Mmmm.Mmmm. Good!
😛
June 20th was the Dragon Boat Festival (aka Duanwu Festival), celebrated by families and festivals all over China every year with delicious food, boat races, and fun times.
According to Jerry, the high school student I was tutoring, the Festival originated many centuries ago. All those many years ago, a greatly beloved leader of China (he said king; another student said it was a famous poet/advisor instead) was forced to watch as the enemies overwhelmed his people. Heart-broken at the loss and devastated by the tragic future his people were facing, he cast himself into the river. The people on the shore saw as he fell into the water and raced out on their dragon-shaped boats to save him. Unfortunately, they could not locate his body, so they threw out special rice cakes as an offering and means of remembering his sacrifice.
To this day, they honor this great leader by hosting dragon boat races and eating Zongzi (Zohng zuh)~ sticky rice balls made of a special type of rice and either fruits or meat- date filled Zongzi are the most popular here in Zhengzhou.
The video below isn’t mine, but it shows what the festival looks like!
Another student says that they also have a tradition with hand-made bracelets – boys wear them on one hand (I think the right); girls wear them on the other. Then on the festival, they thrown them into the river to cast off bad luck. I tried the bracelet thing and ate my Zonzi, so this year should be pretty good! 🙂
This past weekend was Homecoming for the Students at SIAS, so the Freshman and Sophomores help design floats for their different departments and schools. This was one of the floats – the lily started closed, then slowly opened as the young girl danced up out of it in the traditional flowing sleeves dance. Very beautiful!
I have yet to see a day where Balloons on a Blue Sky don’t make me a little bit more cheerful!
I’m so wonderfully blessed. ❤ Just spent the afternoon chatting with a student about his dreams for the future and past accomplishments. He has worked incredibly hard and gone from speaking broken Chinese only to speaking Chinese, good English, and good German. He’s now graduating from college with an American Bachelor’s degree, and he’s off to Germany to start new adventures. It’s such a blessing to see what he has done and to hear about where he is going. And to be the proud teacher of a student this awesome (who brings me cola every time we talk 😛 ) is just a wonderful feeling. I’m so happy to have a chance to be part of their lives. ❤
Teaching is not an easy job, I’m a little surprised at just how difficult it actually can be. Well, time-consuming is probably a better word than difficult. It just takes a lot of time, effort, and heart. To be rewarded with students who get to move forward in their lives, who are seeing dreams realized and lives blessed is worth every last bit of work.
Sweet Students 🙂
“She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city” ~ Roman Payne
Language Translation
Deceptively Blonde 