Easter is one of those holidays that really has no reason to come to a place like China... and it really hasn't. Religion aside, (at least where I am in Hangzhou) there is no endless winter and definite spring (it's been in the 70s for weeks now and it really only snowed a few days back in February), there is no love for super sweet candy or chocolate, and the Chinese don't really have a concept of doing things "for the fun of it" or "the beauty" behind things like Easter egg hunts or coloring Easter eggs. Eggs are made for eating... why on Earth are you coloring them? My students were slightly traumatized when I told them that colored eggs were more than safe to eat... I still don't think they fully trust me...
I finished my classes up on Thursday and had all day Friday to get into the Easter spirit.
Prior to meeting up with Adam for lunch, I biked down into our town to the grocery store and did some last minute shopping. My mom had brought me an Easter basket and had hidden it in my kitchen... It would just be wrong for me to have a basket and not Adam! I bought some of his favorite candies, cookies, and drink, and made him up an Easter basket (it was my very first time ever making up an Easter basket for anyone and I had so much fun doing it). I like to think that he enjoyed it ^_^
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Friday night, Adam and I decided to stay in town instead of heading down town (we knew what we were getting into for the rest of the weekend and we wanted to have at least one night to relax). We joined forces with DH, I brought my egg coloring kit and he brought his cookie dough and we had a nice little Easter/Good Friday gathering. We colored probably 30 eggs (we're still finding glitter everywhere) and DH made his famous cake batter cookies. Combine that with some (not so) good wine, a movie, and good conversation and we had a nice, relaxing way to ring in the holiday weekend... The calm before the storm...
Saturday was the big day that we had been prepping our Chinese friends for--the big Easter camping trip! Many of our students have lived very sheltered lives and have barely even heard of camping (especially the ladies who are basically little precious China dolls). Sleeping outside, a fire, the cold, marshmallows... we filled their heads with everything that makes camping so great and so awful.
We met at James's apartment that usually seems so nice and spacious... but with easily 30 people filling the room, I quickly found my place in the back corner trying to get away from the crowd (Sadly, they don't have a library, a pet, or parents to sit with and talk to).
We ate dinner together and got them to color their own Easter eggs (the amount of "Oohs" and "Ahhs" coming from them when mine and Adam's eggs were unveiled made the glitter all worthwhile). The foreigners scurried around, trying to collect as many tents, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, and blankets as we could (Adam and I had our sleeping bags, pillows, and blanket packed deeply into my backpack where no one could find it... MWUAHAHA!!).
We piled on the backpacks, passed out sleeping bags and blankets, grabbed gallons of water and headed out the door, down the road, and up the hill to Laoheshan.
It was an interesting trek up the hill (I used to call them mountains but Nepal ruined that for me!!). It had stopped raining (for the time being) but it was already dark, the slope/steps were uneven and wet, we were all carrying a lot of supplies (I had two gallons of water in my bag... it was WAY heavier than what I carried through the Himalayas!), and I don't think our students are too active (most of them study, play video games, and watch Korean dramas... the most active they get is badminton or basketball) so about halfway up the hill, we were getting, "Can we take a break?" and "Can you slow down?" I was definitely kicking myself for not wearing a tank top... I was sweating when we took a break at the top! But Adam with his trusty headlamp on led the way through the dark and, eventually, we made it to the very top of the hill.
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We quickly set to work setting up the tents so the girls could figure out who would be sleeping where. The Adams, DH, and I began putting up some of the tents before some of the girls came over, curious to learn how to pitch a tent. We quickly showed them what to do (since it's one of the easiest things to do) and they were excited to help. We got six tents up pretty quickly and I was proud to say that the top of Laoheshan quickly transformed into what looked like a hobo camp!
Next it was onto the most important thing after shelter (or before, in my opinion): fire. I've heard so much talk of fires in China (Adam and I had a failed attempt in a bucket on his balcony) and finally after almost eight months of living in China, I have finally had my first fire!! It took awhile to get going since it had been raining all day. Other Adam and I scrounged around to try and find dry(ish) fire wood and he was able to find enough to last us the night... the fun part was trying to get it to actually start burning. Sadly, we didn't have too much paper (some tissue and post-it notes) so eventually I busted out my eight page Life List and had them use that to start the fire... Seems fitting somehow.
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| How many men does it take...? |
Once the fire was finally going, the crowd gathered (not sure how many of them have had a fire outside before). We sang songs (nothing tests your memory like someone starting to sing "I've been working on the railroad"), told stories, taught them out to make s'mores (those did not last long AT ALL!), and we just sat around the fire with our umbrellas, refusing to let the rain chase us away.
Campfires, songs, food, an Easter egg hunt, and huddling under umbrellas... We lasted for about 4 hours in the rain before people began to pass out. Sadly, all the tents were filled with lovely Chinese ladies so the gents and the Americans got to sleep out in the open under the pagoda looking out over Hangzhou (you know, through the pollution). The room in the main pagoda quickly filled up with the gentlemen so myself, the Adams, and the Hannahs made our way back down the path to another pagoda and made up our little hobo camp. It wasn't much, but for the night it was home.
It was a long, uncomfortable night. The minute I rolled on my side and was laying on my hip, painful memories of National Holiday came flying back. At one point the rain was coming into the pagoda so I slithered down into a ball, cowering under my sleeping bag and my three layers of shirts (thanks for the third one Adam!).
Around 3am we had the oh so charming and subtle men of Hangzhou come up the mountain and start shouting while they did their (freakishly early) morning exercises... I wish there was a way for me to describe the noise in print but I can't. You could hear it coming up the path, get softer as the dude walked further away, and get loud again as he walked by where we were sleeping. Uffda... it was in that moment when I thought, "I think I could find my way back to James's apartment by myself... I wonder if they would let me in?"
Luckily morning came with a wave of old Chinese people who seriously have nothing better to do than wander up this hill at 5am and stare at us while we are slowly waking up... Glad we could add a bit of entertainment to their usual, monotonous morning routines...
We gathered back at the top of the hill for some much needed coffee... so needed, I even had some.
Gathering all of our equipment, we all headed back down the mountain, the old people watching the parade of crazy foreigners and the exhausted Chinese students carrying blankets and sleeping bags.
After a stop at McDonald's (remember: no judging!), the Adams, DH, and I returned to the warmth and crowded chaos that was James's apartment for a great Easter brunch complete with hard boiled eggs, DH's cookies, cinnamon rolls made by Karin, french toast made by Other Adam, and the famous "egg bake" that I have heard so much about from the Midwesterners.
It was an exhausting weekend. We were home by 1:30pm and I spent the majority of the rest of my Easter unconscious in my bed (sadly, I am the only one in our little group to work on Mondays and it stinks!!) but I did enjoy myself... even if it didn't really feel like a holiday.
Easter is a tough holiday for me. I haven't really felt too connected with the holiday for a few years. It was fun when I brought my college roommate, Miaomiao, home with me one year but that was the last memorable Easter I had. Last year, I worked and it was awful with so many crowds and people actually asking for "an Easter miracle" (this is Easter, not Christmas, mister)... This year didn't really feel like Easter but I did enjoy myself.
I hope everyone back home had a nice, blessed Easter surrounded by friends and family. That is one thing that being over here for so many holidays has shown me--how nice it is to be able to celebrate with your family... this distance has shown me how lucky I am to be blessed with my amazing family back home. Whether you celebrate the true meaning behind Easter or whether you just enjoy the feeling of winter turning into spring and sharing happy memories with your family, I hope you had a wonderful Easter.
Until Next Time,
Amanda
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