a little. Then, 15 minutes before we left for our next plane trip, we couldn’t find the paper tickets. We were afraid for a moment we would late for our plane, but we found them in time.

I always heard airplane food was awful, but I think it’s pretty good. I had some really good chicken for lunch. I am writing this Blog in the plane, we are flying over northern Canada; we are going over a super bumpy part. Other than that one bumpy part it has been really smooth. We have had a safe trip so far. We are flying right over the North Pole! Thanks everybody for praying for my family, I really appreciate it. Well I have to go now, I love you all and hope you all email, call, comment and write me!

We had our last service at church where my dad will be the pastor today. I was sad because it will probably be the last time my dad and mom will be at our church for a long time. But I know that I will be there again in June and July before we fly to Mongolia. So I am happy about that. I will be there for youth group too. I don’t think I was as sad as my mom and dad because I know that I will be there again. We sang my favorite song that we sing at church “Blessed be your name”, and Miss Lisa sang ” For the Glory of the Lord”. Mr. Trainer talked about holding the rope for our family. That made me feel a lot better because I know that our church will be praying for my family in Mongolia. I know that God will take care of us.

Cori