Whatcha Doin? Where ya been?

Gosh!  I guess it has been a while since I've been on here to let you all know what we've been up to.  Sorry about that!

Well I have some good news.  I'll catch you all up in one big post.  Get some coffee.  Get some cookies.  It might take you a while....

December:

Crazy month at school made all better by lunch with monks.  Right down the street is one of China's most famous temples (okay one of the thousands) Nanputo Temple.  One of our co-workers is friends with an ex-monk, Dylan.  Dylan does some out reach for the temple, including providing English services for them.  Because he is so generous with his time, they allow him to invite guests to eat with the monks. 

Let me just tell you, it was a very cool experience.  We didn't feel it was right to take pictures (except the one below), so I'll briefly tell you about it. 

Imagine this:  You walk into a giant mess hall.  There are about 100 or so monks (all with shaved heads and yellow robes).  You take a bench with three bowls in front of you.  Then in walks head monk.  They hit a gong, and start singing/praying.  It was beautiful. 

Next, servant monks (I don't know what else to call them) come around, ladling out food.  You can have as much or as little as you like.  Oh and it is all vegetarian.  And it is delicious! 

We dig in, but before we know it, a gong is hit again and the monks start chanting.  The head monk, walks out.  Lunch is done. 

Total time eating lunch.

Ten minutes.

But completely worth every minute of it.

December 17:

Our 6th anniversary and last day of school.

December 18 -January 1:

THAILAND!!!

Instead of writing a huge long narrative about it, I'll just post some pictures below.  Of course there are more to be edited, but you'll get the idea with these....

If you want to see the non-blurry versions of these pictures, go ahead and click the link to the right.  It will show you the edited pictures!