ALASTAIR + LALEINIA

We order drinks from a local shopkeeper about every two weeks. This delivery, we ordered water, Pepsi, Sprite, and Fanta (orange soda). He arrived with our boxes of beverages, but our order of Fanta was not there. In its place, there was a box of an assortment of Santas. So instead of getting 6 bottles of Fantas, we got 6 Santas. After gaining our composure from our fit of laughter, we decided to buy a Santa. Just a minor miscommunication to start off the Christmas season!

We teach. Alastair and I teach at a school called Luoyang #2 Foreign Language School. We teach at the middle school Monday- Thursday. On Thursday and Friday I (Lain) teach at the primary school and Alastair teaches only on Fridays.  This week, I decided to take the camera with us at the primary school so we could snap pictures of the students. Enjoy! Recess "I like: lollipops and ice cream." Pretty much what every kid drew. My students Alastair told them to smile instead of raising their hand. This is what he got, the "open real wide smile." Boy in the center, my favorite!

Mango smoothie, 8 pizzas, mashed potatoes, clam chowder, and cheesecake! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love feasting and being in the company of my family. This year, of course, was exceptionally different. We did have a feast. Instead of the traditional turkey, we had pizza. Instead of my family, we enjoyed the company of our colleagues. Alastair and I are both thankful for a wonderful school who treated us to dinner. Li and Kim, our liaisons This Thanksgiving was one of the best Thanksgivings because it helped me to celebrate the true meaning of this holiday. Of course, I'm thankful for my Alastair, family, my Heavenly Father, my Savior, and everything in between. But, I'm especially thankful to have had this experience of living and teaching in China. Today, it hit me like a brick wall that we are leaving in 5 weeks. I well up with tears thinking of leaving so soon. The best thing I can do is enjoy these last few weeks and to leave with no regrets...

Sometimes you just need to get away from your surroundings. Like in Modesto, you just need to take a trip to San Francisco every so often. We just had to get a change of scenery, so we went for a quick weekend trip to Xi'an. We already went to the Terracotta Warriors, so we didn't do that again. We just spent the weekend shopping at Muslim Quarter, eating delicious barbecue, and making a few trips to Dunkin' Doughnuts. There's just some things you miss when you don't get it too often, like doughnuts and hot chocolate, especially when it's getting cooler. It was nice to just sit and relax while sipping on hot chocolate.  While in Xi'an, we decided to check out a museum. We really enjoyed looking at all the statues. The lighting on the subjects made it exceptionally magnificent.   Our favorite part of this trip was admiring all the colorful leaves falling from the trees. There were all hues of red, green, yellow, and brown. It finally felt like fall. ...

Sneaking out of your classroom to sneak into the other foreign teachers' classes just to scare the living daylights out of the students... BEST HALLOWEEN EVER! You should have seen the look on their faces.

Longmen Grottoes is one of the most spectacular places I have ever been. Alastair and I don't know much about Buddhism, but we can sure appreciate it. The most important thing to understand is that Luoyang is old and filled with history. There's much to see pertaining to historical events, but Luoyang has one gem; Longmen Grottoes. There's a cliff face along a river that has been carved out with Buddha's of all shapes and sizes. Small, medium, and large Buddhas. They are everywhere! Buddhas are along the sides of the walls and standing prominently in caves. They were once painted, but now are weathered from the elements. The most unfortunate thing about this place is that a while ago, people carved the Buddhas out to make a little cash. This is now a world heritage site, so they are doing all they can to preserve. The faces and missing Buddhas will never be returned, but we can admire what has remained.  They have added features to make this place more spec...

Did you know there was an Aquarium in the middle of China? From sharks, sea turtles, mermaids and mermen, the best part of Ocean Park, Luoyang, China, was the sea lion show. For 10 Yuan, you can get a picture with this slippery thespian, but watch out... he will getcha. And if you play your cards right, he will give you a smooch, right in your hair, in between fishy snacks. It's sad, we didn't even get its name.

What a wonderful eighteen months of marriage it has been! We are adding to our travel log, and have now traveled in 5 different countries, or regions, being the USA, Canada, China, Hong Kong and the Philippines! We are really enjoying our time in Asia. We don't have huge travel plans for the next six months, apart from going back to Rexburg for school, but you never know. We will probably go somewhere interesting in China before we head back to America.

Tradition holds Luoyang as the origin of Chinese Buddhism. We spent the day visiting White Horse Temple, with the many different buildings that were really interesting. Since we do not speak Chinese, and no one was there to translate for us, we basically just wandered around, admiring the beautiful scenery. We conversed about the few facts that we had learned beforehand, and tried to soak it all in. At one point, we saw three white pigeons, which looked so peaceful and happy. As we were trying to be one with nature (mostly because we didn't understand anything else), Alastair tried to summon the birds, albeit with little to no success. NO IDEA why Alastair's shirt is tucked in Along with the ancient White Horse Temple, there are new temples being built that represent Buddhist temples from other countries. We were able to go inside a Thai temple, and also an Indian temple, which were both very interesting. They both were ornate with their own cultural trimmings, s...

Back to Hong Kong we went for another adventure. Our first stop was to go and see the big Buddha on Lantau Island. Bear in mind that throughout our whole vacation, planning was not of paramount importance, but somehow we always managed to get where we wanted! It was really cool seeing one of those lampposts that show the direction of other cities, along with their distance. Safe to say, we are very far away from familiarity, but we are loving every minute of it! We had to walk up 240-ish steps to get to the top, but it really was cool. We were amazed at just how big big Buddha is! Lantau Island is really different to the stereotypical Hong Kong. There were many many trees and winding roads, and we also passed some small beaches. It was all very peaceful, a place that we could see ourselves living if we have a ended up in the Hong Kong area. In fact, it was so peaceful that we ended up sleeping for most of the bus ride there and back. We were very tired! After doing a little...