Buddha Island

Last weekend we went to an island off the coast. We hiked around the trails and saw too many Buddha's to count. Every trail led to another Buddha prayer temple. We woke up super early and still almost missed our bus as usual. We got on the bus around 5:30am and drove around picking up randoms all over the city. It took a couple hours for our bus to get to where we were going so a ferry could take us to the islands.

We finally got onto the ferry around 9am and took a short ride to the islands off the coast. I have never gotten sea sick or motion sickness before, but being in the dungeon of that boat with no windows and swaying back and forth did me in. It was not my finest hour. As we were getting off the boat we saw this warning. I don't know why, but I could not stop laughing at it. We read it as oh-stackles and my sleep deprived body said it in as many accents as it knew and it was the funniest thing ever at that moment in time. OHSTACKLES!

Our first stop was a Buddha prayer temple. The people could pray to Buddha or they could pray for their wishes to be put into the atmosphere.

We put our wishes into the atmosphere rather than praying to Buddha. We got incense to burn and knelt to concentrate on what we wanted. It was kind of weird, felt like I was praying to a false God or something. I wasn't praying to Buddha, I just put positive thoughts about what I wanted out in the open. Once we were done we put our sticks of incense into a pit to let them finish burning. 

These were some of the crazy reincarnated Buddha figures we saw. The second one had some crazy eyebrows going on and I felt I could relate to him. Although his were a mile long and braided, mine are just getting bushier the longer I'm here.

Madi and I. She was my buddy throughout the day. We had a deep conversation about slugs that day. It was along the lines of how we are so grateful we aren't slugs and don't get stuck to tires and spin in circles all day. We wondered if they have couches in their shells to rest on at night. I felt enlightened afterwards. Whole new outlook on life.

This girl and her group of friends found us every where. Every 30 minutes or so we would see them around and it was funny to wave and smile each time. I mainly got a picture with her because of her super awesome hair cut. She has a bob, but her extensions went down her back. Super stylish!

These ladies were hilarious. It started out as one lady, then two, then three. We were just smiling and taking a hundred pictures when one grabbed Madi's hand and held it out. Everyone else just kind of followed along. It's funny how the women here always fight over us. Like who gets to stand next to us or who holds our hands or who has to take the picture. These ladies were super happy we took pictures with them and it took us ages to escape them and their giddiness. 

America is somewhere behind me! I looked really hard, but it was too foggy for me to see you guys :(

This was a fence kind of like the one in France where you lock your love onto the gate and throw the key into the river. You did the same thing here except it was in a forest and there was no where to throw your key. You could carve your names into the locks and put them next to others who locked their love to the fence. There were so many locks lining the walkway, I loved it. So much love!

It may be hard to tell, but that is a huge swarm of goldfish (koi fish?). There were so so so many of them. I was mind blown. There were even more on the other side of the pond near a bridge we crossed to reach our next adventure. 

This Buddha was huge. Like huge huge. No one could stand directly in front of it so I didn't get any good pictures of the good ol guy.

I snuck a picture of these monks. I surprisingly don't feel bad or guilty about it! Real life monks! It wasn't as serene and peaceful as the movies made them seem. It was actually pretty loud with lots of loud prayers and music.

Yes, Folks..... the beach. We strayed away from our group and went to Thousand-Pace Beach. It was so much fun to be on a completely new coast on the other side of the world, but still be playing in the same ocean as I do back home. It wasn't as clean as the beaches back home, but it was still just as exciting. The water was a bit browner and the sand had a bit more trash (and bones?) in it than any California beach Ive been too.

(One of the world biggest Buddhas is behind me and so is America)

Madi, me, Jennie, Kenzie, and Kaylie

We made some friends. They were so excited to take pictures with us. They were a bit photo-challenged when in came to us asking them to take pictures of us. They were all crooked... made the memories even better!

My favorite part of the whole day was walking along the beach. We put our cameras away and just sat on the beach and lived in the moment. We took it all in and it was so great. We are always having photo shoots wherever we go and it was nice to sit down for five minutes and just watch the waves trickle onto the sand.

Winter's Coming!!!

It's beginning to get chilly here in good ol Ningbo! I have proven I do not know how to dress for cold weather nor did I bring any clothes suitable for anything under 100 degrees. Moving to Idaho when I get back is going to be rough considering me and the cold aren't really the best of friends!

Here's a few of our adventures through pictures....

