Happy Easter!

Having been away from home for the past three Easters...and living in primarily Buddhist environments, I have not been able to fully celebrate Holy Week in a community of Faith. This has been harder for me each year and I am so excited that it won't be the case next year. This year I expected any Easter celebration to be pretty much inaccessible. However, I was in for a surprise.

Saturday afternoon, while checking e-mail at the hostel, I was chatting with one of the guys waiting for the computer. As it turned out, he was there with his three younger brothers. I thought this was really wonderful and ended up meeting all of the brothers. They were a groovy and extremely real bunch and we had some lively conversation. As it turns out, they are all Christians, two of the brothers new Catholic converts. They invited us to join in their journey to church the next morning. I eagerly agreed to join.

I attended church with them at 6am for the Latin mass (Natalie didn't quite pull herself out of bed). I had never attended Latin mass before and this one was very interesting. Imagine for a moment about 500 Chinese people chanting in Chinese-accented Latin for 45 minutes with the priest speaking only once at communion time. It was a very unique experience and I was glad I'd gone. However, I didn't feel that my Easter "need" had been fulfilled. So, I went again with Natalie to the 10am English Easter service. It was really beautiful. The church was packed - standing room only with around 800 people. Apparently, there were around 50 countries represented. At the end of the service, the priest wished everyone "Happy Easter" in about 10 different languages! What a cool experience. Here are a couple pictures of the church:

The front of the Cathedral

inside looking up at the altar

Everyone waiting for the Chinese service to finish

so we could go in

After Church Natalie and I decided that we needed to have a big Easter "dinner". So, we headed to the Korean Bar-B-Q restaurant near our hotel and ordered up a full spread - chicken and sweet potato slices. Take a look:

The metal box was opened and they put in coals and a grill. We proceeded to grill the chicken and sweet potato and eat these garnishes (radish, fermented lotus root etc...) on the side. Yum!

And, of course, no Easter is complete without an Easter Egg Hunt! "The brothers four" informed us that they had never had an Easter with out an egg hunt, so they were organizing one.

Early in the afternoon, Natalie and I along with the four guys, two sisters from Utah, a German girl and an English guy gathered in the courtyard in the hostel to decorate eggs.

Nathan and two of his eggs

Shelley and Carrie join in the fun

Natalie makes pretty eggs!

my Dr.Seuss egg

Peter, the youngest brother, hid the eggs and everyone else divided into a boy's team and a girl's team for the hunt. Nathan was sure the boys would win, but failed to realise that his taunting made me even more resolute. The girls took the cake 24 to 17!

the brothers three admit their loss

What a perfect day!