Moon Day and More (9-27)

Last Thursday was the Moon Day Festival. For the first time, the government declared it a holiday. So offices were closed on Thursday. As usual, the school made it a three-day holiday with no classes Friday or Saturday. Calling Saturday a holiday day seemed strange until I realized that doing so meant that we didn’t do make-up classes that day. Friday’s classes were made up on Sunday. Since the official holiday was Thursday, we didn’t have to make up those classes. I had thought about going away, but with the week-long National Holiday only ten days away, I decided to save my money, and it seemed like too much effort to go away twice in such a close time.

When I asked people what the Moon Day Festival is about, I was told that they eat moon cakes and look at the moon—when it is visible and not cloud-covered like it usually is here. The festival is on the day of the full moon in this lunar month, which is usually in September. The round moon is special in China. One story is that a woman drank a special drink her husband had stolen from a goddess and found herself floating up to the moon, where she stayed. The school president compared the day to Thanksgiving, as it’s a day to spend with one’s family. Another person said the holiday is about family and friends.

On Thursday the waiban invited us to another special lunch with the deans in the school’s banquet room. Again we had more than twenty dishes. 

We agreed that these were better than the last banquet because there were fewer spicy dishes. 

I think they paid attention to what we ate and ordered more foods suitable for us foreigners. It was a delicious meal. 

The school president opened the meal with a toast and then gave us each a box of moon cakes. The box itself is beautiful and contains eight moon cakes, four different kinds. The message on the box is “May peace, happiness, and good fortune be with you always, and may its blessings lead into the wonderful moment during the festival for you and all whom you hold dear.” 

Then we had a group photo, and the president left.

After lunch, Peggy took us to the party room in the Fine Arts building for a Mid-Autumn Festival Tea Party. The holiday is also called the Mid-Autumn Festival. We were served tea, and fruits, peanuts, and small moon cakes were on the tables. About ten students joined us there. Several of them sang songs for us. Our foreign men also sang a few songs. Many of the students were in my classes last year; so it was nice to see them and chat with them. When we left, we were told to take the moon cakes and fruit with us. It was an enjoyable afternoon.

Moon cakes are only available during this time of year. They come in different sizes and have different fillings. Modern-day ones may have meat, but traditional ones have fruit or bean paste. I now have a good supply that will last a while, since they are individually wrapped and sealed.

On Wednesday, I did my teachers’ training lectures again. This group is meeting for the final time of a three-year training. They are all elementary school teachers. The ones I spoke to individually speak English very well. I enjoyed chatting with them.

We started the teachers’ classes on Wednesday. They ended out with four classes: two elementary level, one intermediate, and one advanced. I am teaching the intermediate level, which suits me well. There are fourteen teachers, two of whom were in my class last year. The books are better; so the class should be more effective and interesting.

Thursday we foreign teachers were taken to see the pandas. The story is that the dean saw Mike drawing a picture of a panda during one of our meetings last week and decided to send us to see them. Mike said he wasn’t drawing a picture or showing one to someone else. Our classes were cancelled for this occasion. It was raining lightly most of the day. So it was rather cool, and most of the pandas were not outdoors. So we didn’t see as many as I saw in March. 

But we saw the babies! Fourteen babies were born at the center. Five were on display in the nursery. 

They are a big attraction; so there was a line—15 minutes—to get into the nursery, and a man hustled us on so we didn’t linger in front of the babies too long. They are now six weeks old. It was fun to see the adults munching on bamboo again. They are cute and fun to watch.

Afterwards we were taken to a nice restaurant for lunch. As usual, Michelle made great selections, and we had a delicious meal. Special—new to me—dishes were shoulder of pork, a mashed potato dish that was almost like a soup, and a green leaf and barley dish.

After lunch, the others were taken back to campus, and Yang and Michelle took Dale and me to the office to apply for our residence permit extensions. This took only half an hour once we arrived at the office. So we went to a mall at the metro stop near the place Dale and I would get the teachers’ bus back to campus. We had an enjoyable time having a drink together. Neither of us was aware of this mall; so it was fun to learn about it. It was really nice to have this afternoon with Yang and Michelle, chatting with them and having fun together.

I have finished my term plans for the two classes with books. I did a survey of the students in the Business Management class to learn what they are interested in. That helped me get a feel for what to do with them. And I’ll do basically the same thing with the Elementary Education class. So I can get that project done soon.

Next week is the National Holiday. This is a one-week holiday, and the school was nice and gave us the weekends before and after the week, too. We don’t have to make up classes on those weekends. The National Holiday is like Christmas in that thousands (millions?) of people travel and prices for rooms and flights went up significantly. But April and I will travel together by bus; so sharing the cost of the hotel helps us both.

In addition to being “beautiful and brilliant,” I have been told that I am cute. Several students have told me that I am very kind, like their grandmother. That’s sweet. Another girl tells me she loves me on the way out of class every week. I have also been told that I am a very good teacher. Since they have seen me only once or twice, I hope I can keep being a good teacher most of the time.