Lask week, we celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival here in China. I guess this holiday would be compared to our Thanksgiving in the States. And I, like every good Chinese person, went outside (but in my case, it was more like hanging out the window to avoid the cold!) to look at the full harvest moon, ate my mooncake (pictured on left), and thought of my friends and family members.
This past week, we've been on vacation to celebrate the Chinese Independence Day (wouldn't it be great if America got a week off of work for the 4th of July?!). That's given me a lot of time to reflect back on the past four weeks of school and make some long-range plans for the rest of the semester. I have been able to connect with almost all of my former contacts in the past month, and all are still thrilled to chat. These next few weeks, I'm planning on trying to make some in-roads with some students that I didn't get to know very well last year. I'm going to try to have one or two meetings a week during dinner instead of lunch and go to a restaurant where we will have more time to talk.
This week, I was able to spend three days with some other teachers in the biggest city in northern China. We had a great time, but now I'm buried under a stack of 230 essyas. The next few weeks will be full with activities including a two-day trip with our school officials, EC activities, meetings with students, and a cookie-baking demonstration with about 20-30 students.
~Lisa