Easter in Beijing

This Easter was definitely a unique one. First off, I had to find eggs to dye. I was unable to find any white eggs, so instead I bought a bunch of brown eggs, slightly lighter brown eggs and then light green eggs (I think these might be 100 year old eggs, but I could be wrong). On Saturday I set up the egg dyes (imported from the states) and wax to make margucius (Lithuanian Easter eggs). I spent probably around six hours doing eggs. Jen, our other roommate for a couple weeks, and I did most of them and Carrie and Alex did a couple but were busy with other things. It was interesting to see how the dyes worked on the brown eggs, in a way I like them better because they have a more rustic look.

On Sunday, Alex, Jen and I went to the China International Gallery Exposition 2006. From what I hear, there isn't much in the way of modern art in Beijing, so it was good to see. There were some really interesting pieces, however nothing blew me away. What really weirds me out in China is how much people take photos of themselves in front of things. In this case, in front of art. I understand taking a photo in front of a sculpture when it is in an outdoor park or something, but at this exhibit there were all of these people posing with paintings and sculptures all over the place. It is like an amusement park. So we hung around this exhibit for a bit until we got a call from Carrie. She went to pick up her father from the airport, and planned to be back well before 4 (when our party was set to start), however she was stuck in horrible traffic. She had just received a call from some people saying they were at our apartment and she wanted to see where we were. We rushed to leave the museum and arrived just as Carrie was arriving, 45 minutes late to our own party. Oops!

When we arrived, Carrie, Mr. Clyne and Julie got out of the car. Carrie and Julie had gone to some event before picking up Carrie's dad. Julie was carrying a box that looked like a Dunkin Donuts doughnut hole box and I got excited, until I heard a chirp. She opened the box and there was a little duckling in it (which strangely enough has been named "Chick," it will surely have identity problems now). Apparently on the way out of the event, there were boxes with live bunnies and boxes with live ducks for everyone to take. I can only assume that these were meant to be brought home and eaten.

We got to our apartment and several people were already there, so we rushed out the food (Carrie's dad brought baked goods!) and had a nice time. I put out the eggs and we had two egg wars, I won one, lost the other. The "Chick" was chirping non-stop, so Julie brought it up to the bathroom and put it in the bathtub. We put some water in the tub and created a "natural environment." Then Ben, decided to feed the duck crackers. The duck would not eat regular crackers, so Ben chewed it up and then fed it, just like momma duck would have done. Ben is now officially the duck's father.

After everyone left, Julie was wondering why she took the duck and did not know what to do with it. Possible ideas were: let it loose in a hutong, give it to someone in a hutong, leave the box in a cab/restaurant/street corner . . . Eventually she took it home and it looks like she might have found someone who wants it. Whether they will eat it or not, I do not know.