Happy Moon Cake Festival

Today marks the Chinese celebration of the mid-Autumn Festival, which includes the celebration of eating moon cakes. The festival, which is similar to our Thanksgiving and Christmas, is celebrated for a wide variety of reasons - depending on which legendary folklore you believe. Some Chinese still believe that the Festival is to celebrate a goddess, who descended to the moon and now looks down on the people bringing good luck and romance this time of year, while others believe it is just a celebration of the harvest from the year. One thing that is standard about the day is that everyone eats moon cakes in celebration of the day. There are various stories to the moon cakes as well - like during the Sung Dynasty when people were unhappy at submitting to the foreign rule, so they baked a message into each moon cake with the outline of the attack. Moon cakes are similar to a fruitcake in our culture and can be filled with a variety of things such as: bean paste, lotus seed, melon seed, minced meat and salted duck egg.



Now make sure that you don't confuse the moon cake with a moon pie, which are sold here too. They are definitely different, with very different tastes. The moon cake was not bad, but not near as good as a moon pie. Maybe part of that has to do with the fact too that I have many fond memories growing up of sitting on my grandparents porch in Georgia in the summers eating a moon pie and drinking RC Cola.

As for the rest of the happenings here in China, I have just been consistently working on my language, while also continuing to meet with my Chinese friends from last year and talking with them about various things. I have also been getting ready for my opportunity to teach English to 6-7 year old children that begins in the next week and a half, and have been preparing for my trip to Beijing for training to be able to teach The Way to Success Program.

One day last week I had a really great opportunity to work on my language when I had an issue with my bathroom light and the electricity. During the middle of the night the light fixture in the bathroom fell out of the ceiling shattering on the floor, while also causing the electrical wire to fall down 4 feet as well. The next more when I turned on the light switch on I caused the wire to pop and smoke, as well as blowing the breaker to my apartment. Having blown the breaker once before (easy to do here), I knew where to go in the hallway to reset it. My only problem now was that I figured I still had a live wire in the bathroom as well the fact that I would need a new light fixture. The maintenance men on staff here at the apartment complex will happily fix any problems that you have, including installing a new light, but you have to get the parts they will need before they will come fix the problem. So, with the help of my Chinese tutor we headed out to the store where I did the communicating to get a new light fixture, and then I went and talked to the maintenance office about sending out to someone to fix my problem. Two guys came and in no time took care of the wire as well as replaced my light fixture for me. And I was pretty excited about having done the communicating in Chinese.

It has begun to get cooler here recently and I am enjoying the nice change. I hope this finds you well and that you are enjoying the change in seasons too.

Settling Back In

I am back in Xi'an and settling back in to everyday life, as well as getting into a routine of what this year will look like.

Studying Chinese: Instead of going to a university this year, I have 2 tutors who will continue teaching me Mandarin. Rebekah (a teacher from my school last year, and one of the ladies I met without throughout the year), will tutor me 3 days a week for 2 hours each session. Victoria (who was one of my teachers last year), will tutor me 1 day a week for 2 hours, and will be focused more on speaking conversational Chinese during that time.

Teaching: So, I recently met with two teachers from the preschool to discuss logistics of teaching English at their school. Originally I was asked to teach 4-6 year olds, but due to an increase in other foreigner teachers coming to help, they now need me to teach 6-7 year olds instead. I will begin teaching either the last Saturday of September or the first Saturday of October, depending on when the school decides is the best day to start the new class. I will teach 1 class every Saturday for 90 minutes, and I have a book that I must use.

Training for The Way to Success Program: So, my friends and I, who will be working with The Way to Success program (the University program of the summer camp I worked in July) will be headed to Beijing for training for a week in October. We are scheduled to have training the week of October 11-15, and then hopefully can begin teaching in the Universities here offering the program as soon as we get back from training. This teaching is a volunteer position, but that allows for great relationships to be formed and extended beyond the classroom. Plus, I just think this is a great program that teaches students to live a life of integrity and with great character, so that is why I feel strongly about being involved with it.

Other: I did arrive back into Xi'an to find the main road that runs in front of the west gate to my apartment complex completely torn up and with barriers everywhere. The city is installing new water pipes and doing some work in preparation for the new subway line while they have the road torn up. It will be great when it is done, but has been quite the obstacle in trying to get from one place to another. You can't just cross the street to get somewhere, but rather have to go up your side of the street for a few blocks, cross the road, then go back down the other side 4-5 blocks to where you are going, and do it all over again when coming home. The plus side is that it helps with my exercise regimen!

Until next time, blessings for you.

P.S. On my way back to China from the States I had a chance to watch the new Karate Kid movie on the plane. If you were looking to get a better idea of what China is like as far as culture, experiences, and differences (ex: having to use a card for electricity), then this movie does a great job of showing it.