Spring Festival

Spring

Festival

春节

快乐

年年

有余

祝你

发财

Happy

New Year!

I wish you

fortune

comfort

& above all joy

in 2009

Not much to report. My grade 1 students were released to go home last week. My grade 2 students have finished their exam and departed today. Now only grade 3 students--whom I don't teach--remain. So I am officially on vacation!

There's been few posts recently because 1) for a while I was very, very busy helping my students prepare for their exams 2) the Internet has been a wretch and 3) in the last few days it's been boring.

My small town is coming more and more to life as we edge closer toward Spring Festival. Explosions assualt the ears from every corner at all hours of the day. Has the Israeli military opened a front in the streets of HuaiYa? No, it's only the children playing with explosives (without the civilian casualities). Speaking of civilians... where have all these people come from? For being a physically small town, HuaiYa has always had a lot of people in the streets. But now there are more... many, many more. At least three times as many people--possibly five times as many--now crowd the streets. The commerce use to happen at the junction of the only two major roads in HuaiYa. Now the commerce stretches down the road all the way to my school.

As the new year approaches, it is the time to buy new stuff. So that's what everyone is doing! Masses of people selling things... masses of people buying things... even in my small town. New shoes, new coats, noodles, candles, lanterns, and "wish you fortune in the new year" signs all on sale in the 100 different corners of tiny HuaiYa. And the people are buying... including old ladies who shove me out of the way to get to the next stall that has the same stuff as the one they just came from. Mad consumerism... I love it! Did anyone tell these people about the global financial 'crisis'? Or maybe if we buy all new things, the soot of economic recession can't touch us in the new year?


There have also been local performances recently. One night I caught a picture of an opera being performed on the hillside overlooking the town. The stunning lighting and the cantankerous clamor of the show certainly captured my attention... heaven only knows how the students can keep studying as the happy spirit of the approaching Spring Festival penetrates their classrooms throughout the day.

What a show!

But gradually they are being released. Soon enough even the grade 3 students will be granted a short respite from their studies to enjoy the company of their friends and family and to relax. And I soon will too.

In fact, I am leaving tomorrow for my Spring Festival vacation. Now what to do about the blog? I may post updates as my way of staying in contact... and also as my way of not having to write everything that happened all at once when I return. There probably won't be pictures, just words. Or who knows, maybe there will be nothing?! Or who knows, maybe I won't even be able to depart because the traffic is so conjested and the next three weeks will be one long blog entry... right now I'm eating... right now I'm brushing my teeth... right now I'm picking my nose... lol... Who knows?! The point is, expect me to be gone a while!

Wishing everyone a happy new year.... or if you're already 1/12th finished with the new year already, then happy MLK day... happy Obama inauguration day... happy February... happy everyday. Be happy. Smile. Enjoy life.