How many days has it been now? I've lost count..

I am so turned around with my days - what day of the week is it?! Email is sketchy, face book nonexistent, but Instagram works. Weird.

Today we went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda for a tour. It was very beautiful - I love traditional Chinese artwork!! the Buddhas are not such a big deal to me, clearly, but the craftsmanship was incredible! There were huge murals carved out and pieced together out of different colored jade, different ones carved from Koa wood that covered two or three walls and then also painted murals. All told stories of the masked monk's life or journey to becoming the "Enlightened One". There were also some that were of the laughing Buddha (the big fat one) or the Goddess of Mercy. Both of these are the two most favorite Buddhas.

The pagoda tower is 7 stories tall. It is not the original though, it is actually the third one constructed. The first two came down because of the ground shifting. It is also taller than the original. All of the buildings on the grounds are built in the traditional Chinese architecture. There are no nails holding the pieces together - they are all tongue in groove style, nestled and cut to fit just perfectly.

One of the stores/shops/whatever had statues of the astrological chart and we were given cards to figure out what year of animal we were born in. Once that was figured out, they gave us a free "chop" with that image. A chop is a piece of marble with a design carved into the end to create a stamp. I was able to get a card stamped for each of our kids as well as one for eman and myself. They then tried to get us to buy one (or more) from them. No dice. We bought overpriced ice cream instead. :)

The weather was perfect today for touring - it is warm, but also a nice breeze that made it very comfortable. I was carrying Naomi, so took no pictures. Eman was the camera man.

Tomorrow we will take an hour drive to see the terra cotta warriors. I don't like the hour long drive, but am excited to see this. We will also do a tour on how they are made.

Sent from my iPhone