Buddhist Temple and the Red Couch

We've had a very active day today. This morning we went to the Six Bayan Buddhist Temple, and this afternoon all the kids in our group posed for a group photo on the White Swan Hotel's famous red couch. Afterwards, we had a family group photo, then had high tea (actually a sumptuous buffet) in the hotel.

Lillian slept on the bus ride to the temple, and for about the first 20 minutes after we arrived, for a nice half-hour power nap. We watched some of the other families participate in a blessing ceremony, and when she woke up she enjoyed walking around the grounds, particularly balancing along the carved stone path edge. She also enjoyed watching workers pick fallen leaves individually out of the flower beds (with tweezers!).

After a tasty lunch of noodles and an even shorter power nap, Lillian dressed up in a traditional outfit and went downstairs for the Red Couch photo. Lillian was not too excited about it. She loves watching the other kids, but seems to get intimidated being close to many of them, so she freaked out on the couch. Kari held her in place for a while, ducking behind the couch to avoid being in everyone else's photos, while Lillian yelled her protest. Lillian will have loads of fun when she is a teenager looking at those photos.

She recovered immediately, as usual, and was great in the bigger family group photo, and especially better when we changed back into her play clothes for tea. Afterwards, the three of us took another long walk around the island and stopped in a couple shops for mementos. We were on a mission to find crayons (we didn't bring any because we thought we'd find some here), but had no luck.

Tomorrow our only scheduled activity is the oath-taking ceremony at the US Consulate in the afternoon. It's the only place we can't take cameras.