Mother's Day

I had a week full of midterms this week, which was a little stressful but all in all turned out OK. I don't know any of my grades yet, but they all seemed like they went OK. I had three tests and one outside essay that I had to write. The essay was for my Chinese Studies class (in Chinese) and was on China's Population Problem. It was only 400 characters but it is still the first essay I have ever written in Chinese so it was kind of exciting. This Saturday we also had a rugby game, the Shanghai "Hairy Crabs" came over for a match. We played at a really nice pitch with real grass and it was a beautiful day to be outside. First there was a men's contact game that we watched, which was cool to see. It was the first time I had ever seen contact rugby being played up close. There was only a split lip and a twisted knee, but other than that no injuries which considering everyone's fitness level, is a blessing. The Chengdu Black and Whites won by a long shot, but the Shanghai guys were actually two teams, Shanghai and Nantong University, and even then they only had 8 men, so they had to borrow some. The Shanghai team didn't bring a women's team either so instead we had mixed touch rugby games after. They were short (10 minute halves) and you played with a team of people who had never really played together before so it was a little chaotic, but fun none the less. I just wish it would have been longer and more competitive. The women's team, the "Ruckin' Reds" (Reds for Red Panda) also got new jerseys for the occasion (even though we didn't end up having a real game). But the jersey's are sweet anyways. After the games we all went over to Shamrock Bar for dinner, prizes, and celebration. Apparently there are rugby songs that some of the guys were singing and it was very re nao (loud and exciting). The next morning the UW crew and I left for SanXinDui museum. SanXinDui is the counterpart to the JinSha Museum that I went to earlier with Huangjie. It is an archaeological site in SanXinDui town (hence the name of the find) that uncovered these marvelous ancient Shu relics that no one had ever really seen before. On top of that everyone thought for a long time that Chinese history originated on the banks of the Yellow River and spread outward, but these relics are from way earlier and very different from other pieces found along the Yellow River from the same time period so it seems like the two places may have been developing simultaneously. The most striking things at SanXinDui were these bronze cast masks, some a meter across and some as small as a thimble. They also had beautiful bronze cast statues of different kinds of animals and trees (that look alot like coat racks to me). The museum itself was really nice too. Beautiful, new, interesting buildings set in a lovely park with a lake. After we got out of the museum we spent some time just sitting in the grass by the lake because that is something you don't get to do alot in China. It was really nice and made me realize how much I miss nature.