Hali's Adventure

Fall traditions as told by Hannah

2011-10-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

Fall Traditions as told by Hannah

Hi Grammy,

It's fall. The leaves have already begun changing and you can smell it in the air. The tree branches are starting to droop under the weight of the fruit. The nashi tree is full and should probably be thinned...years of doing it alongside with you has taught us well. Don't worry, we'll keep Jan away from it.

We picked the plums this weekend...they are sweet and the ones that fell to the ground squished under our feet when we weren't watching where we were stepping. The apple trees, too, have come on...we'll make pie filling, I'm sure. And the ones that fell from the tree early or that the worms got to? Yep, we'll play baseball with them, just like we always do.

We've picked all the berries. Don't worry, we didn't miss the ones underneath because standing on our heads is second nature now. Only thing is that more berries probably went into our bellies than into our buckets...but I'm sure you're not surprised by that.

We've harvested the corn and tomatoes...we've pulled up the soy bean plants and picked off the pods. I made some and took them to work to share. It pleased me greatly when I realized that's what you would have done. No one's home grown soy beans are better than yours, Gram.

Vegetable Olympics will be coming up soon...mud football to follow. We bottled tomatoes a little while back. Grammy, I told Harmony that if you were here you'd scold her for not cutting them to the right size. I mean, they were just ridiculously large! Mits did a lot of beans, too. No canned or factory bottled greens could ever rival yours.

The hibiscuses bloomed and are now gone for the season. They remind me of you, the hibiscuses do. They are bright and beautiful and full of life.

The walnuts need just a little more time...they're starting to fall. And the pecan tree is huuuge! I swear it grew ten times as big this year and there are so many pecans on it! We'll climb those trees soon and shake the branches until all the nuts come down. We'll wear buckets on our heads for protection as we run around trying to catch the falling nuts. We'll clean and crack and harvest those nuts...perhaps not as diligently as you did, but we'll try our best.

Your trees and garden will be going to sleep for the winter soon...and then in no time they'll be blooming again. That, I think, is an analogy for a greater Plan. And oh, how one's soul sings at the thought of it.

I miss you, Gram. See you later, alligator.

Love,
Hannah

An average day with the Hesley/Walker clans.... as told by Hannah

2011-08-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

This is what happens on summer days with nothing to do....as told by The Han
My older sister, Harmony (the short, spunky, sassy one) has gone a bit weirdy lately with her food choices. I don't remember the last time I went home and we had normal food. This weekend:

Me: Why have you gone weird? And how long is it going to last? I'm sick of waffles made with flax seed.

Harmony: With a name like Harmony it was going to happen sooner or later. Deal with it.

Me: Ugh.

later...

Me: Do we have any Otter Pops?

Harmony: No, do you want a spinach smoothie? It has fruit in it.

Me: Fruit and spinach? No thanks, I would like an Otter Pop.

Harmony: Let me make you a smoothie.

Derek: We have some Otter Pops in the freezer.

Me: Hurray!

Harmony: No! Let me make you a smoothie.

Me: Noooo. Harm, Otter Pops are delicious, they make the world go 'round.

Harmony: Yeah, round.

...delayed response...

Me: HA! That WAS funny! Very clever, good one.

Harmony: I know, I know. So let me make you a spinach smoothie.

Me: Nope, got an Otter Pop, I'm gonna go eat it with Kona.

Little sister, Hali (the long-haired exotic-looking one), was also home this weekend. I wanted to watch Swamp People (a story for another day), Harmony wanted to reupholster a couch, Derek wanted to do...something (probably a nerdy computer game), and Hali...well...

Hali: Coooooome outside and sit with me!

Harmony: How 'bout we do my couch!

Derek: Neither of those sound fun.

Hali: Buuuuuut it's nice outside. Anana, come outside with me.

Me: Meh...I want to cuddle with The Kona and watch Swamp People.

...a few minutes passed, Hali disappeared and the rest of us went about what we were previously doing.

Harmony: Where is Hali?

Me: I dunno...

