Xin Nian Yu Kuai!

Ahhh...nice warm weather. Greetings from Kunming, China's "Spring City". This is certainly a nice and welcome change to the cold and dry climate in Guyuan.

We arrived on Sunday the 22nd, so we had a little time to look around the city before our conference began. It is nice here, but not a lot to do. We went to a Buddhist temple called Yuantong Si. We were fortunate to get there during the prayers. Quite enchanting - looking at the pond with the colorful koi and sunbathing turtles, just across is a quite typical but picturesque Chinese pavilion, colorful flags and lanterns strung up and blowing in the breeze, the scent of burning incense in the air all while listening to the chanting of the monks and nuns inside the main temple. Cool.

Once again we struck out with the Provincial Museum here (they informed us that it would be closed until July). So, we decided to explore the area a little bit and we wound up getting some Chinese styled shirts made at a tailor's shop - I got a couple of funny pictures of Matt being measured by a really tiny Chinese woman. We also were able to see the twin pagodas (Xisi Ta - West Pagoda and Dongsi Ta - East Pagoda), but other than to walk up and around them, not much to do.

We had a little more luck at the Kunming City Museum, well at least with it being open and still there. All in all the museum wasn't that great. The only thing of note was a large pink sandstone pillar with a carved Buddhist scene. Also, watching the little kids were sliding down the marble information panels surrounding the pillar was quite funny.

We also had some time to visit the Kunming Zoo. The zoo was utterly depressing. The grounds for the visitors were really nice and spacious and well landscaped, really thought out and comfortable for the visitor. Of only they put an once of that thought and consideration into the conditions for the animals. Miserable doesn't even begin to describe the dismal conditions for the animals there. The animals were in tiny cells with barely enough room to move around. Nothing for them to do in there besides sleep - just a cement prison for animals. We could get up real close only to see a very unhealthy animal (they allow guests to feed them) often missing patches of fur and with gunky eyes. Truly depressing.

The conference for our volunteer organization, VIA went really well. It was really interesting to learn about what the other volunteers had been doing at their posts. Also, it is just really nice to be able to speak to a bunch of people at a normal conversation rate and to use complete sentences. Matt and I learned that Guyuan has the most disgusting bread (tastes like dirt) and crisps (taste like grass) and the best crap for white elephant gifts. Our wonderful Program Director, Michelle, also brought some treats from the states which were consumed, quickly.

We visited some more westernish restaurants (getting our fill as Guyuan has none) - City Cafe (really good chocolate brownies with chocolate sauce and ice cream), French Cafe (imported ham and cheese sandwich and salami sandwich), Prague Cafe (super yummy BLT and floats) and Wei's Pizzeria (excellent double pepperoni pizza). Also found a to die for Chinese version of a chocolate croissant - flaky, slightly sweet outside, warm melted chocolate inside.

We also celebrated the Spring Festival (Chinese Lunar New Year) there with the gang. Not much happened, everything closed down on the eve. It was kind of eerie walking down the main streets and being the only people out - few cars, fewer people. Many spend the holiday with family, so much was closed. On the eve there was HOURS of firework shows and random explosions around the city. I guess that most people stay at home to watch the special New Year performances on TV. We tuned in for a little bit - some neat acrobatics and choreography, many of the songs were a strange combination about love, nature, and nationalism. Oh, there were skits too. It was all subtitled and summarized in English so we could understand what was going on. It was super! Super lame!

I was surprised to see that many kids still had all of their fingers. Seriously, the firecracker thing is a little careless. They would light them and just throw them - at people, at things, put them under things, etc. They would also light them and then fuss with the fuse, only to throw them just as they exploded. In Guyuan, kids would light firecrackers and toss them over walls, not knowing what or who was on the other side. In Dali older kids would light one and drop it on the ground in the middle of a crowed pedestrian mall and walk away, only to have it go off and scare the bejesus out of the casual strollers.

Anyhow, I'm writing this with all of my fingers still intact, for now at least....