Hello world! How many people are actually reading this? I think it may be only 3, but I like you guys. This week I bring you some pictures from last weekend. We went with friends out to a small village called Xiashan for the lantern festival. Lantern festival is a small festival at the end of the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival). The village has all these awesome and HUGE lanterns set up on display in a park. It was fun to walk around, enjoy the music and get pulled into many "sneaky" videos and photographs taken by people who rarely or never see foreigners. The next day we walked around the market and then climbed the small mountain nearby. The mountain is halfway covered in village, halfway covered in a sort of temple park. There are caves with old statues and temples going up.

It was cold. Like really, really cold. I am wearing 3 pairs of pants. Jon was wearing 4. Also these are our friends, Wendy and Erwin.

Panorama of the moon rising red over the festival.

Shot in the village the next morning.

Hiking on the small mountain.

Half of the village has been demolished. Sometimes you are walking through someones old kitchen as you walk down the street.

Back on the small mountain, goofing around in a gazebo.

Enjoying some well earned noodles.

And this is back at the lantern festival: an entire field of glowing white roses..

Okay, these are severely out of order, but this is from the caves on the small mountain.