Ropers in Xi'an China

Never a dull moment around here.  Three other teachers and Kim and I caught the fast train on Saturday and took the 1 1/2 hour ride to the Longmen Grottoes or "Dragon's Gates Grottoes" along the Yi River.  Here carved into the side of the mountain in the limestone are thousands of caves of every size.  Inside the caves are carvings of Buddha and his disciples.  The Buddhas range from 1 inch to 57 feet.  There are also many pagodas carved into the mountain rock as well.  They were carved from about 490 AD to 1120 AD.  During the Japanese War between the years of 1937-45, the caves were looted and many destroyed.  Many of the statues were taken back to Japan where they remain still in Japanese Museums.  It is sad to me to see the art work that was destroyed.  There are many that are still intact but even more that have at least their faces chiseled away.  The sad effects of war.  Here are some pictures of the day....

Funny Story: The other day I had to use the restroom.  I hurried in during the break and did my "duty".  As I was walking from the stall to the sink to wash my hands, I thought I saw someone standing at the door of one of the stalls.  I thought it was strange and just kept my eyes focused straight ahead.  But when I got to the sink, I looked in the mirror and could see their was  a man using the squatty potty.  Thinking I had gone into the wrong restroom, I hurried out.  I looked at the door of the other restroom and saw very clearly marked "WOMEN".  Oh, my goodness.  How could I have made that mistake.  I went to class and finished my lesson.  The next day, I went back to the  restroom and noticed, BOTH DOORS were marked "WOMEN".  I had not made a mistake after all.  I guess whoever was using the bathroom really needed to go and didn't want to look for the men's.  Kim told me later that he has looked on that sam...

Here's a preview of what we experienced on Friday this week. This is the letter Kim wrote to our family this week.  I'll let his words be my blog post today.  Yesterday I had the most memorable and meaningful experience that I have had in all the places we’ve been to, and all the things we have done in China.   Our good friend Meghan who teaches with us and lives in the Expert Building with us, took us on a day trip to the ancient Chinese city of Chen Lu.   She rented a car for the day and the driver picked us up at 8:30 in the morning.   He drove us out of Xi’an on the freeway towards the mountains.   It was interesting to get a new perspective of the city, rather than the crowded streets, buses, and subways.   Their freeways look very much like our own.   As we got closer to the mountains, it reminded me of driving west out of Denver towards the mountains on I-70.   We headed up through the mountains on the freeway, then got to...