For Easter this year, we decided to throw a party for our friends, co-workers, and a few students. We've been wanting to have everyone over for awhile and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Dawn came over on the Saturday before Easter to help us prepare. It was an all day affair trying to get ready for the party. We wanted to make Western food because we enjoy eating it and our Chinese friends like to try it. In order to make Western food here, everything has to be made from scratch. We were cooking, cleaning, and decorating for 12 hours!!! It was all worth it in the end, but it was an exhausting day.
Dawn preparing one of the dishes. She is such a huge help to us!
We also had to remove the glass doors that we put up in our apartment during the winter time. It helps keep the heat inside our living room. Anytime we have some random project around the house to do, Dawn is always there. We wanted to document her lifting the glass door all by herself! We didn't leave her like this for long.
Our food table! We got the banner printed and hung it with clothes pins. It says, "Happy Easter!". We felt very pinteresty with our decorations!
We made a lot of food including, rice krispies, brownies, cookies, cupcakes, popcorn chicken, salsa, chicken salad, fruit salad, a vegetable tray, and popcorn.
Our cupcake tower, including cute Easter signs as toppers and jelly beans!
Our apartment looked cleaner and more put together than it had all year. All it took was a party to get us motivated.
We had a coloring station for the kids. We invited the English department from Grade 1. Many of the teachers have young kids, so we wanted to make sure they were entertained. Yes, the elementary education teacher was coming out in me. It was a big hit!
Now onto the main attraction....egg dying! They loved it!!!! I'm serious. This table had people crowded around it the entire party. Some things that we think are so simple, end up being so unique to another culture. None of our Chinese friends had ever dyed eggs before, so they were so excited to do so. I'm not talking about just the kids either. The adults had just as much fun as the kids did! We boiled 60 eggs and they were all gone.
Hatty Lee and Dawn were the first at the party, so they got a jump start on dying eggs.
Shirley is an English teacher at our school. She brought her son and his friend to the party.
Helen is also an English teacher and one of our good friends. Her son is on the right, his name is Little Mr. Fish. Helen's husbands last name is Yu, which translates into fish. We call her husband Mr. Fish, therefore her son is Little Mr. Fish. Get it?
Wu Xia made an egg for her husband Wang Hao (our hip hop teacher). It says, "This is for Wang Hao. Air Jordan's Flight 23". Wang Hao loves shoes. He has more shoes than I do.
Some of the eggs drying.
Flora with her two eggs. Such a diva!
Little Mr. Fish and Flora at the coloring station. They stayed there for most of the party.
Diana eating a brownie with chopsticks. I had to get a picture of it!
This is Catherine, one of Lesley's students. She is so cute! Just this week, she stopped me in the hallway and told me she had a gift for me. She ran to her desk and pulled out the bag of dyed eggs she made at our party. She handed me one of the eggs. This was almost 2 weeks after the party!!!! Eek! I was surprised it didn't smell yet.
Geoffery and Amanda also using their chopsticks to eat cookies!
Party people!
Leila was of course the star of the party! She looked so cute in her outfit. You can see the people behind her with purple bags on their feet. In China, you take your shoes off at the door. You never enter someone's home with your shoes on because the streets are so dirty, you would leave footprints on the floor. For parties, you buy these foot covers so everyone can keep their shoes on.
Our friends Celia, Dawn, Dana and their babies!
Amanda and Hatty Lee
Beyond (my student), Rosen, and Mr. Fish
Wang Hao and Wu Xia
Estella, Catherine, and Alice. All students at No. 1 high school!
Beyond is one of my favorite students. I taught him last year. He has no idea how cool Lesley and I think he is. haha!
Diana and Flora
English teachers from No. 1 high school.
Betty, Shirley, and Diana
All the teachers from No. 1 high school that came to the party.
Shirley, Diana, Les, Ting Ting, me, Betty, and Henry
Overall, it was a great time to be with our friends and share about this holiday with them. We also taught an Easter lesson during the week to all of our classes. We showed a video about the true meaning of Easter that included Chinese subtitles. Many of my students said it was their first time to hear the story. The reality of that blows me away. It's a slow moving process here, but one seed at a time. Keep me, my friends, and students in your pryers. I have 2 months left here and want to make the most out of my remaining time here!
