I just knew there had to be

a Catholic community in Kunming because of the size of the city, its French heritage and that Catholicism is a recognized religion. Many Chinese cities have Catholic cathedrals. Thanks to a fellow blogger and living-in-China friend, I was able to locate Sacred Heart Church. I passed it many times without noticing it throughout the year on Beijing Lu (the equivalent of Woodward Avenue)!! Now with only two weeks remaining in Kunming, I finally was able to attend Mass! G., C. and E. couldn't get it together to be ready for the (only) 9:00 service, so I went solo.

I love the distinctive Ming Era style:


Those thirteen English words on the bottom of the sign was the only English found:


My vantage point before the start of Mass. I took the photos shown here in a hurry. This Caucasian face was creating quite a stir just by being there and I certainly didn't want any additional attention!


The choir led by two old nuns, three postulants and an out of tune piano:


A closer look at the outside:


Of course, everything was in Chinese, but that made little difference. I do wish I could've understood the sermon though. It was wonderful to experience all the standard familiarities of the Mass again through the five senses:

• sight: statues, priest vestments, altar, etc.
• hearing: the order of the mass, hymms (the words "hallelujah" and "amen" are universal)
• touch: the hardness of the pews, softness of the kneelers, and the coolness of the holy water
  
• taste: Communion host
• smell: the burning of incense

The service began with the nuns and choir members filing in. The priest (in his forties) and four adult servers then entered from the side. When it was time for the sign of peace, everyone held their hands in prayer form and bowed to each other. No words were exchanged. The church was packed. (Why am I surprised? - this is China!) I would guess there were about 400-500 attending. Almost everyone went to communion and the priest had no lay assistants. At the end of Mass, the priest exited during the final hymm to the side entrance, then appeared seconds later without his vestments to greet the congregation outside. He was wearing khaki pants, a golf shirt and sipping a coke! The service ended at 10:30 (that extremely long communion line). It was so nice to be in a Catholic Church again. The local (bland) Fellowship service is ok and the kids like the Sunday school. But on a Sunday, I much rather be with fellow Catholics (even though I don't have the language skills) than with the English speaking hand-waving evangelical crowd!

We're having a busy few days. Today, we went to the Yunnan Nationalities Musem and it was a holiday - the Dragonboat Festival. Tomorrow, the Olympic torch relay comes to Kunming. Also the final week of classes start. And for the past few weeks, I've been invloved with the CCTV English speaking contest. More posts to follow.

Packing Up and Shipping Out

The sorting process for the upcoming packing has begun. Yesterday (Thursday) I hauled a very heavy suitcase of magazines, books, playing cards, puzzles and assorted odds and ends to one of my classes to see if I could give some of it away, instead of just dumping it. I thought I would be left with three-fourths of it. Surprise! All the stuff had new owners in less than three minutes! I was very pleased that it was just me and an empty suitcase heading back down four flights of stairs, a walk across campus, then another four flights of stairs up to the apartment.

The university gives us a 1000 RMB shipping allowance and the use of a van and driver to the international post office. And we lucked out! The cost of shipping a little more than 40 kilos was just over the thousand yuan mark.


One brings the boxes to the post office opened. The postal employee looks through everything, repacks it (!), then seals it up with tape. Next it's weighed and put on a machine to be strapped.

"G'bye Stuff! Here's hoping we meet up again sometime in August!"

A Day in the Life - Afternoon

Naturally, lunch is next. One great thing about making native country friends is the opportunity to be introduced to places and food that we wouldn't be able to try on our own. Here's the gang at a "certified food with no pollutants" restaurant. The Chinese equivalent of organic? I guess we've been eating polluted food all along! Next to G. is Terry (he helped us with Children's Hospital and has rudimentary English), then Wang Mei and Fu Chao.

The first part of our meal. Soup and rice came later.

G. couldn't get enough of this. It's some kind of Chinese Medicine soup. It was delicious - and hopefully had some health benefits, too.

Girlfriends enjoying lunch. Conversing with E. is Shan Shan. They are inseparable at school.

Walking home after a fine meal and wonderful company:

Although it was more like six hours, it was wonderful to experience part of a typical Chinese family Sunday.

A Day in the Life - Morning

Friends invited us to spend the day with them. I love it when we get the opportunity to peek into the lives of "the everyday Chinese".


While the Western and Chinese Christians are in church services Sunday mornings, others are busy with physical activities. This is in the university woods.

