Mid-Autumn Festival

Yesterday was the Mid-Autumn Festival, AKA Moon Cake Festival. We had classes off because it was a holiday, except for a lecture that morning on economic and social changes in China. The lecture was okay, but not nearly as interesting as some of the other speakers we’ve had, like the oral historian, Huang Cheng, who spoke about his years as an interpreter for the Communist Party and how he spent twenty years imprisoned for being ‘counter revolutionary’.

So yesterday I went to Black Dragon Pool (黑龙潭) with some of the other SIT students and some Chinese students from Yunnan Nationalities University, who have some very interesting English names like July and Snoopy. July was a lot of fun to talk to and tested my Chinese a little bit, every now and then. She’s a sophomore from Sichuan province and she’s majoring in English. We walked around the park, which was fairly large and not very crowded, by Chinese standards. People were actually fishing in the pools with what looked like possibly rented fishing poles (they were all the same), putting the fish they caught in little buckets, and then bringing the fish to a grill by the park’s entrance. I saw people eating the fish, which looked smothered in spices (as things often are here).

When I got back to the University, I went out to an Indian restaurant on Foreigner’s street with Lexie, Ai Li (my roommate; her real name is Ellie, but there are two girls called Ellie here so I call her by her Chinese name), David (whose Chinese name is something like Jang Wei, which sounds kind of like John Wayne with a Chinese accent), Rebecca, and Lauren.

Afterwards, we went to Green Lake Park, where there were celebrations going on for the festival. The whole thing was kind of childishly euphoric, although, as we were not children, we were kind of barred from a few of the games and rides (like these giant clear bubble-things that float in the water; kids crawl in them and then run around like a hamster on a wheel). We all bought heart-shaped balloons and Lexie got a pair of green devil horns, as well as a paper lantern with a candle inside. I saw a very serious, middle-aged Chinese man wearing a headband like the devil horns, except that they had sheep on either side, flashing red and white.

We all sat down by the lake (joined by Kalyn and Lucas), and began singing various American songs, many Beatles songs being among them. There was actually a lot of singing (and dancing) going on everywhere. After a couple hours, we decided we had to get going, seeing as classes were at eight o’clock the next morning. Regular students at Yunnan Minzi actually get today and tomorrow off, but then they have classes on Saturday and Sunday.

In addition to classes and lectures, I’ve spent the last few days trying to figure out where to go for my Yunnan Exploration Project. About a week from today, I get a week off from classes to go somewhere–anywhere–in Yunnan (or even further, if I wanted). I’ve been debating going to either Tiger Leaping Gorge (near Lijiang) or Tengchong and/or Ruili, both of which are in the west, close to the Burmese border. As of a few hours ago, it looks like I might be going to Tengchong and Ruili.