From Emei Mountain: Easter Week 2009

Monday, April 13, 0950: Soph Class 1

It is Easter Week and the Gap Guys and I decide to celebrate Easter with all my classes. The two Gap Guys would develop and deliver a presentation that explains what Easter is and what it has become to Western culture. While the presentation is being delivered the students would color the hard-boiled eggs they will be required to bring to class. A good old-fashioned Easter Egg Party.

John and Dave brings us the meaning of Easter and how it developed into both a religious and secular holiday celebrated throughout the Western world. Their presentation is colorful, informative and entertaining.

DJ does an egg. The initial design of his egg was very impressive. Wonder what he has in mind to finish it off?

Sanda's focus on her egg is not interrupted by anything, including the presentation and my camera flash.

Ms. Hami and Ms. Amelia compare eggs to see what direction each where headed in their designs.

Julia consults her design notes to insure she is creating the egg of her dreams.

Sophia, too, cannot be bothered by a presentation of Easter history as she works diligently to create a "good egg."

Ivy starts with a pastel lavender and will obviously build upon this beautiful color. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Mr. Songe was suddenly transformed into a hard-boiled egg. How clever!

An Easter Egg Hunt

At about the halfway point in the class, we stopped the presentation and the egg decorating to have an old-fashion Easter egg hunt. Prior to the class the Gap Guys hid twenty English chocolate eggs around the classroom for the students to find and eat.

The students searched throughout the room to find the eggs. Some were successful others were not.

Here Lory shows off the egg she found prior to eating it. She informed me that the chocolate was as good as the Gap Guys had promised.

Another successful hunter of the chocolate Easter egg.

Sophia found two. Sophia found two! Luck has always worked well for this student.

I got one. I got one! Yes, Winter found one as well.

Easter Products

The Award Winners

Monday, April 13, 1400: Fresh Class 1

As the week progressed, the Gap Guys got better and better. Here they address my freshmen class 1 for the first time. This class had already had a party with the Gap Guys so they were well acquainted with the them and the presentation went really well.

As the presentation progressed, the students began more and more involved in their egg decorations and soon all were working diligently and listening to the presentation.

Many students first tried to draw on their eggs and make intricate patterns. This did not seem to workout and most gave it up for a more freeform expression of art.

Here Zoe admires her finished product. Hers was mostly pastels and lighter colors.

Jennifer became so involved with her egg that she often forgot that she was a student and not a chicken.

Frank and Lory had well laid out plans for their egg decorations and began to apply them immediately. They were two of the first to finish their projects.

Intricate was not easy and took a lot of time as one can see from this partially finished egg.

I liked this picture which pretty much sums up what the "writing class" was doing this Easter Week.

Ms. Dimples (Ava) finishes up her egg. As is obvious, she put a lot of effort into the egg's design.

Jack - a self portrait

Purple

Here are the finished products. This class probably had the most diverse decorations of all the classes during Easter Week.

The Award Winners

Tuesday, April 14, 1400: Soph Class 3

As we walked up the hill next to the admin building under renovation we came across this "stag beetle." Since we all had cameras, we each took various pictures of the little guide crossing our path. When I snapped my pictures, he was walking across a rounded leaf which add some real interest and background to the picture. A good start to another Easter Party!

The Gap Guys were in rare form for Sophomore Class 3. They had interacted often with this class and it was almost like a homecoming. Their presentation on the history and the secularization of Easter continued to be superb.

Pete, working from extensive plans of ancient egg decorating directions, takes notes to insure his egg will be authentic beyond a doubt.

Creativity in action as Marian and Rebecca perform works of art on their eggs.

Camellia came well prepared for the task at hand. She had a full set of watercolors plus markers and other artist supplies.

Grace was at a loss most of the afternoon as to what exactly she wanted to do with her egg. Although she came fully prepared, she was never able to come up with a design that suited her, having to "wash" and start again five separate times. In the end, her inability to make a decision cost her both time and awards.

Here three pros compare concepts and designs as each begin to finish up their projects.

Sophie is playing catch with her egg as she decides how to decorate it. She did finish her egg without breaking it.

Clueless and artless in action.

Yoyo does yoyo. Do you see the family resemblance.

Sisters?

Kammy works hard to come up with a suitable design. Diligence paid off in the end.

Here Alicis (alia Lisa) uses various techniques to decorate her egg. Her egg could be described as multimedia.

The reigning Jiaoda Easter Egg Hunting champion. While others had trouble grasping the concept of hunting for chocolate easter eggs, Killua went about finding most of them and then eating all the chocolate she found herself. Conceptually, Killua remains on a plain of existence above the rest of the world.

