Heading Out

In my class today I was asked to talk about American holidays and festivals. I saw no problem with doing so even though I personally don’t advocate celebrating any of them. ☺ Some students asked about Christmas so I spoke matter of factly the oft told tale of the fat man in the red suit and the gifts under the tree. I didn’t fail to mention however that many people no longer celebrate this holiday due to their different religious and personal beliefs. I was also asked about customs surrounding Easter and Groundhog Day. My favorite topic centered around Thanksgiving. The story of the native Americans bringing food to the Europeans was enhanced by the information about the subsequent slaughter of the native Americans.

When I asked the students about the origin of many of their holidays they couldn’t tell me. I believe that in this way our cultures are the same. Sometimes people don't know why but they still do. No matter, by the end of the lesson my students had way more than a superficial knowledge of many American customs.

Pictured Below from left to right: Sandy - Chinese Teacher; Want – the Dancer; Tina – the Prodigy; Daisy – the Actress; Kirsty – the Thinker and moi

In observance of the Spring Festival my school will be shutting down for a week starting tomorrow and ending January 30th. That means that I may not be able to log on to the Internet as often as I have become reliant on my school’s stable network connection.

On the upside I will be traveling! Yay! I will take a short (4 hour) bus ride to the supposedly beautiful seaside city of Qingdao. I want to see what all the hype is about. :-) I’m actually really looking forward to this mini-vacation and all the new faces I hope to see. Maybe I’ll see some people that I have lots in common with.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I am finally caught up with my reading! You don't know how happy I am about that. It's amazing how you can read this one book over and over again and each time come up with something new and relevant. It all depends on where you are in life. I suppose.