Astronauts have landed on.... China???

Enough said...

Baochu Pagoda

On the 24th Matt and I went exploring downtown and ended up hiking to a pagoda that is right by West Lake. It was really cool, you could see the lake from one side of the mountain and the city from the other. I wish I would have known we were going to be hiking.. I wore heels.. haha!! My feet were pretty sore by the end of the day..! Even though I was a big dummy it was still a blast!

Six Harmonies!

Last weekend we went to a place called Six Harmonies Pagoda. It was built in 970 (unbelievable huh). Around the pagoda they have a garden that has around 75 mini versions of pagodas that are all around China. It was an awesome place.

This is the view from the top floor, it made me nervous to be up that high in such an old building, but it was still cool!

They had a gong that you could hit for each of the zodiacs, so of course I had to get a picture by my gong.

There were lots and lots of very steep stairs, haha! We were very sore the next day!


I thought I would try and be cool and pose like this statue. There were lots of people looking at me funny, I think trying to figure out what the heck I was doing.

Dinner At The Village!

Matt and I went out walking around a place called the village tonight. It is just a lot of little shops with people's houses around them. It is amazing to see the condition that people live in and makes me realize how blessed we are to have all the things that we have. Anyway, we stopped at a little place to eat. There was just a bunch of stuff on this big table that you could choose from, we chose three potato sticks, two meat sticks (we think it was lamb), and I had a corn on the cob. All of that was only 6 rmb.. so less than 1 dollar. Pretty amazing huh?

Happy Lantern Festival!

Yesterday it was the Lantern Festival. Matt and I went out walking along one of the main streets. It seemed like Christmas back at home.. there were so many lights! It was an awesome experience!



I thought it was CRAZY how many people were out on the street! I felt like I was in Disneyland.. haha! SO many people!! It was so much fun though!

Happy Birthday Matt!

The 17th was Matt's birthday! I couldn't find cake mix or candles at the market across the street from our apartment.. so I couldn't do a lot. I ended up just cutting out letters and spreading out yummy m&m confetti.. haha!

Awesome Sunsets!

Lately the sunsets here have been amazing, so yesterday Matt left work early and we went up to the river to watch the sunset. It was absolutely beautiful.. the colors were amazing!

Standing On Water!

This is over at the park.. I thought it would be cool if I walked out in the river so that I was "walking on water"!

Toilets..!

For everyone who is confused about the drop toilets.. I took some pictures so that you could see what they look like. Let me just say.. it is NOT a fun experience.

Out Of The Ordinary Ashli..

Well... I don't know what got into me.. but I was feeling adventurous and did some things that most people would not believe I did..! haha.. it was actually really fun!!

Can I have a... picture??

This weekend at the lake I experienced another first. We had a few people come up and ask us if they could take their picture with us. It was really funny!! I guess this is kinda like my 15 minutes of fame..! haha!

West Lake! ... Day 2

Call us crazy.. but Matt and I went back to West Lake today. We couldn't help but go and explore what we missed yesterday. We saw some more very cool things. The weather was perfect too! Only downfall is we are hurting tonight..! haha.. but it's all worth it right? I sure think so!