Highlights of Chiang Mai thus far

We've been hanging out in Chiang Mai now that our meetings are done. We hadn't been out of China now for a year so it felt like we really needed some time of rejuvenation, blue skies, worship, renewal and a sense of relief from a society that is so different than any we've ever known. Here are some pics.







Spending time with fellow teachers








Refreshment by nature and sunlight!








Elephants randomly wondering the streets.







Enjoying fruit shakes of every flavor esp. mango








tuk tuk...much comfier than China's.

Chiang Mai

We've been hanging out in Thailand now for a few days. We were greeted with warm sunshine and blue skies. We actually hadn't seen the sun for a few months due to the Sichuan cloud and smog coverage. It is so refreshing to wake up to a sun that's shining. We've been in meetings/sessions for most of the week. We're enjoying the book we've been studying as a group and the different speakers that we've had. It's also amazing to be able to worship in English again.







The meetings!








Hiking








Group day trek








Enjoying the refreshing pool

Mmmmm....Salsa

If you know Mark then you know his love for chips and salsa. Jiangyou is a city where very few Western amenities are available other than peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk (not that much you can make with these two ingredients); margarine/butter and cheese are very hot commodities which we need to stock up on in Chengdu. We've been making our tortilla shells for awhile now and decided to try our skills at tortilla chips. They actually turned out quite decently and suited well with the fresh vegetable salsa (complements of my brother). Mark ate himself until he was "gross" as he claims; meaning of course he was completely full beyond comfort.

Christmas

I think we've eaten just as much this Christmas as we might have in Canada leaving us with the feeling of overwhelming fullness. Due to unforeseen circumstances we had to do some teaching on Christmas but we managed to keep the classes short and therefore enjoyed a little rest and relaxation. For many reasons this year felt much more like Christmas than last year did. We were invited to an uncountable amount of Christmas Eve parties and therefore found a lot of interest and humor in our students parties. The Chinese love microphones, speakers with distortion in rooms where you could whisper and everyone would hear you. We even got a program at a party and all of a sudden after a solo they turned the lights off and said it was "dance time." We had to gather in a circle and dance to "Everybody Dance Now." Then the teachers had to go in the center and dance. It was odd but quite fun. For Christmas day we decided to stay in since we both had to run to classes in between the day and pretty much watched movies and ate way too much. It was awesome!

One interesting thing about this Christmas was the amount of apples we received from students. We got around 30 apples. We found this to be quite odd but were finally told that the apples mean peace and health for your next year as long as you eat it before midnight on Christmas Eve. I guess we'll make some apple pie!!!

Hoping you had a wonderful Christmas and sending apples your way!

The mittens are a gift from Mark. This is the ever popular cartoon character "Pleasant goat and big big wolf." Our students wear these gloves a lot esp. with the string. If there is a string they can share the mittens with their friends without loosing them.

To Xi'an again

Last weekend we traveled to the ancient city of Xi'an again. (If you remember we were here last summer). We had an MCC retreat and luckily all MCCers from China and Korea could make it out as we hung out, attended sessions, ate lot's of delicious food and celebrated advent. This was a very special time since this was our only opportunity to celebrate the Christmas season with a group. We also went to visit the Terracotta warriors and were once again amazed by them. There are approximately 6000 warriors and each one as a unique face made according to the laborers who created them. Therefore they are all different. The Emperor had this army created as a source of protection in the afterlife. There are many more left to be dug up and rebuilt.