A Skonnie in 中国 (China): Blue Sky Easter Sunday

I love Sundays. The days of rest. And though I do not identify myself as Christian, I have always liked Easter. As a child I got to work a puzzle (finding the eggs), eat chocolate, visit the family of friends where we feasted on the best food possible, and usually go on a long walk. And I like the story of easter. Last year, living in Colorado, I read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, which is also about the power of love, and then attended a Methodist service with my 80 year old roommate where I cried like a baby. I spent the rest of the afternoon dressed up and playing in the mountains. What more could one ask for in a day?

I had pretty much forgotten that today was Easter until I found myself at the Yong He Gong Llama temple. It is the largest and most important Tibetan temple in Beijing. Though I've been hearing much about unrest around the world concerning Tibet and China, I have seen nothing personally in the city. XG, who has been to the temple many times before, said that usually there are many monks, though today, we saw only two. When I remembered that today was Easter, I had a sudden desire to go to Church and found it ironic that I was instead in a temple, surrounded by multitudes of golden figures. Peace peace peace.

Yesterday I taught my first English class for Go Beyond, my/the start up company. I spent three hours with 11 and 12 year olds at a large and well respected school on the city's middle-upper west side. From our middle-lower east side apartment, it takes about an hour by taxi with moderate traffic to get there. We played games and read a summary about the Magic School Bus, which we will use as text books for the class, and tried to provide subtle emotional intelligence training. The kids are very diverse, and wonderful. It was so nice to be around children again, and now that I'm teaching, I'm also working, which is quite nice.