Happy Easter!

Our internet has been down so this Blog is a little late. Last week we decided that we wanted the Easter Bunny to visit us in China. We picked names out of a cup and on Saturday we went shopping for that person. Before we went shopping we decided that we were going to have an amazing Sunday dinner! We decided that we would have garlic mashed potatoes, veggies, corn on the cob and we went to good ol’ KFC and got chicken. We need some meat in our Sunday dinner but we don’t want to buy the meat! It is so sketchy and scary. When we got to the store we split off, Jadie and I then Mandy and Emily. When we got home from shopping we played Pass the Pigs and Emily made us a cake that was so good! It was chocolate cake with rainbow sprinkle frosting on top! It was very American and very fatty. Jadie cheats at Pass the Pigs, I don’t know how but she does, she won both times. Mandy, Jadie, Emily and I then climbed in Jadie’s bed and we watched Jurassic Park, we haven’t seen it in a long time and it is scarier than I thought! We were trying to sneak around but it is hard to be sneaky when 5 other girls are trying to do the same thing. It was no surprise when we got up, the Easter Bunny visited all of us! Lindsey and Amy made us sweet rolls for breakfast that were very American as well. We are getting smarter in making American food. Then we watched the Sunday morning session of conference, which was really good, Jessica our friend from Ireland came over to celebrate Easter with us, she is such a cute girl. We had dinner and it was amazing! We didn’t eat the veggies, carrots and broccoli, because we found bugs in them but everything else was bugless, Mandy and I then taught the girls hand and foot-now we play it all of the time! Overall it was a very nice Easter.

Oh yeah, this picture...

I like this picture because look at the lady next to me, she looks so evil!

More pictures!

Cousins!

Tom and Lily-love them!

FengHuang Hunan

We had another vacation-we went to FengHuang or in other words Phoenix. It was a 14 hour train ride there and then another 3 hour bus ride-very long but worth it. This is an ancient city, about 2,000 years old-it is so old that we didn't see one western toilet, they were all squatters!!!! When we got there we had a complication with our hostel, we booked it online about 5 days ago and the owner (who didn't know English) told us (through Annie on the phone-our Asian helper) there wasn't any reservations and he had no more room. I was nervous we were going to have to get a different hotel that was a lot more expensive, then a couple came in who knew a lot of English, there names were Lily and Tom. I'm so glad we met them because they translated to us and told us the guy was very sorry and he booked us a hotel and paid the difference. Asian people are so nice! Lily and Tom also planned our Sunday activity, I'm so glad we met them because no one knows English there so it would have been a nightmare to plan something-it would have worked though but Tom and Lily they helped us so much. This weekend was a holiday, it is like memorial day, they wear these flower crowns, set off candle lit boats, eat a lot of food and fireworks go off at the cemetery. We walked around town this night (Saturday night). On Sunday we went on a tour that Lily and Tom set up for us. It was awesome! We went to the South Wall, went on a beautiful hike with waterfalls and awesome scenery and we watched a Chinese show-it would be cooler if I knew what was going on though. When we were hiking this lady pushed me into the water! She was coming the opposite way we were and I was being nice and I scooted as far over as I could when I was standing on a rock and she pushed me! Then she just walked off, so I was soaking wet for the next couple hours! That night we lit a candle boat and sent it out into the river. On Monday we bought flower crowns, went shopping, went on a boat ride where we released our flower crowns and went to a grave. This trip was so fun because we usually don't see THAT much ancient culture. I'm grateful we found Lily and Tom-they saved our life's! Most people in China are willing to help, but there are those who just push you into a river...

Phoenix Pictures

On the hike-SO beautiful!

Our boat we set off for our ancestors-we are getting into this culture!

At the South Wall

Gettin' ready to hike

Cruisin' the city-at night!

I have been in charge of arts and crafts and for arts and crafts we have been working on caterpillars, putting them into a paper cocoon and painting coffee filters for the wings. When the wings are dry I’m going to transform their caterpillars into butterflies. This video clip is my home class, their English is aMaZiNg and they are the cutest class I think, other than Mandy’s. In the video clip they are making the cocoon to put their caterpillars in. Listen to the way they say cocoon, it is the cutest thing! Ray is the one in pink, he is very smart and he is the “leader” of my group, all of the kids follow him and do what he says. Wendy is in the white shirt next to Ray, she use to be a little trouble maker, I don’t know what happened to her but now she participates and she enjoys learning. Lake is the big boy, he is a teacher’s pet and he has a very wild imagination. Peter is the small one, if there was a crowd of our students; Peter is the first one I look for. Peter has my heart ever since day one and I love him! He is cute, he makes me laugh and I want to take him home! Lucy is the one next to me, she has a very spunky attitude and she is very fun. Rebecca was missing today, Rebecca is half Spanish/half Chinese-she is beautiful, very funny and she loves the teacher’s attention. These kids are so cute! I love them more and more everyday! They are so smart, I couldn't ask for anything better. Enjoy!