Reflectively Soaring

One night we decided to set off a Chinese lantern. I felt like I was on Tangled. It was so magical!

Nathan was trying to fix it because Natalie broke it. I was holding the flashlight.

Time to set it off!

I was in charge of the lighter! Mwhahaha!

It wasn't snowing. I don't know why it looks like it is. It took me like 5 minutes to light the thing.

There it goes! We were just hoping that it wouldn't catch fire and burn down a building.

Me and Natalie walking home.

Our Scrumptious Composition of Thanksgiving in Linchuan

We had a Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday after Thanksgiving with some foreigners in Linchuan. It was nice to speak with fluent English speakers and eat American food (for the most part).

Jbiggs, Angela and Josh. That black bag has our deep-fried turkey in it. YUM!
Josh and some peeps helping prepare the meal.

That end of the table got really drunk. I think they put the Mormons (us) in the middle of the table to balance out the drunks.

Mashed potatoes, chicken pot pie and green bean casserole.

More drinking people.

Josh and Angela in front of our turkey.

My plate of American food!

Guilin

My group took a trip down to Guilin for a few days. It was really pretty!

Some guys fishing.
A view of the river. People were swimming in this river too. I thought they were going to get hit my the huge boats, but I don't think any of them ever did.

Behind all of these leaves is Elephant Rock. We didn't want to pay to go see it so this is what we saw. Don't worry, I bought a post card that has a picture of it.

Guilin is so green! I love it!

In China, you either ride a scooter or you drive a really nice car.

I wanted Natalie to get on top of the Lion, but I guess she didn't want to get yelled at by the Chinese guard (not pictured).

Not sure what to say about this picture. I just thought, "cool table. Take a picture."

This is Guilin at night. Sorry, all of my pictures turned out blurry.

I'm not sure what they were building, but they were working hard on it. All I saw them doing was putting water into buckets. If they are trying to move the river, this could take a while.

A place where people go to BBQ...seriously.

One of the streets we went down to buy some junk.

We took a river tour through the mountains. The Dr. Seuss mountains were awesome! I think Dr. Seuss came here before he wrote his books.

Natalie chillin on our boat.

These were the rafts that took us along the river. 8 PVC pipes tied together with chairs on top. We were riding in style!

Now THAT is what I wanted to do. Read a book while floating on a raft. It sounds so relaxing.

More of the Dr. Seuss mountains with the Dr. Seuss trees.

Me on the river boat. Don't you love my outfit? Pink and orange go great together. ;)

A family riding their raft up the river to sell things in the market.

Natalie, me and Angela. We bought our crowns for 1 yuan (about 15 cents) each

I just had to take a picture of this guy. The glasses top off the outfit.

Me on the bus ride to our next stop

This tree is over 1,000 years old. WOW! Now that's what I call the tree of life!

Me on a dock

I held a monkey. He shook my hand and then jumped into my arms. He was so cute! He kind of reminded me of the Chinese children because his pants were cut out so he could go to the bathroom.

Angela and me on the bus ride

Why are Chinese kids so stinkin cute??

ah...I love Guilin

Me in front of the tiny lake

These are scorpions! I guess you can order them in the restaurant and they are fresh.

More bus ride fun

I really don't like this picture of me, but it had to go on here. Angela, Jbiggs, me, Helen and Natalie with random horses in a park. We probably should have taken the picture with the front of the horse...

Halloween!

This year for Halloween we dressed all of our kids up and took the trick-or-treating around to our 5 classrooms. I don't think they really understood what was going on, but it was fun to dress them up and take them around.

Me and my homeroom class. Before you judge me for dressing my boys up like girls, just remember that we have limited supplies...and it's funny.
Miles the grandma. He is holding his wig in his hand.

Jason the mummy.

Kevin the zombie.

Victor the cheerleader. bwahaha! He loved his costume.

Seamus the hippie...well, what's left of his costume.

Tony the chef.

Cody the happy ladybug.

All of the teachers with all of our kids. We can't even get them all to hold still for a picture.

Teachers: Natalie, me, Nathan, Thomas (Chinese art teacher), Josh, Jessica, Angela

Later that night, we went to a party that a high school class put on.

Me and Angela

A kid playing a gourd flute.

Josh and Nathan doing a little karaoke.

Stewart singing a British song.

A Chinese teacher singing a song.

Me, Jessica, Natalie and Angela also did the Thriller dance but I don't have pictures of that. Don't worry, you didn't miss much. We made it up while we were performing it (story of my life in China).