nly ones who had to prepare though, the teachers and I also had to perform a dance at the program, and I had a piano solo as well. Why all this work you might ask... Well let's just say that the Chinese are very into presentation. These kids are 4, 5, and 6, and they cannot help the fact that they are these ages, besides the little mess ups that occur just add to the cuteness. Well we think so anyway, but the Chinese teachers don't necessarily agree, and they forced us to work the kids until they could do their skits perfectly. My class sang frosty the snowman, and they did a great job, I was so proud of them. There was also a fashion show featuring the younger class, it was cute beyond description. My family will be forced to watch the movie with me, an
d also forced to listen to a description of all of the kids little personality quirks...whether they want to or not. Today I had the unfortunate experience of having to say goodbye to my 37 new little friends. Who would have thought that in 4 months we would get so attached to all of their cute little faces? We had a slide show prepared that we watched with the kids, and then the tears started flowing. Some of the kids are old enough to understand that we are leaving, and it was way sad to see them cry about it. The other kids got way confused, they did not understand why all of their teachers were crying, but they were quick to give hugs to try to fix the problem.
me up. Then it is on to Cedar City for a weekend at Megan and Andrew's. I am super excited, I can't wait for all the family fun.
getting back to Cedar City for school. Oh and running, I am looking forward to running again, you see none of the other teachers like to run, and since we are not allowed out alone, my running has been very restricted. Since Megan and I are planning on running the half marathon in March, I better get training.
I know this post is a little late, but better late than never.
ese microwaveable meals tasted amazing to us.
wife, the guard and his wife, Annie (our coordinator) and her boyfriend, and a few of the Chinese teachers. There were 18 of us total. We made some mashed potatoes, pumpkin cookies, corn bread, jello, pudding, stuffing, and even a pumpkin pie. Annie made some Chinese food too. After all the cooking was done the feast stared. Our Chinese friends were very hesitant to try the American food but we eventually got them to. Once they tried it they really liked it, especially the mashed potatoes. They were so happy that we had invited them to our Thanksgiving dinner.
A post for my little buddy back in America. This is ULTRAMAN, he is the biggest Chinese action figure around. Why you might ask??—well his ability to make himself get bigger and bigger might have something to do with it.
Last weekend we went on a super fun vacation to Yangshuo. (A little side information about Yangshou. There are hills and mountains that pop up randomly everywhere; it is like living in Dr. Seuss world. We were so excited to see mountains again. Also they have a great mixture of Western and Chinese food. We would usually order something like a burger, and a Chinese dish, and then split up everything. It was great!) Ok on with the vacation…We took a sleeper bus, and ended up getting dropped off at a random street corner at 5:00 AM. We immediately ran into the con artists that our travel books warned us about. They tell you that they work for your hostel, or that they can get you tickets or tours to places, then they either try to sell you things, or they take you to fake destinations. The one we ran into actually almost got in a fight with the guy that was really trying to help us. Anyway we did make it to our hostel, and after some breakfast we rented bikes and started out for the caves. These are water caves so we climbed into a boat and they take you deeper into the cave. After a little tour of the cave 
we put on our swimming suits and were ready to play in the mud. The mud is not very deep, and it was pretty cold, but it was lots of fun to play in. After getting all nice and muddy, we were ready to hit the hot springs, and boy did they feel good. After the caves we grabbed lunch, and then headed off to hike to the center of moon hill. It was definitely colder in Yangshuo than it was in Xiaolan, so we were pretty cold and ready for a nice warm dinner after all the biking and hiking. The next day it was raining, but we were determined not to waste our vacation, so we did a bamboo raft tour in the rain. It was freezing!!! I am still glad we did it, but I would not have 
complained if it had only been half as long. That night we geared up with hats and gloves and coats so that we could tackle the rice terraces the next day. On our way to the terraces we stopped at the long haired village. They do a little show, and 4 lucky guys from the audience even have the chance to get married. Strange cultural quirk; in the village pinching someone’s bum means you love them, so we got pinched a lot, and let me tell you – they really go at it. Next we go on up to the rice terraces. It is a bit of hiking to get to the top, but since I love hiking, I did not mind at all. The hills look so cool; they are completely covered with terraces for farming. That night we decided 
to go dancing. Fact; Chinese guys cannot dance, but it is sure fun to watch them try. The Chinese get pretty excited about Americans, so they all wanted to get to dance with us. Guys kept offering us shots and beer, but we were just there to dance. Some guys even tried to get us up on the pole with them, but we were definitely not having any of that. Interestingly enough, the guys have no problem dancing on the pole with each other. It was a pretty funny night. The next day we rode a freezing cold sleeper bus for 13 hours and got back in Xiaolan around 1:00 in the morning very disappointed to find that it was just as cold as it had been in Yangshuo. Unfortunately 
we don’t have heat, so we now wear our coats, hats, and gloves all the time, even when we teach and sleep (it is really annoying). Pretty strange since just the week before we were in shorts with the AC on. Fun times in China!!
The kids that we teach at the school are super cute. We teach 3 older classes, and 2 younger classes. It is really fun seeing all the different personality traits that 
gs, or 
even group hugs where we feel like we are going to fall over. It is so fun.
sitting in class reading a story.
Halloween here was awesome. We dressed up on Friday for classes with the kids. After teaching only 3 classes, we got our classes back, and once the bags were decorated the Trick-or-Treating started (or the madness as it is more accurately titled). It was so funny to listen to the kids try to say Trick-or-Treat, and they kept coming back over and over for more candy. Next we did the donut on a string game, a game that is a little lost on the Chinese because the donuts here leave a little to be desired. Anyway it was hilarious to watch the kids try to eat the 
donuts. Some of them were concentrating so hard, but they just could not manage to succeed at getting the donut into their mouths. There was a little sprinkling of sugar on top of the donuts, really not much at all, but the kids still managed to have sugar all over their faces. It was a really fun day.
was way sad to hear them say, “No teacher, no,” when they were scared.
This is my tiny spot on the train
Terracotta Warriors