She hasn't started so I am not sure if this is a "bunny" sign or a "victory" sign. We shall see. We shall se.

Killua, after finding and eating all the chocolate Easter eggs, calmly continues were decorative work on her egg. Normally, she spends very little time being calm so me thinks the chocolate was good for her.

This design went the way of the five others as Grace continues her trip down the road to indecision. The sinks in the girls bathroom must have been something to behold just from the washings the Grace did to this poor egg. We did not have award for egg washing.

Camir and Lucy show off their finished eggs.

Take a guess who's family this kid belongs to - hint the hair and the red cheeks give her away.

Another finished product.

Hellena and Hermione come up with some pretty fashionable eggs.

The end products were all very impressive.

You can tell from the above two pictures that Hellena and Hermione were absolutely serious about their eggs.

Isabella shows off her offspring.

Is it a bug or an egg?

Finishing up with one final touch of beauty.

Cuteness!

Monica finally finishes her egg.

The final products were, like the other classes, very impressive.

Egg Knocking Competition

We decided that we would add a traditional competition for this party - the tradition egg knocking contest. Those who brought extra eggs were given the chance to participate. We had six contestants in total.

Dave acted as the official referee and explains the rules of the competition to the first participants.

Grace, her unsuccessful paintings and washings gave her the opportunity to be one of the egg knockers. Her egg was unusually clean and thus she thought she had a shot at the championship. Here Isabella prepares to crush Grace's overly sanitized egg.

Marian is "kknocked out" of the first round. Good thing she was not sentimental about her egg.

Henry crushes Oliver's egg to take the championship.

The reigning Sophomore Class 3 Egg Knocking Champion

The Award Winners

Wednesday, April 15, 0950: Soph Class 2

Another Easter Party, another great presention about Easter from the Gap Guys. This class and the Gap Guys have already shared many classroom hours and a couple of parties together so they were right at home.

It did not take much time for this class to jump into egg decorating.

Egg decorating and listening to a presentation was no problem for members of the Sophomore Class 2.

The proof will be in the details.

Piggy Pink

Xanadu does pastels and black. There seems to be a personality clash here somewhere.

Tracy at work.

Kinfolk one and all.

Pig, bug or egg?

Finished eggs began to accumulate at the judges table.

Super EGG!

This is a classic shot. Dave did it not me. Wish I had taken it.

Harriet works on her egg as an artist works on his canvas.

How about a pastel yellow for this egg?

There may be a hidden meaning in this egg.

Finishing up for the final competition.

Carl knew exactly what he was doing for his egg.

The Easter Egg Hunt

A "D" was given to this Easter Egg Hunter, Ms. Harriet. She was almost shown where four eggs were hidden but could only find one. She even appears to be perplexed as to what to do with this English chocolate egg. Eat it, Ms. Harriet, eat it!

An "A" was given to this student who understood what it meant to be on an Easter Egg Hunt!

Back to Business

Wednesday, April 15, 1400: Fresh Class 2

Mr. Crock, acting like a Wuhanese, did not want his unfinished egg to be photographed. Could it be that he was going for the ugliest egg award?

Diligence among the freshmen

The entire freshmen give the bunny sign in response to one of the remarks the Gap Guys had made.

The entire class erupts in one hug hunny sign for the Gap Guys comments.

Lemon's egg seems to be a preliminary favorite for the most creative. It is early so we plan to keep an eye on her egg.

Aron's computer generated designs did not really help him when he tried to apply them to the egg.

More freshmen diligence under pressure

The Egg and The Cross

Capturing a blank egg and turning it into a picture is hard work.

Freshmen Class 2 Produncts

More products

Egg Knocking Championship

Mr. Yao spares no pain as he sends Mr. Joe to the sidelines. Mr. Yao became an instant favorite to win it all if he could get past the evil Mr. Monster Duck Egg of Mr. Taunus. Mr. Yao's techniques were flawless.

Second round action had Giselle swiftly dispatching an eager and energetic Mr. Yao. Mr. Yao spent the next few hours crying over his defeat.

First round competition pitted Ms. Sydney against the monster duck egg that Mr. Taunus had brought to the competition. Ms. Sydney's egg was crushed under the shear size of the duck egg. Some competitors began to complain about the unfair size of Mr. Taunus' duck egg.

Ms. Angel takes on Mr. Monster Duck Egg, the odds-on favorite to take it all. Mr. Taunus and his duck egg fall to the brilliant attacks of Ms. Angel, pushing her into the final round.