I was standing in my porch-like area of my room the other morning getting ready for the day as the sound of a Chinese flute tingled my ears. And, as I looked out my window, it almost looked as though it was snowing, even though it was the warmest week we've had yet! There are trees here that we think are cottenwood that filled the air with little white fuzzes. So much so, it was hard to walk and talk without getting them in your mouth or nose. But looking out at them from my window that morning, I couldn't help but feel that I was in China.
A few weekends ago, I had the opportunity to spend some good time with my friend Jenny. She is actually a students at Hebei Financial College where Jon and Ryan are teachers. I am blessed to know her though, and get to spend time with her as well. One of the things I we did together is visit a large park in Baoding. It is close to where she use to work during the summer, so we had a good time letting her show me around the area. Plus, the parks in China all have exercise like machines outside, and we played on them for a long while. She had to show me how to use all of them. I must admit, one of my favorites was the machine that massaged your back! As we left the park, we came across this stand for food. This street food is bird eggs that are cooked on a stick. I had to "have a try." With a little ketchup, spice, and this brown sauce they were really quite tasty. I am just not sure what bird they came from! This is Jenny in the picture with the bird eggs.
For Easter in my classes, I really wanted my students to be able to get a real idea for the holiday. Well, honestly, I am not if they did or not, but I know they had a great time with the activity we did! Instead of having an Easter Egg hunt for my class, I decided to have a scavenger hunt for them. I divided them into teams and gave them clues, only after they told me a vocabulary word, and then sent them off. It was quite a race between the groups, and so fun to see all my students running round campus like crazy. My favorite clue I gave the students was "in the middle of the lake" because there are little stepping stones that lead out to the middle of the lake to an area with grass and trees. Luckily, none of the students fell it. This is a photo of the winning group from my Thursday afternoon class: Steven, Sasha, Semanda, Sabrina, Rucy, and Pasta. They are holding one American treat, a snickers, and one Chinese treat, it is like a fruit roll up only healthier and made of hawthorn.
Tim's girlfriend, Melissa came to visit him for a week. It was so fun to get to know her spend time with her. One of the things we got to do altogether was visit a lily garden in Baoding. Tim, Emily, and I went to this same garden when we first arrived in Baoding, so it was fun to see it again in the Spring. Unfortunately, the lilies will not be coming out for awhile, but the rest of the gardens were in bloom. I think what makes this place so special is it right in the middle of town, which is always crowded with people, and then you step through the door of the lily garden and suddenly you are almost alone in the middle of the city! Trust me, for China this really is rare! It was amazing just to be outside and not have anyone approaching us. The day was perfect and relaxing, what more could we ask for?
For Easter in China, the whole IECS team headed to Lang Fang to celebrate the big holiday. While there though, we also got to celebrate even more life! Jess Distad is pregnant and will have her baby at the end of June. So, all the girls got together to host a baby shower for Jess! It was a really sweet time to be with all the girls and just be joyful together! We, of course, had many laughs as well because we got to play many baby shower games. My personal favorite is the baby-diaper ID game. Basically what happens is someone melts candy bars in diapers so it looks like poop, and everyone tries to guess what kind of candy bar it is! It is so funny and always causes a lot of laughs! Not only were all the IECS girls there, but three of Jess' good Chinese friends were there too. It was really a sweet thing to spend time with them, and get to share in the joy of her new baby.
Not only did we get to celebrate Easter in Lang Fang, but we also celebrated with some of our girls here in Baoding. Emily and I asked some of the girls we are closest with, Daisy, Jamelia, Bea, Rachel, and Ashly, to come over and "dye" Easter eggs with us. In China, we had to get a little creative here and hope for the best on our dark brown eggs :) We used dark colored drink mixes and vinegar to dye the eggs while they boiled. When we finished we had some light blue eggs from a purple drink mix, and some red eggs from a Hawaiian punch mix. Not only did we dye eggs, but we also made sugar cookies! This may not seem like too big of deal, but people here do not have oven in their homes, so there is no baking...including cookies. If you want a cake for your birthday you have to buy it a shop. The girls loved mixing, shaping, cookie cutting, baking, and eating the cookies. Their excitement was infectious! The best part of the whole night was getting to share with the girls what Easter is all about and just having the opportunity to love on all of them.The last of my magical moments, or maybe they are the moments you live that are so simple at times, yet you think "I hope I remember this time, this feeling, this smell, this sight right now forever", came yesterday. Our good friend Tony came to town and had the opportunity to speak with a student and tell him about his life. By the end of the conversation, we had a new brother! It is amazing and just might have caused a spontaneous dance party later that evening!
This is a video of our second skit at English Night. Enjoy the craziness of it all!
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