For those who don't know about the Mid-Autumn Festival or the Moon Festival it is the second biggest holiday in China. There are a lot of not so delicious moon cakes being consumed but supposedly some are really good. I've had only one that was mildly delicious. It's a time when everyone travels home for the week long national holiday to spend time with their family. We are excited to be making the trip later today to Xi'an for the holiday. This is where the Terracotta Warriors are located.
Friday evening the school put on big celebration to honor the holiday with lots of food, music, and people. It was weird that they actually put a limit on the families because they were permitted to have only one adult and one child attending. In America the whole families would have been there but I guess not everyone would show up. Nearly every student was there. It was a huge party.
We couldn't really help with the set up because all the little pink tags with the food info on them were in Chinese so we just sort of walk around aimlessly for about an hour.
This area where they brought all the tables and chairs is where the morning exercises take place.
Everyone who came brought a dish to share for the pot luck. There was a lot of really weird stuff but we were so excited when we saw what looked like the most delicious pizza in existence. Trust me, it was.
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| A couple of Wayne's students |
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| It's not a feast without pizza and chicken heads, Yum! |
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| Everyone waiting at the gate to get into the party. |
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| My student Eric. He's really smart. He gets bored and it makes him very....aggressive. |
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| The people have arrived! |
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| I teach the little girl in the green shirt in the class I only have twice a week. They're all very young. |
It was really important to the principle that we perform for the parents and students. Mostly because they really like to show off their American teachers. We're a little like puppets at times. We sang the song Rainbow Connection, made popular by Kermit the Frog, and a couple songs that we sing with our kids in the classroom. At first Andrew and I really didn't want to do it but Wayne was all gung ho for it so we wanted to support him. It was surprisingly a blast. We had such a good time up there singing and "dancing". Even if we did mess up a little it didn't even matter because there were probably only a handful of people who understood what we were even saying. Everyone was clapping, smiling, and taking our picture. Not to mention the big city news camera in our faces the whole time. I guess it was a slow day in Zhangjiagang.
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| This is Bella. She is the teacher that Hannah works with and her English is probably the best in the whole school. |
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| Some of Andrew's students playing a game. They had little events in all the classrooms. |
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| Andrew's student, Steven. He is always dressed in the craziest Chinese fashions. He's pretty cool. |
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| This is my student, Iris. He was trying to do a funny pose. He is a really sweet kid with a lot of energy. He loves to cuddle and it melts my heart. |
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| Judy and I. She is the amazing teacher that I work with. She has such a good heart and I love that girl. |
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| My student, Tim. I found him on my way out and had to snap a picture of this cutie. |
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| All four of us with the wonderful Bella. |
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My student, Leo. His English is really good and he's obsessed with any sort of car. Which explains why he has one in his hands at all times.
We had a great time
celebrating the Moon Festival with all of our Chinese friends. Now I really
need to go pack my bags for the week because we're leaving in a couple of
hours.
Happy Moon Festival!
Take a look up at the moon on the night of the 30th to celebrate.
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