...I went to the front room and looked out the window...

Hahaha. Of course, we laughed and took photos before joining her, it was just so cute and precious...gotta love the baby of the family. She was sooooo happy and wanted nothing more than to use her new hammock. Coincidentally, she was reading one of the crazy food books that Harmony has been reading.

And the reason I love my family? After sitting outside and talking for a while, Harmony did make us weird smoothies (which I fed to Kona), I helped her reupholster her couch, and then we watched Swamp People all together! Swamp People has become a recent obsession which I will explain in further detail at a later date.

The rest of the weekend was spent helping out in the yard and garden at G-Ma Oka's where I skillfully pruned her bonsai trees into practically perfect spheres. I wielded that electric pruner with great talent. Unfortunately, Grandma is getting up there in years and is no longer able to come outside. Such a shame that she was not there to kibitz that I missed a spot here or there like tradition holds. Or to tell me how lucky I am to have the miracle of electricity, because years ago she did this by hand with naught but some hand sheers.

And what about Kona, you ask? What did one of the most featured characters on this blog do with her weekend? The usual: laid around, went with us everywhere and watched us work.

Oh the memories

2011-05-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

A list of fun things/qoutes we did for spring break 2010

(We wrote a list of memorable things on a chilis to go box that Haley Jeane found under her bed)

Saw Kobe Bryant

Rode Buffalo Bills

Got lost... a lot

Survived a 4.4 earthquake

Hali touched the fish in China Town

Sword fought with grocery dividers

Stretched on the set of YES MAN

Got naked in the street

Bonfire on the beach

Had boardwalk romances

Spent WAY too much money!

Met cute boys on the freeway

Dodged tumbleweeds

Screamed really loud on rides (especially Laura)

Hali got her mickey balloon

Rob got a picture with a girl with a "Rob" tattoo

Boogy boarded at midnight

Caught rabbits

Met Aladdin

Watched someone get engaged

Went to a sea shell graveyard

Became missionaries in China Town

Got stuck on a roller coaster

Built HUGE sand castles!

Did baptisms for the dead in the Newport Beach Temple

Went house hunting for celebrity cribs

Pyramid on the beach with random people

Squished 6 girls in Hali's car many times

Experienced Hali's wrath

Awesome Quotes:

"Spring Break Oh Ten! Take off your shirt!"

"On a different note, look how many light switches there are!" -Mitch

"Where do you find people with one leg?" -Trevor "In a zoo!" -Haley

"You know you're a true friend when you can pick your friend's butt." -Jessica

"I'm the least experienced in life! Yes!" -Laura

"I've always imagined this is what the celestial kingdom would be like" (About Disneyland) -Katie

"When I put these glasses on its like a whole new world!" -Aladdin

"It's on your birdy!" -Ashley

"Have a six flags day!" -Six Flags Idiot

"Have a mitchin day!" -Mitch

"It looks like they just threw up Trojans all over the wall." -Jessica

This is going to summarize our Easter...

2011-04-28T16:53:00.001-07:00

Just go to Hannah's blog... love it

http://nannersh2.blogspot.com/

2011-02-10T19:33:00.000-08:00

So I guess its blogging time again.

So I live in the Ivy house with 7 girls.

One lives in the back half of our living room.

The house is constantly freezing cold.

Sometimes late at night you can hear us screaming about nonsense like the bachelor..

or you can hear us singing to Celine Dion

This is Ashley.

She has curly hair and is studying photography.

She is in love with cookies and Kevin.

And we can say anything we want to each other without feeling stupid

love her

This is Jessica Sweat.

She loves finding funny videos on youtube.

She loves photography.

Hearing her mischievous giggle can make anyone laugh. I love it.

Love her.

This is Haley Jeanne Austin

She sometimes goes by Sally.

She is engaged to Max who also goes by Bobby.

We eat cereal for breakfast together and make a noise for every bite we take.
We are five years old.
Love her

This is Laura Luke.

She is known as the business building girl.

She loves to eat string cheese.

We can go to dance parties and dance crazy together without a care.

