Well, the weather outside is frightful...
...wait...
...wrong season for that song...
...but seriously we had better weather than this at Christmas time!
It's flipping 12 C today (about 53 F) when only three days ago it was 29 C (84 F) and its wet, raining, just plain all round miserable. Although, I did manage to wash my floors and they are now clean and dry after 2 weeks of over 95 % humidity. 95 % humidity is just another way of saying that it's dryer outside than inside. Mind you, it has fluctuated between 14 and 25 C the whole two weeks and cement buildings take a while to get truly cold and then forever to warm up again. And a refrigerator cold cement building slowly warming up to anything over 25 C (I'm giving up converting it for you, sorry) means, as we like to put it, the buildings start crying. In fact, I do believe I've solved all those ridiculous 'sacred mysteries' about all the statues that cry in the Catholic Churches...its just got too warm too quickly and they're stone so they don't warm up as fast...its science people! It still doesn't help me wash my floors that are covered with water though. So today, even though the humidity is at 88 % since the weather is cold and the building is still warm...my floors are clean...for today...
And gee, its raining and we only have one umbrella! So I graciously told Jason he could use it and I'll stay home from the gym. Aren't I so nice? I do have a cold so that helped solidify that decision...although he wasn't that keen on walking to school in the rain umbrella or not...
Anyway, I thought I'd write about our Easter. I hope you don't remember my aspirations from last year...it sort of all got blown out the window with morning sickness (which I seem to be more or less on top of these last few days) and the fact that Jason was trying to organise a cultural exchange programme for 16 people that arrived in our city on Good Friday...and that every other foreigner in our little posse of friends seemed to forget it was Easter weekend in the first place. So it's a little hard to organise stuff when you're under the weather and haven't any help.
But I'm proud of my one accomplishment.
I taught the kids at the orphanage to colour hard boiled Easter eggs.
Again, it was cold and rainy (or warm and rainy...can't remember other than the pouring rain) and cement buildings don't let in the best of light so my photos are crap...not to mention its hard to take photos of yourself teaching the kids to colour eggs when you're the one doing it too (I don't even have the baby yet and I'm fully wishing for an extra set of arms!).
I wish you could have been there to see their faces! They were so amazed to put the eggs in the water and see them change colour when they came out! These are seriously the best behaved kids in the world...they all waited their turns...no one fought over anything...they all complimented each other's eggs...and the look on their faces when I told them that when they're dry, they can still eat them...
(It pains me to see how blurry this is but it was the best I could do with out a flash...look at how happy she is!)
One little girl looked at me with the biggest eyes and said, "Oh no. This is the most beautiful egg in the whole of China. I'm never going to eat it." Ok so maybe its now they stinkiest Easter egg in the whole of China. Or perhaps she knows how to make the century eggs. (By the way, she said it Chinese and I can understand now so that makes me happy!)
On a side note: I always find it interesting that as westerners, we always say "....in the whole world!" but here in China, they only ever say "...in the whole of China!" Are we westerners are little conceited I wonder? Hmm...
Then we made Easter baskets until my fingers where dead from cutting and folding and talked about the real meaning of Easter. Inevitably of course, the question came up...what do coloured eggs have to do with all that? My answer? I don't know really, its just something they do in America...
Ok, I know its done in other countries too but we don't do it in Australia -- although I think we should because it is fun -- but my Chinese isn't that great yet, ok!
And I did make Hot Cross Buns...but I forgot to take a photo. So I accomplished two things this Easter!