We stopped to play a game of table tennis. Most of the housing complexes have community rooms and grounds for physical activites. Many of the wealthier ones have playgrounds, tennis courts, pools and soccer fields. Since we are in university housing, residents can also use the university sport facilities. There are very few public parks, and those have limited exercise equipment. They are mostly used for a place to sit.

Then on to the university fieldhouse for badminton.

The kids enjoying a late morning treat: from left: Shan Shan, E., C., Jing Jing, Wei Wei

Children's Day

June 1 is Children's Day in China. On Friday, the Kindergarten held a small celebration. I was surprized that there wasn't much more fanfare. There could be several reasons: 1) the holiday fell on a Sunday, not a schoolday; 2) more emphasis of being a family celebration; 3) the country is still in a period of mourning regarding the earthquake victims - a government campaign is promoting the toning-down of festivities; and 4) the holiday may be losing some of its favor. Many of my college students have fond memories of Children's Day celebrations, not unlike Americans reminiscing about Halloweens past.

Each child did get their own cake to take home:


There was also a display of artwork - here's E.'s:


And C.'s - note the combination of Chinese characters (left) and English words:

The New Normal

There are ten American college students on campus studying Chinese for six weeks. (I'm not the only Caucasian face on campus anymore. I was sorta liking my honor of distinction!) I was speaking to two of the young men last week and they were telling me of something they found absolutely incredulous of the Chinese/China. I just shrugged and said "That's China". It reminded me of just how far we have come since we arrived ten months ago. I read somewhere this advice regarding living in a new place: take a picture of the extraordinary before it becomes the ordinary. Here's a sampling of our "ordinary". It's not that we like or agree on everything, but that it's not a shock to the system any more.

• people and more people everywhere

• not thinking twice to walk in front of a moving bus to cross the street

• drivers never yield to pedestrians - just sound the horn!

• cars, scooters, bikes parked anywhere - on sidewalks, blocking entrances, for example

• being stared at and kids yelling "helllooo"

• scooters, bicycles and carts loaded up high with anything imaginable - dozens of boxes of shoes, appliances, furniture, crates of live chickens, etc.
  

• sharing a bus ride with said chickens and ducks (dead or alive) and rabbits, pigeons, etc.

• squat potties and BYOT - bring your own tissue and hold thy nose

• the kids playing "bus" with a shoe box. They discuss bus routes ("Let's take 98! No, number 111 will get us there faster!") and their "friends" embark and disembark at various stops along the route. Can you imagine this happening in Michigan?!

• turning on the hot water in the kitchen first, if we want hot water in the bathroom

• cooking on a two burner stove and only having one pot and one pan

• being able to read very little and understanding spoken Chinese even less

• the increased frequency of C. & E. speaking Chinese among themselves
  

• eating every meal with chopsticks (Last week we had to reteach E. how to use a fork.)

• the itsy-bitsy teeny tiny sizes of packaged goods, counter/table heights and the majority of the population
  

And many, many more! In about three weeks, we will be adjusting to the "new old normal". I think we'll be in constant awe for a bit.

Ahhh, Summer

weather has arrived in Kunming. The days are sunny, with a cool breeze and temperatures in the low seventies. And there isn't much variation of the temperatures between day and night. Perfect. Heavier rains occur after midnight and a couple of times a week there may be a brief shower around 4pm. It is said that Kunming has the best weather in China - and I must agree.

These flowering purple bushes are everywhere in Kunming:

Enjoying a splash of color on the way to the dining halls:

Yunnan Nationalities Villages Part 4

The Jinuo's sun square - the ball represents the earth:


A Yao altar:


The classic yin and yang symbol at the Yao village:


The top of Zhuang tower:


While walking home through campus, we saw some friends at the library square. Kite flying is popular among the men. G. checks it out:

Yunnan Nationalities Villages Part 3

Everywhere we go, people want their pictures taken with the kids, like these Na ladies:


A persistent mom insisted on having C. and E. pose with her little girl. That little one is a bit more thrilled about it than our two:


A Christian church in the Miao Village?


Beating a Jinuo drum:

Yunnan Nationalities Villages Part 2

Lunch time! Yunnan's most famous dish is Across the Bridge Noodles. A mixture of vegetables and meats are cooked in a very hot broth with a thin film of oil, then rice noodles are added.

How it comes to the table. Restaurants vary on the ingredients offered.


The server preparing our meal:


Ready to eat:


Enjoying every last drop!