Love her.

This is Katie Jo Parker.

She is from Ririe, Idaho where she lived on a tree farm.

She is a hospice nurse... she may have more elderly friends than young.

We have three classes together its the best to have a roommate in three classes. I will miss her while she's on her mission.

Love her.

This is Kailey Jean Larsen.

She was in Taiwan for the past 6 months.

She dances like no one is watching... even though everyone is watching.

We do ridiculous pranks together from Mona to boxing, we have fun.

Love her.

These are my roommates!

They are so great.

Bored

2010-11-17T20:59:00.000-08:00

I should be studying right now...

But I just don't wanna.

So I have decided to blog about the things going through my mind right at this moment!

I am so excited to see this tomorrow!

I have a test in anatomy on the circulatory system.. it runs through my head a lot!

Soon this will be my outfit everyday

because Logan loves to make my life miserable

mmmmm Turkey

I want to catch a fish this big...

Well now I am going to watch Harry Potter 6

So its blogging time again...

2010-11-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

Here is what has happened these past 3 months!

Best date ever with Dan!

This is Dan... We do not know how to take a nice picture

This is after our date that consisted of mud fight, water fight, fire and tinfoil dinners

Trevor hit ashley with a stick

A night of silly faces...

Katie

Trevor, Kate, Ashley

Kyle

Gilbert

This was a fun date with Kyle.. four wheeling up in Mantua.. golfing off the mountain!

He is really good at the happy gilmore shot

Ashley started a water fight

which then turned into a sonyo fight (Brazilian pastries)

Haley was watching us trying to look pretty

Happy Halloween! late

Well... I will start blogging again now

2010-09-19T16:28:00.000-07:00

Summer is now over. :(

School has started, but I did do many fun things before summer ended

A big group of us from Logan and Arizona went to Havasupai..

12 hour drive

10 mile hike into the Grand Canyon.

3:00 in the morning. Yes 3:00 in the morning

It is a place filled with waterfalls and rivers.

ITS AWESOME (Google it)

The first three pictures are of the people I was lucky to ride down to Havasupai with.

As you can tell they kept everyone in the car entertained

I love these people


These are the waterfalls that we all jumped off of!

This is where we slept... comfy until it began to rain

This is me and my roommate Ashley... She got hurt jumping off of the waterfalls in the picture above. So we got to helicopter out of the Indian Reservation!


Ah yes, this is 2 of the free roaming dogs at the res. The one on the left hung out with me the night before as I was out searching for my group by myself. I call him Kujo.


Emily went back to Alabama... :)


We then had a girls night out camping. It was me, Chenae, Ashley, Erin, Katie and Laura. Yes we fit 6 girls in a 4 man tent

Then we broke up wood pallets with big rocks. :) very resourceful


We even made our own fire pit!

Next was fishing. I loooove to fish. This guy was caught at First dam. Andrew Ellis helped me catch him

Me, Laura and Haley realized... we each had a box of life cereal. I think its destiny we are roommates. I mean come on we all have the same cereal.

This past Saturday we went to the ReAL game. It was pretty freaking awesome.(Except for the blazing sun)

Me, Shae, Jessica and Laura all went to the ReAL game and sat 5th row. FUN

After the ReAL game we all went to Kevin and Bri's reception in Layton.

So after we decided we all wanted to go do something but were all too lazy to change.

So we went to BOONDOCKS to minigolf all dressed up!

Even the people who were not originally at the reception dressed up for this joyous occasion.

Me, the mama and Anana

Today was family day at church! My mama came up from Layton! :)

Once we got to my house.. we were all very tired and took a little rest on my little bed.

For now I must put all of that fun stuff on hold and study my life away because I have 3 tests coming up.

Anatomy, Physics and Abnormal Psychology.

Everyone should watch how they act around me... cause now that I am in Abnormal Psych I will be diagnosing all of you. I even now diagnose my self.

