Happy Easter everyone!  Here in Kunming, the only thing that tells me it’s Easter, is the calendar, and  of course the sublime  Passion music Howard had played for us all week.  I have not made my traditional “paska” or Easter bread, and I don’t think we’ll have ham or leg of lamb for Easter dinner! There are no chocolate bunnies, no fluffy little chicks, or brightly colored eggs to be seen anywhere.  There are some naturally colored blue, green and speckled eggs at the market.The fermented eggs don’t look too good! I’ve enclosed a few pictures for you.

Easter eggs – or not!

Some kind of fermented eggs! Smells awful!

More fermented eggs – definitely not chocolate!

Some of these eggs are very blue – a little hard to see – not precoloured for Easter!

This is a weekend I would love to be back home in Canada to celebrate with family and friends, but we are enjoying a quiet weekend at our home here and going for long walks. I  must say, I think one of the biggest adjustments for me has been our lack of social life here, coming from a fairly busy one at home! And Kunming,large and lovely as it is, is definitely not an “international” city the way Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo or Taipei are.  Having said that, I think the young people are the same everywhere. I marvel at the fashion statements of the young beautiful girls here – high heels the likes of which would make a podiatrist cringe. That  coupled with very short shorts or mini skirts make them seem much more elongated and fashionable. Then add to that the  heavy empty eyeglass frames , and voila, they’re ready for Vogue Magazine.
Most of the girls in my classes wear the heavy spectacles without the glass!  They also love their bling!

Speaking of my class, there are always some delightful or unusual surprises. Last week, I had asked each of them to bring an English article to read to the class.
Not all had done their homework, but the ones that had came up with some unusual readings. Mostly, they had no idea what it was they chose to read, and one of them even had perused the internet for something to read, and had come up with something pornographic! She had no idea!  Needless to say, her “reading” was somewhat briefer than the others!  
 Then we got to talking about university admissions, and how the system works here. When students apply to a university, they have to write an exam, which shows their English proficiency (or lack thereof), and a political questionnaire. This is standard across China. Then each university has its own admission standards and practices. It’s difficult to ascertain exactly what those standards are, but everything is written. I had 5 drama students in my class on Thursday, and  I was told that most of their studies are restricted to writing  short plays or dramas and talking about the theory of drama and how it’s done. Some of these students hope to become professional actors. They all  insisted that they do not perform plays or practice acting. So my question was, how do you know you want to be an actor or even if you’re any good at it? This baffled them, they’d never thought of that. Next question from me – “What are the requirements for graduating with a Bachelors Degree?”  They were unanimous – 20,000 words. In addition to taking the required number of courses,  they need to write a paper which has 20,000. words! The number of words was strongly emphasized.  Their question to me was, how many words for a BA in Canada?  How many words for an MA?  Okay, all my academic friends, how many words does it take??  Interesting… 

Today we spent part of the morning at the market again, and I couldn’t resist sending you this lovely picture of 3 little boys enjoying their snacks while their parents were busy vendors! They are obviously not siblings – the one child per family is very strongly adhered to!

Talk to you again next week!

Maggie