We went to Moon Lake last weekend and rented paddle boats for a little while. It was so pretty and serene and fish jumping out of the water made the experience that much better. It was the first time we had done something as our whole group in a while and it was a lot of fun to have everyone together for a bit.

AMERICANS CAME TO VISIT ME! Jordann had been in Bali for a couple weeks and then was staying in Shanghai with her aunt. Kelsey flew to Shanghai to meet up with Jordann and they were traveling together when it worked out for us to meet up. It was so nice having a bit of home be with me for a couple hours. I got to show them around the school campus and they came with me to teach my little babies. We went to dinner at our favorite restaurant and then I sent my little slice of America on their way back to the homeland. I loved seeing them and am so glad they donated some tootsie rolls as well.

We have newly discovered a bargaining market of sorts near our apartment and spend quite a bit of time there. It appears to be a bit sketchy to the newcomers, but it is full of surprises and lots of treasures to buy. I tend to buy nail polish each time I'm there and so far I have bought 24! 2 for 5 yuan? That's 40 cents for each bottle. How can I ever turn down such a great deal!? *That tower behind us is a Pagoda. I don't know much about it yet, but I do know I have finally found something that rhymes with my name!*

This was just another one of our treks home from church. It takes us two hours to get to church each week by riding the bus. We meet at a Hungarian families home and they are the sweetest family ever. Its like our home away from home. They are so welcoming and do everything they can to make us feel loved. We have sacrament meeting and class with their family and another family from England. If we all go, there are 20 of us at church. I love love love that although I am far far far away from home I can still feel loved and be blessed with the opportunity to take the sacrament and learn more about our Savior. 

I got bit on my eyeball...... again. It wasn't as bad as last time, but it was definitely there. Those dang mosquito's just love me I guess.

Jennie and I had this really super awesome great fabulous idea to scare everyone for Halloween and then make a video of all our scares. Our plans were so fool proof and beyond perfect except it was an absolute fail and no one got scared and it was lame and now we just have this mask sitting in the office reminding us of how bad we are at scaring people. It could've been epic.

Halloween came around and we decorated and celebrated with our little kiddies. My babies were adorable and I was dying to take them home while I was watching them dance to the Halloween music. 

My ADORABLE twins Peter and Paul. They have the cutest raspy voices and melt my heart each and every day. Their costumes fit them perfectly but they are so cute you can't ever get upset with them for being little stinkers. All the time I'll talk to one and be like, "Peter?" "NO I PAUL. HE PETER!" Gah, I just love them so much.

This is Jack, James, and Mckay. Jack is the cutest thing ever and is so smart. He has the cutest smile ever even though he isn't quite proving himself in this picture. I got to name the other two boys. James is my all time favorite boy name everrr so of course I had to name him that. The other boy I named after good ol Elder Cathcart. Except he's having a hard time understanding his name is Mckay so we are working on that day by day. He only knows how to say "I want to pick a song!" and some days it drives me bonkers. It's like that scene in Nemo when all the birds and yelling, "mine! mine! mine!" except Mckay and James say, "I want to pick a song! I want to pick a song! I want to pick a song!"

This is Penny. She is my favorite. She gives me hugs all the time. Whenever we sing happy and you know it she always wants to "beep" my nose and its the cutest thing ever. We have a secret handshake and Im probably going to find a way to adopt her.

Our little Ningbo group <3 We had a Halloween party with our kids that morning and then came home and took naps. Once we all woke up from our deep sleep we played the donut game where you try to eat the donut off the string without it falling. We carved little pumpkins and then made snicker salad. It was nice to have everyone together and having fun for a night. 

My mom sent a package and it got to me on Halloween so it was like an early Christmas present for me. I should stop forgetting how great my mom is because once I opened that package up I was reminded how lucky I am. Who else can say their mother shipped a toilet seat across the pacific ocean for them? I can. Among the toilet seat there was a "Thanksgiving meal" for us. She sent stuff to make pizzas which included dehydrated cheese and I am quite excited to try that. She sent a million more stuffed animal dogs. I have so many here in China with me that I really don't know where to put them anymore. (It's a joke between us because I would always beg for a puppy and in return I would get a million stuffed animal dogs to make up for the happiness my parents refused to give me.) Everyone in my family wrote me letters and I absolutely loved reading them all. I'd been having a rough couple days, wishing I could be back home with everyone and that package made me feel so much better. (I love you mom! Thank you!)

5 more weeks and I'll be back in the USA! Love and miss you each more than ever!