2010-06-16T06:05:00.000-07:00

MaLaRiA

Well now I have had the “true African” experience

On Monday I was feeling kind of sick in the morning…

Then later that afternoon I had a fever, body aches and chills

My first thought was…man I am going to die in Africa.

Haha

Not really but I really did not want to go to the hospital here

So my house mother made me eat red red( fried plantains and some red sauce)

This by the way is not what you want when you are feeling sick

So of course I threw it up about an hour later

But hey that was okay because my fever broke after that!

And I felt good after that... for the most part

They still made me go to the hospital the next morning… and guess what they said?

You have malaria. (Hahaha its slightly funny)

That is the one thing I think all volunteers worry about getting the most

I am not too sure that I really have malaria

They seem to think anytime you are sick here it must be malaria

But they gave me antibiotics for it

And some for my bowel movements..

So now I will be taking 4 pills 3 times a day.

Whatever makes me better

Cape Coast & Kakum National Park

2010-06-14T03:40:00.000-07:00

Soooo this past weekend/week was pretty awesome

I had lots of African food.

Went to Cape Coast Castle

We also watched these guys pull in a huge net of fish just outside the castle

This is what Obama laid down in the castle... oh my gosh how they love obama here

They have Obama underwear, hotels, water and shirts everywhere.

Fishing area...

Ate at a resturaunt on the beach

Got chased by a little boy holding a creepy looking snake

Cut open my heel. Genius

Pet a wild crocodile while a lady kept it at bay with a stick

Went on an awesome canopy walk through the rain forest

yeah pretty freaking awesome

it was a rope bridge suspended between seven trees 30-40 meters high

I travel with lots of people from other countries.

Japan, Australia, Korea, Scottland, Canada, England, Germany and Russia

All awesome people!

I bought oranges from this cute little girl

And just so all of you know... GHANA won their last World Cup GAME!

Everyone was running out of their houses screaming their heads off.

PRetty hilarious. They started parades

and some had painted themselves

So we got stuck in a spot bar because of a rain storm...

Everyone got a little tipsy and started dancing with the Ghanaians

while the Japanese guy (speaks no english)

was playing the drums and another guy shaking a maraca of some sort

pretty dang fun!

YUP! the the African girls taught us dances...

This is my host mom...

Agnus

These are the girls that work at the hospital with me!

Here is a random picture of a stream I walk over every day

This weekend I am leaving at about 3 in the morning on Friday to go on a

13 hour tro adventure to Mole National Park

We will be going on a Safari, and staying at a hotel that has balconys over looking a watering hole

Where elephants and other animals will be!

They say that you wake up with baboons on your balcony...

Rafiki I am going to find you.

Kumasi!

2010-06-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

Second week

This is Bri, Sarah the younger, and Matt. ( yes I made up the name sarah the younger because there is another sarah who is older)

They live about 5 minutes from me and they are who I hang out with in Koforidua.

Precious isn’t it?

This meal is called Jolaff rice and chicken.

It’s been my favorite so far.

Probably because it is not far from an American dish.

Some of the Ghanaian women from work invited me, Matt, Sarah the younger, and Bri over for lunch.

She fed us Banku,(I think that is how it is spelled)

It is like eating dough that you dip in a fish and vegetable stew.

Pretty delicious and sits at the bottom of your stomach like a

ROCK

I started work at the hospital in the Physiotherapy Ward last Monday.

Things I have seen:

Someone carry what looked like to be at least 50 pounds of junk on her head.

A woman with all of the skin missing on her hand

Lots and lots of stroke patients

A woman with an amputated leg walk for the first time

AND LOTS of naked people.

Normal? In Ghana of course it is normal.

Things I have done this week:

Hand washed all of my clothes

(yes that is my underwear)

Taken bucket baths…. And even some running water showers! Which were glorious.

Taken a taxi to and from work everyday

Poured hot wax on 3 people causing them to scream

Helped stroke patients with their exercises

Ultrasounds, electric stimulation, “microwave” as they call it and infrared

Things I have learned this week:

I need to learn more of the Twi language

I need to almost always bargain for lower prices on things

But the most important thing I have learned is….

