Happenings

All right, it's blog time!

One of the opening ceremonies' performances

Classes getting ready to enter for the opening ceremonies

Something that's pretty big over here is to have elaborate events that involve a lot of people, organization, and stress. It's pretty fun until we stop to think, wow, there have been 4 or 5 of such events in the past month, that's one a week! For example..... The end of October had the whole school participate in School Sports Day.  It started with the opening ceremonies, in which each class paraded around the gym singing their team cheer and then three separate groups each did a choreographed song/dance. Then the events began. Jump rope, three legged race, basketball dribbling, shot put, short and long distance running, and many others. I participated in the jump rope and was pretty proud of my 80 skips in 1 minute. Then I saw one of my first grader's score: 100 skips. Below are some pics from the all day event. It ended with individual winners being awarded with very authentic looking gold, silver, and bronze medals.

Some event finalists!

Down to the finish line!

The next week had us do the school-wide crazy hat day, which is the American Teachers' opportunity to share the festivities of Fall, Halloween, and Harvest Parties with the Chinese Students. Each student and teacher came to school with an elaborately created hat (working on getting pictures). Hats ranged from 3 feet tall rolled up construction paper with feathers, tinsel, and you name it attached, to baseball caps adorned with Mcdonald's French Fry boxes, fake fruit, or kitchen utensils. Students were divided into groups and then went to four different stations. I taught a lesson on Halloween in America, and other teachers ran a craft, game, and snack station. Then the four groups split into smaller groups and went around the whole school, trick-or-treating at doors of rooms. They loved it! Very crazy, but hey, it was crazy hat day wasn't it?



Throughout the two weeks mentioned above our company held it's annual basketball tournament. This is a pretty competitive tourny with teams made up of different departments in the company. Thus, our school was considered a department and we had a team. Low and behold, we ended up getting to the semi-final game! Unfortunately, we got destroyed by last year's champion (and many of our supporters claimed fowl play on the ref's part) and ended the tournament on kind of a sad note. But it was very fun and I have found a new sport I enjoy!

The basketball team

Then the next week the kindergarten had the annual harvest party. Stephanie was in charge of a cookie baking and frosting station. The night before the party she made 5 batches of cookie dough and the appropriate amount of frosting. Then during the party she helped kindergartners ranging from 2 1/2 to 5 1/2 years old (and their parents) shape, bake, and frost cookies. Mmmmm, the whole school smelled of freshly baked yummy treats! The parents (and other teachers) were very impressed with the elaborateness of the baking/frosting (do you see the theme of elaborateness yet?)

Speaking of cookies, the day after the kindergarten harvest party (so a Saturday) our company's apartment complex (dubbed the LQ, which stands for Living Quarters) held their harvest party and sports day. So Friday night, we helped our American teacher friends bake 600 oatmeal raisin cookies. These were for us to sell at the American Teacher's Booth. At this particular event, tables full of wares line the two streets that run through our complex. People from or associated with the Semiconductor Manufacturing Company that our school is with, brought food, clothes, purses, and all kinds of other things to sell. It was like a flea market in our front yard! So we had a booth of oatmeal raisin cookies and hot chocolate. We easily sold out of both. Along with the market, the LQ harvest party involved sports events that teams participated in. Below are some pics of a few of the games we played. The tug-o-war was the finale of the party and our teachers won 3rd place! Not bad for a group of academics.....

Get the marble down the chute into the bucket!

tug-o-war!

Finally, after this party we were finished with elaborate events for a while. However, the following week was mid-term week, which involved mid-terms, grading, and report cards. Phew!

To sum all of this up, life is pretty crazy here. However, with every elaborate event we invest ourselves in  we take another step towards relationships, camaraderie, and open doors. Because participation and investment in such events is so valued here, we are doing something worthwhile when we join in. It is saying that though we are foreigners who make mistakes and are inconveniences most of the time, we want to do what the Chinese are doing and this builds many bridges in a culture that is so reliant on relationship. Please think of us as as life goes on and we always need renewed energy and time to rest in the midst of it.

Until next time,



L and S