Lunar New Year of the Rabbit 2023 (Cambodia & China Blowout Fun)

What's up every body stateside? Man we are missing you all very much right now, but have continued with our pedals to the metal during our remaining time here in the mother country. I am going to break this blog into multiple sections as it has been a while since I last posted. We have only had to work a couple of weeks in the past six and have done quite a bit, so this post may be OVERWELMINGLY packed full of photos. It covers everything from post-our race in December to now... 

Winter Break 2022

Unfortunately, Christmas 2022 for us was full of CoVid-19, which we all survived. China dropped all of their policies and literally the entire country broke with the virus. Ash got it first, then Lea and I about five days later and Cora started running a fever a Christmas Eve. There are not many pics to post from that time, but there are a few. Thank you to everyone who sent Christmas and New Year wishes :) 

Positive CoVid Test

Survival Fruit 

Post X-Mas X-Mas Tree

Probably a Christmas Tree

Cambodia

After two more LONG weeks of school, China FINALLY announced that it was opening the borders on January 8. Immediately we started looking for tickets out, Ash reached out to Angelo and a trip to Cambodia was born. Although Ash and I have been there before, we have been wanting to take Cora and Lea to see new country, culture and especially Angkor Wat. It was a learning experience for the girls and it was GREAT to see family for the first time in nearly THREE YEARS. The girls were so happy to see Ang and just relax outside of China. There are more pictures if you want them, believe it or not :)

Trip didn't start off great... none of the places I wanted to go in our terminal were open :( 

We made it though :)

Angkor Wat. The rules have changed a lot since our last visit. No bare arms for one (I had to buy a T-Shirt). There were also limits on where you could explore and age limits on some of the taller temples. A lot of construction too. Cambodia got hit REALLY hard by CoVid and just reopened in July 2022. 

Exploring

Selfie!

We had fun

Ash & Ang

It's hard to figure out what to post and what not... so I will just post a lot 

Local Wildlife!

Not tired yet

The Khmer Rouge cut a lot of the heads off the statutes. 

Album Cover #1

Doorways

Chilling in Ta Prohm

We found the mysterious Ta Prohm "dinosaur" engraving

They had fun

Watching the people on Pub Street in Siem Reap

Our hotel pool, in traditional dresses

Baphoun Temple (girls weren't allowed in due to age)

11 years later...

We got to the top of this one

Roluos Temple Complex

Drawing and writing

Our temporary adopted hotel dog (Teka?)

Nothing like a quality Krud after a long day of hiking ancient temples

They truly missed their uncle

More Doorways

Preah Khan Temple

The weather was perfect

Neak Pean Temple

One of the moats

Brother and Sister :)

The idea was cuter than the product

Album Cover #2

Family shot

Phimeanakas Temple

Tonle Sap Floating Village Boat Ride

The rainy season is in summer...

Ash and the Gators

Tonle Sap River "Cruise" Back to Phnom Penh

Still need CoVid tests to get back into China. No quarantine though. Gamechanger, but not for us... a little too late.  

Phnom Penh

We fed some elephants

Cora and Lea got the personal "PG" tour of the Killing Fields by a history teacher who is well read on the subject (me). Taking them here was a debated topic but we ultimately decided to do it. 

They had a lot of questions, but this will mean something more to them in the future. 

Walking the river front on our last night

Saying goodbye to Ang (for now). It was sad, but June will be SO NICE! 

Lunar New Year of the Rabbit

Of course everyone in China calls it the "Chinese New Year," but other people celebrate it too. After we got back to Huangpu, Guangzhou and recovered from the walking, we were sucked up into some celebrations with our local friends. Here are some of those pics! 

Dancing Lion Fancyness is Lingnan

Those dudes got some red envelopes

2023- Year of the Rabbit 

Fun at Sam's Club

Ancient Village in Dongguan

We have actually been here before 

Ashley getting hustled on the mahjong table

The throne of our host for his tea parties...

Dinner (no rabbit) 

Bruce Lee's Ancestral Home

Bruce

Chess Area on the roof

Truth

My weird Taoist year God has arms for eyes?

Happy New Year (with students G-10)

Obligatory Sparklers

Dim Sum with our Lijiang Friends 

The Crew

As always, we miss and love every one of you. The day is getting closer until this blog will be full of pictures of all of us together. We are anxiously awaiting! Talk to you soon!