HAPPY NEW YEAR!
For New Years, we had a few days off of school, but we wound up being busier in these few days than if we had been teaching. The kids were off of school too, so some of them wanted to hang out. We also had a school lunch on New Year's Eve to celebrate with all of teachers from our school. It ended up being a lot of fun and a whole day event, including a massage and KTV! Of course any Chinese celebration should include karaoke!
New Year's Eve night we had dinner with Wang Hao and Wu Xia (our hip hop teacher and his wife), then headed to the brand new shopping mall for a party. Because we had been living at school for the month of December we hadn't gotten to spend much time with these two! It was nice to hang out with them again! The new shopping mall is awesome! It has Pizza Hut AND a coffee shop! What foreigner wouldn't be excited about pizza and coffee?!?! Huangshi is stepping it up!!
Oh Wang Hao...he can never take a normal picture!
Inside the new shopping mall...its very fancy :)
The mall had a party/show for New Year's Eve, which isn't celebrated as much as in America because they have Chinese new year coming up in February.
We met up with Kevin and Aaron at the mall. Their friend Betty is a TV reporter. We ended up being filmed saying, "Happy New Year! Xin Nian Kuai Le", which is "happy new year" in Chinese! Then we through up the ever popular China peace sign for a lasting impression. Oh the things we do just because we are foreigners!
The group, minus Kevin, for New Year's Eve.
The boys.
Also during the holiday, we headed over to No. 3 high school for their New Year's performance. Usually, every school has a performance for the students at new year. This year our school decided not to have one because they had been so busy moving to our new location. I was pretty bummed, because last year it was a lot of fun to see all of our kids dancing, singing, and acting. It was great to experience No. 3's performance this year!
All of the students filing out onto the track and field to watch the show. There are thousands of students at this school and they reminded me of ants running around trying to get a spot!
Camille and I with Hatty Lee, who used to be Camille's student and is now Brad's student at No. 3.
The main reason we went to the performance was to support our dear friend, Brad. He was asked by one of his classes to join their performance, which included speaking in Chinese.
Also, for their big finish, they danced to High School Musical! They did a wonderful job!
NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS
After the holiday, I returned to school and taught all of my students about an American New Years tradition, making resolutions. After teaching the meaning and giving examples, I had each student write down their own resolutions for 2013. We made a class poster to hang on the wall, so they could read each others' resolutions and remember their goals for the new year.
Tracy McGrady, Neil, and John Kennedy from Grade 2 holding up their poster!
The most common resolutions were to grow taller and stronger, be happy everyday, and get good grades! Some were very thoughtful and selfless, including happiness and love for their family and friends in their resolutions! Others were funny and desired to eat delicious food all the time while also losing weight!
Here are a few of my favorties....
This student clearly wants one thing only....MONEY! The note above was from one of my sweetest students and included her hopes for me to be happy in the new year!
"I want to be King." This is funny because his English name is King. Good one!
This was written by a student with poor English. He was so embarrassed to read his, but I thought it was simply sweet. "I want to find she".
THE END
I hope everyone is off to a great start in 2013 and enjoyed the holidays!
