Dressing up as Opera Stars

While Jon was visiting me, we spent an afternoon getting makeup applied all over our faces and hands, nails painted and fake hair applied (for me), feet squished into too small shoes (for Jon), and dressing up to get photos taken. Jon was suffering through terrible allergies and was not enjoying this at all but we both think the photos we ended up with are pretty neat. Here are some photos of the process of getting dressed up and the unedited photos. I have to wait until June to get the final edited photos back. The whole thing took about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish. Enjoy!

Starting out:

Adding more makeup:

Jon's least favorite part:

Adding my fake hair one loop at a time:

>Ready for photos:

And now the poses. They placed us exactly - posing us from head to toe:

--Sarah--

Jon's March Trip - Spring Blossoms and Makeup!

Jon spent two weeks visiting me in March and our trip to Inner Mongolia was just the beginning. We had a few more days during my spring break holiday before I had to go back to work.

We visited Chaoyang Park and saw the beginnings of spring!

And also some clean trash and unrecycling:

We went to the old Summer Palace with too many other people.

Jon visited my classroom and all the kids were excited to see Mr. Jon again. One student even brought us kimchi for lunch.

The day before Jon left, we got all dressed up in the style of Peking opera. Jon was suffering through terrible allergies so he wasn't enjoying it much, but thankfully I think our photos turned out pretty great! I have to wait until June to get the retouched photos back but here are a couple of the originals. I'll have to put up a post just for this soon.

We also finally lit Jon's birthday candle that our driver bought for him in Inner Mongolia. This birthday candle is the most amazing birthday candle I've ever seen!

Jon took my cat, Lao Wai, back with him and she is learning to get along with his cat and dog.

I have 45 more days of school and only 79 days until I repatriate!

--Sarah--

Inner Mongolia - Yurts or No Yurts

Jon and I decided to head to Inner Mongolia for a few days during his trip over here this time. We left early on Sunday morning and arrived in Hohhot an hour later. We were met by our guide and driver and left Hohhot for the grassland in Xilamuren. We found that in the winter, there isn't much grass in the grassland. It was too cold to stay in the grassland yurts so we just spent the day there and then went to a hotel for the night back in Hohhot. While in the grassland, we had a great lunch, rode very furry horses, and drank Mongolian milk tea. I had to borrow a jacket because it was too cold.

The next day, we drove to E’erduosi City to visit the Gobi Desert. It was also very cold in the desert so again we didn't stay in the yurt we had planned on using. We decided that instead of riding the camels (Bactrian, if you were curious), we just wanted to walk in the desert for a while.

Jon had his birthday in E’erduosi City the next day. We visited Genghis Khan's mausoleum, an aobao, and went for a walk in the park across the street from our hotel. In the park, we found a pack of wild dogs, a crime scene, and an old dragon boat ride. In the evening, our driver bought Jon a cake (Yes, it says "Happy Btrsday" on it.) and a bottle of Red Star bai jiu.

We spent our last day back in Hohhot City visiting various sites. My favorite was the Dazhao Lamasery. Unfortunately, it was the coldest it had been the whole trip while we were there plus it was very windy so we didn't stay as long as I would have liked.

Jon and I did enjoy our trip and we would love to come back again... just not in winter. More photos at Flickr.

--Sarah & Jon--