GHANAIANS TAKE FOREVER TO DO ANYTHING!

If you ever go to a restaurant you should expect to get your food at least an hour after you order it. We have waited up to 3 hours for our food.

Their sense of time is much different than ours in the west… more they just do whatever whenever.

Anyways…

This weekend we went to a town called Kumasi

It has a huuuuge market.

The Market is also extremely crowded

We had people grabbing us from left and right trying to get us to buy whatever they were selling.

For example one man yelled at me “OBRONI OBRONI! Very pretty, buy my pants, very pretty!” then the man threw the pants at me and so I threw them right back… trying to hit his face.

He sure knew how to get me to buy some pants…

False.

We went through the meat section of the market… it was soooy disgusting.

Animal intestines sprawled everywhere on slabs of wood sitting in the sun.

There were also GIGANTIC snails.

Our next stop was the cultural museum for the Ashanti region.

Needless to say it was not worth the 2 cedis we paid for it.

But we did go to an old military fort which was pretty awesome!

Next we bought some paintings from a man on the street!

I love them

Roommates… can we please use them in our house next year? Yes?

Good!

That night we were lucky enough to eat at a restaurant where they had hamburgers and fries

HAMBERGURS AND FRIES!

We were in heaven.

This is our hotel room.

We slept three to a room. In my room it was me, Nieve and Sloane.

We may or may not have broken the already half broken door so that it no longer locks.

Don't worry dad we stuck a table in front of it every night so no one could get in :)

Here is a little positive poster for you guys at home.

Trip rating: Pretty darn good

This next week I will be going to the Wood Market, Bead Market and then…

Cape Coast for the weekend! YAAYY

P.S. here is a preview to what I get to ride in and see every weekend...

Love you all!

Last week/ This weekend trip!

2010-06-07T06:59:00.000-07:00

Okay… Well sorry about the last post, my computer died before I could finish it!

So I will explain the photos now.

So on the weekends everyone takes a break from work and travels to different parts of Ghana.

We take big vans called tro tros to travel around.

They are extremely squishy with sometimes up to 22 people in the van.

So I got on a tro with some people I had met for an hour 2 days before.

No big deal eh?

There were 5 Canadians, 1 Scottish, and 6 Americans.

It was a 2 hour drive to Accra from Koforidua, then 4 hours to Ada Foah where we went last weekend.

Loooong drive in a cramped van.

But it was fun!

As you can see in Ada Foah the Ghanaians live in mud huts right on the beach.

It was beautiful place to stay!

Of course the doors to each of the huts we stayed in had different countries’ flags painted on them…. Normal right?

I stayed in a hut with Switzerland’s flag painted on the door.

And shared a room with my new friend Sloane.

Saturday we sat on the beach and drank coconut milk from a freshly picked

COCOnut.

Then we had a little water polo type game against some rich Koreans.

The Koreans kept on making bets that the loser would buy winners one beer… then they upped it to 2 beers etc.

We told them we do not have that type of money… So then they said “Is okay we have lots of money, we buy we buy!”

So they bought everyone beer… and water for me!

It was pretty freaking awesome.

The second morning me, Sarah, Ashley, Mark and Kelly watched the sunrise. As we watched fishing boats were starting off their day so we were able to watch them maneuver from the Volta River to the Ocean.

It was awesome!

We all wanted to ride in one of their boats….

And so guess what we got to do?

Yes, you guessed right we got to ride in one of their boats!

A Ghanaian man offered to take us on a boat tour around the Volta River.

(The picture with people looking back at the camera was Bri, Sarah the younger, and Matt.

Where people are looking forward.. it is Mark, Sarah senior, and Kelly)

He showed us where all of the rich white people live…

Then he took us to a rum factory where everyone got a free shot of homemade RUM!

The rest of the group was super happy.. and I was ya know just ecstatic… you know me, bring on the alcohol! NOT haha

But overall the boat ride was great!

And then I made it home in time for dinner.

Trip rating: Fantastic

2010-05-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

Well I am here!

