Friday, May 20, 2011

Pictures!

We couldn't load them on here directly but we opened a Flickr account under "tscrandall" so check out our pictures there. We don't know much about Flickr so let us know if you can't see them.

Hope you enjoy!

One week down, 200 or so to go

This week has been full of running errands, getting lost, and meeting people. We found a great little American-ish grocery store a bus ride a way were we can get most of what we need including the most scrumptious bacon, and pig feet (In case we ever need pig feet). There is also a great night market just a few minutes’ walk down the street where we can buy anything for super cheap including ipads, PSPs, and anything you can get in a department store here.

Our neighbors are getting used to seeing us every day. We’ve made friends with the egg lady, the market lady, the fruit lady, and hopefully soon the bread and candy ladies. We became friends with the head hancho of the neighborhood who got Miranda an interview with the Kindergarten right by our house. They offered her a part-time job but we are waiting to see if we can find her any full-time work before we commit. We are also thinking of teaching English right out of our house; there are hundreds of kids in our neighborhood.

We made the hour long subway ride to my school this week and looked around. It was a SUPER nice place. I’ve also decided to take my classes in Chinese instead of English like originally planned. They are offering a Chinese class this summer for foreigners to help prepare them, so that will help my Chinese big time. I’m really nervous about doing it in Chinese but in the long run I would regret it if I didn’t. My Chinese has already improved tons just being here a week. Miranda is also starting to speak Chinese, she practices about 2 hours a day, she even ordered frys and a sundae at McDonalds all by herself!

We are loving it here so far and are so excited for the next 4 years!!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Home at last

It has been an extremely LONG week for sure. There is so much to write about I don’t know where to begin so I’ll start with the super painful flight over. It sucked. We went from Phoenix at 7:30 Wednesday morning, to LAX, to Shanghai, to finally arriving in Hong Kong at 11:45 Thursday night. We only stayed in Hong Kong long enough to take a few pictures looking at the island, then it was off to our new home in Guangzhou.

Our home is extremely extremely Chinese. Like, to the max. We are in a cool neighborhood one notch better than the ghettos. Our house is about the same as our house in Mesa, the only differences are that we have to boil our drinking water,  squat to go #2, flush the toilet by pouring a bucket of water into it, sleep on a piece of plywood, hand wash our clothes, and be stared at by all our neighbors. Oh, and the eggs we bought here have chicken poop on them, that wouldn’t fly at Wal-Mart in Gilbert.

I looked up our address on Google maps before we left but the actual location is about 10 miles to the west. It’s very lame considering now we are really far from my school. We aren’t sure about whether or not we are going to move closer or tough it out here.

We’ve already seen a lot of the city from our adventure of going to church today. It took 4 buses, a taxi, 3 miles of walking and 1hour 40minutes to find it but we did. Getting home it only took 3 subways, 1 bus, 5 miles of walking and 1.5 hours. It’s super crazy how many 30 story apartment complexes there is in this city, they’re everywhere!

We couldn't add any photos in this post because of [CENSORED], but we'll try again later.
Tyler and Miranda

BTW: We’ve eaten McDonalds 3 times in 2 days.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Last Goodbyes

Now that we are down to the last couple days of our time left here in America, (we leave Wed. morning) we have been saying a lot of goodbyes and eating a lot of American food for the last time. It's still almost surreal that we are moving to China under the conditions that we are: very little money, no jobs, no belongings, and no sense of direction when we get there. We are in a sense burning our ships with no intentions of coming back (except to visit) for a long time, if ever.

With both of us being as crazy as we are, this isn't the first time, and probably wont be the last time we do something like this. Anywho, if we didn't get the chance to say goodbye to you, goodbye. Below is our contact info:

VOIP phone: 602-903-6153
Email: tscrandall@gmail.com
       captinboatshoes@gmail.com
Skype: tyler.crandall

BTW: We got our wedding pictures back. here is a sample of how they turned out

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The drive from hell is over

We made it home! After driving to and from Salt Lake this weekend in a VW death trap we are now safely home. We had a lot of fun being with friends. We were lucky enough to have a place to say in both Cedar City and Salt Lake thanks to the Sheehans. The drive could have been 1,000 times worst but luckily nothing went wrong, it just took forever and we froze our feet off driving in Utah. Little Miss. Sue the VW did great.

Check out Miranda's pimp new hair cut thanks to Brigitte. 


Overall it was a great weekend. We saw a helicopter land on the I-15, a BMW smashed into a Smart Car (2 different accidents btw), Justin Bieber twice, Austin Powers, 2 dogs that are the offspring of a horse, bear and wolf mix, a 200 year old chapel, head dresses worn by legit witch doctors from Africa, snow, the world's tallest bridge, and TONS of friends I haven't seen in a long time. All with the awesomest gal I know, Miranda.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Journey to the Holy Land

After much deliberation we've decided to head up to Utah for the weekend. I have a mission reunion on Friday night in Bountiful we really want to got to. To save on gas money we're driving Miranda's 72' VW Bug.

 It's name is "Sue the VW."

Top speed: 65 mph, downhill, with a tail wind. To say the least, the driving should be a loooong experience worth forgetting. We changed it's oil and loaded the hood up with all the tools and tow ropes I own for when we break down. We even fixed the CD player so we can listen to tunes on the way.

The kicker of the whole thing is that we can't leave until tonight around 8:30. I baptized a Chinese family (the Ni's) over a year ago and now they are going through the Temple tonight. We really want to be there and support them but also want to be at the reunion, so, we're doing both!

In Utah, we'll also be able to see a best friend of mine, Ben, that is coming down from Idaho with his wife Brigitte. She is an awesome hair stylist that is going to cut our hair Saturday night.

We aren't 100% sure when we're going home, maybe Sunday, maybe Monday...we don't know yet. The main goal for this trip is to eat at the most delicious fast food joint, Arctic Circle, and have me a pastrami burger with tons of FRY SAUCE and and a to-die-for shake. Yum Yum

Tune in next week for the trip stats.

Tyler & Miranda

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Hooray! We have a blog now!

Welcome! This is our amazing, awesome, totally cool BLOG! We got tired of telling our excellent adventures over and over so we decided to start this blog so you all can follow along with us on our journeys. 

Hello, I'm Tyler 


This is my woman, Miranda


And this is our pet fish, named Tuna, and snake named Toby




We just got married on 3/11/11. We're pretty cool people. If you don't believe us, this is us on a quad riding down the beaches of Mexico on our honeymoon.



Well now that we're married, moved out and on our own, we've decided to pack up and head off to China, because, well, why the heck not?? We leave May 11 at 7:35am and are counting down the days. We have no job for either of us when we get there, no place to live, and best of all no money to live off of. Yeah, we're pretty stinking excited!! 

Neither of us really want to stay here in the valley and just fart around until we have an accident child or something. Instead we want to roam the world and THEN have an accident child or something. 

The plan right now is to move to Guang Zhou (It's a huge city just two hours from Hong Kong), find jobs for the summer, start school in September, and have a chill life in China for a few years (at least 4 so I can graduate). Some people we talk to about all this think we're crazy. Yup, we're not normal, sane, or logical that's for sure, but w.

Anywho, we hope you enjoy our posts and that this blog becomes a great way for you to hear more about our excellent adventures without us actually having to talk. Peace!

Tyler & Miranda