This was another thing that Gordon and I liked to do from time to time when we lived here. The temple is out of town just a little bit on a hill set amongst more rural surroundings, so it's quiet and peaceful- a nice compliment to the rest of the area. Not many people from the city go, maybe just a handful and the rest are the monks that live there. They have always been so kind to us, letting us just stand in the back and listen, or even showing us how to participate by offering incense, bowing and chanting along. This time we ended up getting there too late. The singing had already ended and they were having their vegetarian breakfast, so it was sad that we missed it but I was still happy that we still made it for the other main reason for going- the food. I just love the simple vegetarian meal that they offer. And it's free; they just have a donation box. During breakfast I snook in some pictures of Lao Lao reading a book that one of the monks gave her. I love these.
After breakfast we were the only guests there and one of the monk's showed us around and talked about their philosophy. It was a little bit too much for us to understand so Zhao Bing translated. I just loved being in the presence of this monk though: he was particularly kind and patient.
There were lots of beautiful pictures to take with the early morning light and shadows, and the bright colors, and a few more of Lao Lao :)
After the Temple we had our big high-fashion photo shoot plans. There are these photo studios all over China which specialize in "wedding photography". I have never met a couple that didn't have one of these fancy albums. It's funny because even when people don't have very much money they always have these really fancy photo albums from their wedding. It is just one of those things that is a total must-have. Couples go to these studios a few weeks before their wedding and they get all dressed up- hair, make up, five different outfits, all elaborate, and they go to a few different locations and take pictures all day long. Last time we were here Gordon and I got some boys who worked at the studio to pretend to be our husbands, and we made our own Chinese Wedding album. It was fantastic fun-really some of the best money I've ever spent. I mean who else can say they have a picture of them in a wedding dress with a boy in a speedo on their refrigerator? I am not going to go to the trouble of scanning these pictures right now though.
More recently, it has become popular for girls to to the same thing of just themselves; they get all dressed up and take pictures of themselves in really fashionable clothes, bathrobes, lingerie, etc. and make an album of them. So we wanted to do this with some of our family/ friends. Most important was that we get Lao Lao in a few pictures. You have no idea how hard this was. Lao Lao was incredibly resistant, but at last we had pestered her for enough hours that she finally gave in for a few. Here is Lao Lao getting made up followed by some of our modeling out takes.
Wang Yan, Gordon, Lao Lao, Me, and Zhao Bing.
Pang Pang was only able to join us for one picture since she had school that day and only had time to run over during lunch.
Me as a sexy school girl.
This is Gordon as an Indian lady. The photographer was especially happy that she chose this outfit because it came with a face cover. Gordon's braces posed a special problem in that they didn't like them. They would tell her to smile and then when they would see her braces, they'd tell her to close her mouth, wit=ch resulted in a very awkward smile. They saw this outfit as the perfect solution, as they kept telling her to drape the scarf over her mouth!
More sexy pictures of me, but not nearly as sexy as Zhao Bing in her bathrobe. There was also one of her in this outfit on an actual toilet. I don't know what I was thinking to not choose it.
Wang Yan said she was so happy because she could have never convinced her mother to do this on her own but now she has a beautiful picture of her and her mom.After our Photo shoot, we got together for dinner with a bunch of our old friends. They were so kind to try to undo the ratted mess that had been made of my hair at the photo place.
Tian Tian, Qiao Bing Na, Gordon, Qu Fu Hua, Me, Zhao Bing, Hao Li Jun, E Xiao Dan, Liu Shuang Xi, Cao Zhe, Wang Yan, and the new principle.This was probably my very favorite night of my whole trip. We had such a good time this night. I don't even remember what we are laughing about in some of these pictures but I know that we were just all so happy to be together and couldn't stop smiling and laughing.
Most of these friends no longer work at the school so they were doing a lot of catching up amongst themselves too, and it was great to see them so happy to see each other too.
Again, in the midst of all that laughing my eyes became wet both from laughing and crying with happiness because I was so overjoyed that I had the opportunity to be in that spot at that moment.
Mr. Xue, the ape, turns incredibly red after just a glass or two of beer.So then it was off to the Karaoke Bar, yet another favorite past time.
Most Karaoke bars in China have at least 4 English songs: Yesterday,
My heart will go on, 
Say you/Say me, and Big Big world ( a song that I think comes out of Europe somewhere but is actually written in Chinglish). This place however had an amazing variety of English songs. Correct titles and spelling were not their strong points though. Here were a few of our choices:Insind of my Guiten
Promises son't come easy
Take my break away
Can't taoe my eyes off
Is land in the stream
Sometimes love just aren't enough
Do I have to say the wofds?
I don't want to takle about'll
Windflowrs
Ameri canpie
Jnthained Melody
Johnny Anget
Scarborough Rair
Here Xiao Hao and Cao Zhe heard one of these English songs, "Another day in Paradise" by Phil Collins, and it being a slow song decided that it was probably a good one to do a nice romantic waltz to. I didn't have the heart to tell them that it was a song about living on crime-filled streets in poverty.So turns out that Jackie Chan is more than just a movie star over here- he also sings!
This is Liu ShuangXi. His given name translates to Double Happiness and is what you might see on a lot of people's doors- it is a character commonly used at weddings too. I prefer the translation he used when I first met him many years ago though- Double pleasure.
Anyway, I usually call him just by his first name- ShuangXi, and Shuang Xi should not be being introduced only now. He is actually one of my closest friends from China. When living there I probably talked with him more than anybody else besides Wang Yan and Gordon. All the other teachers would always tease us a little bit because we spent so much time together. But really I just adore him. I think he is so kind and generous and smart and if I regret anything about this visit to China it was not being able to spend more time with him- all my friends really, but it was especially not enough time to see him.
Other highlights included a stirring rendetion of Dancing Queen at some point, some of the nicest squatters (the Chinese equivalent to the American toilet) I've seen, and this awesome Christmas tree made of beer bottles- in October.
Warning: This story may make you uncomfortable. Please stop reading if at any point you think you may know more about me than you want to. So, to finish the night off, Lao Lao came into the bedroom at about midnight to check on my nipples. So here's a story I'm sure I'll regret posting on the internet but. . . So five years ago when we were in the public showers one day I guess Lao Lao noticed that I had flat nipples. This concerned her but she didn't bring it up until one night at dinner with the whole family, Mr. Xue and Pang Pang and all, when she turned to Wang Yan and asked why I had abnormal nipples. They discussed this problem at length as I sat there half in amazement half in laughing tears. She went on to counsel me on pulling at them everyday 20 times, then reached across the table to demonstrate how to do this . . . on me. I know this sounds like a story I am making up for a sitcom but it is not. This really happened. So as she's yanking on my nipples and Gordon's face is under the table from laughing so hard, she also comforted me that it would get better when I had a husband to suck on them. So back to the present, I thought for sure she had forgotten about this but on our last night there at the house as we're up late packing she came in to check on them. She was very concerned to see they were in the same state and thought that maybe digging her fingernail in might do the trick. . . again, no kidding.
Anyway, one just doesn't protest to Lao Lao and I love her for it.
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