2010-05-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry no pictures for a while!

I am in Ghana!

My host family is very nice!

I have a toilet!

no running water though

I take bucket showers

I woke up to a rooster today

I get called Obroni by all of the locals.(white person)

I get transported by taxi and tro tro.

I was scared to death the first day.

Now I almost feel at home. almost.

Double decker bus tour!

2010-05-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

This is where we are staying, Astor Hostels in Westminster

Well to sum up our first night, I had my first fish n chips in London. pretty good!
Next we went to MAMMA MIA! So fantastic! At the end everyone got up to SING and DANCE to the ending songs! I got the chills it was so awesome..sad I know. But before anyone else stood up there was a 50 year old man dancing by himself. awesome!

We also saw this walking flag

So this will probably be a long post.... but lots of pictures!
On Thursday me and Hannah went on a double decker bus tour around all London!
It was super awesome. If you go to England go on The Original Tour. Best one there is.
First big thing we went to was the Buckingham Palace! We watched the changing of the guard.....sort of boring not going to lie, except for when the marching band came down the street!
HEre is Buckingham Palace!

Next we went to BIG BEN! Just so you guys know, the clock is not Big Ben, its the bell that is Big Ben. Our tour guide made sure everyone knew that multiple times!

I look GOOD here.. long day!

We also saw Westminster Abbey and The Parliament and London EYE (I thought of the eye from Lord of the Rings... don't judge)

Its the EYE!!!

Then we went on a Jack the Ripper Tour... it was sort of scary. It was creepy when we stood in the places some of the girls were found dead at....

Here is our tour guide, he was really intense.

We then went to St. Pauls Cathedral. First thing me and Hannah did was

"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag, tuppence, tuppence a baaaggg."

We also saw where Daniel Radcliff went to school. Awesome. And we saw Gringotts Bank in person, Yes Gringotts Bank.

Today Hannah and I went to the Natural History Museum.
Jessica and Ashley I have one thing to say.
EVOLUTION IS A THEORY!
Yes that is the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the evolution of humans and horse hooves display.
Sorry no picture of the hooves...

But I do have some of huge wales!

And this made me think of you Ashpea, this is a store on OXFORD street.

I have never seen so many people squish on the sidewalk. It is just a huge strip of stores.

The store I loved the most was...Primark!
Everything was so cheap! I got two pairs of shoes for 4 pounds (around six dollars!)
And shirts were 2 pounds! Everything ssooy inexpensive.
But that would be the reason the store had so many people packed in it... I started getting anxiety with all the people.
Anywho time to go to bed!
Ill post again soon!

We have arrived!!

2010-05-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

Checklist:
1. Get to JFK: check
2. Hear someone say cheerio darling! check
3. Sit behind an obnoxiously loud Russian on an overnight flight across the Atlantic: check
(We got complimentary blanket, pillow, toothpaste/brush, eye shades and headphones andlots of movies to watch... which made the obnoxious Russian talking machine seem more bearable)
4. Ride the Underground in London: check5. Get to Astor hostel: check
Pretty cool place to stay? yes ma'am

6. Almost fall down the narrow staircase with my 50pound suitcase in front of a British guy: Check
7. Stay in a room with 12 strangers(Some smelly): check

Doing all of this in 24 hours? Fanditallyastic

Blast off!

2010-05-17T20:14:00.001-07:00

Okay, so this is my first time using my blog... please don't judge.
If you cannot tell I am starting this blog because I am going to GHANA! I'll be doing a physical therapy internship there in a hospital in the city Koforidua. I will be staying with a Ghanaian in this house ...I think my dad's worst fear is me getting eaten by one of these

But no worries dad I've watched Crocodile Dundee, I know how to take one of these big guys down.
But before I go to Ghana, Hannah and I are going to London for a week. She went there last year for study abroad so we will be visiting the city she lived in.
This is Hannah, how she loves England.
I will only be gone a month but I will miss these things:

Family
Kailey

Ericka and Emily
Roommates!

Kona!