Students' Paragraphs Describing Holidays

I teach English writing to Ph.D. students in a major Asian University. The assignment was to write an in-class paragraph in preparation for their final. The prompt was to choose one of the holidays we had discussed in the last 10 weeks of class: St. Patrick Day, April Fool’s Day, or Easter. Each of my class presentations had been a powerpoint discussing   origin and cultural celebration. For all holidays I give secular and religious aspects and they are all short. It is always surprising to see what is actually communicated. I have close to 80 paragraphs and they are interesting for many different reasons, but I thought I would share two paragraphs. “My favourite holiday is Easter, because I think it is a gorgeous festival. Easter originates from a Bible tale, which is about the death and the resurrection of Jesus. People celebrate this holiday in many countries. The signal of Easter is rabbits, candy and colorful eggs. Dr. Ann told us that she would paint eggs with her famil...

Sharing "White Rabbits"

We did the best we could in describing this holiday. I used my ppt and just went once over lightly covering secular and religious symbols. Rick went far into the back ground of spring holidays to Egypt, Persia, and finally our beliefs. We were clear albeit brief about the basis for this holy week. I looked for candy eggs to share but Taobao (Chinese online source) nor Baopals (English online source) had candy versions. I did find a popular toffee wrapped in rice paper (did you know you eat the rice paper with the candy?). The name of the candy is “White Rabbit” and it has a picture of a rabbit on it. I decided that was as close as I could come. As each student left the classroom, I told them, “Happy Easter”, and handed them candy. Being this culture, most accepted with both hands and bowed head. Every time, the vision I saw was delivering communion, and saying, “The body and blood” as I passed out the pieces. It was a strange feeling and I wonder why I equated this with the eucharist...

"White Privilege", "Austism", Career Choices

  “White privilege does not mean your life has not been hard; it means that skin color is not one of the things making it harder.” In response to this meme I posted on FB, a friend answered and said she was trying to share something her daughter had posted recently. She said it referenced Rick. After working on the technical aspects of it (which often eludes many of us) she was able to send the following post: "Today is #WorldAutismAwarenessDay. This past year, ***(our son) was diagnosed with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (what we used to call Asperger's). He's funny and bright and kind, and he'll need some special skills to cope with the world as it is because of how he processes things, but I know he can do it. I am so blessed to have had a high school teacher with this same difference in his brain, who taught my psychology class and talked about what this meant for him in daily life. Because of him, I had a huge headstart in recognizing and learning ...

How Do We Share??

This week we will be sharing about Easter. We regularly share holidays. They are a good cultural addition to our class. Last semester and this semester we have shared about Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, April Fools Day, and now Easter. However, this one needs a few prys. I hesitate and don’t know how to share too much here. Things are tense. Although we are not necessarily directly effected, one never knows when. Another member of our team is definitely being perused regularly and it is disconcerting and uncomfortable. Certainly we have considered not sharing this holiday at all, but we will try it. How do we do this honestly and yet stay within the confines being dictated to us? We are working on it and need divine help. We also just received our paperwork for applications to the government to return here next year. This is a long long involved process, even though we have received the initial visa which was even longer and more difficult. The university...

Friday Night Study

Friday night study just now, so very very good. In Luke, He calls his first disciples. Are we following Him or the rules? He always answers: yes, no, wait. He invites our questions. He understands our emotions. The 4 students just eat this up. I have rarely had such an enraptured audience. Praise Him. Keep thinking of us.

Stitches Out and Combustible Balconies

Rick just got his stitches out. We were sitting talking to our team leaders here when it suddenly dawned on me why the nurse was so adamant that we NOT come on Friday. Tomorrow is Tomb Sweeping Day, a national holiday. Traditionally families go to the graves of loved ones and clean them up. (But that was in Buddhist Taiwan, and one needed to be sure that the ancestors were appeased.) Here it is a day to spend with your family enjoying spring, flying kites, eating a picnic, etc. However, we do not have classes on Friday so we were completely ignoring that it is a holiday. When we were arguing with the nurse on Tuesday about not coming back until Friday, she never once mentioned it was a holiday. I suppose it was just so obvious that what was the use of reminding these silly foreigners; everyone knows holidays after all. Anyway, it was about 4 in the afternoon after Rick had been teaching most of the day when we realized that tomorrow probably would not be a good time, and hopped on ou...

Stitches out.....or not.

We went back to the university hospital today to get Rick’s stitches out. We had been there on Saturday as per instructions to get his bandage changed. At that point I said, (or thought I said) we would be back on Friday to have the stitches removed. The nurse said, “Oh, no, you need to come back Tuesday.” I said, “But we want to come back Friday. We were told 7-10 days.” She was very insistent. Therefore, we biked the half a mile over to the hospital and went inside this morning. This is the first time we have been there that it was not either late in the day or a Saturday and previously, we were going through the ER. Therefore, it was a new ball game in figuring out where to do what. You register here (and pay for another hospital card because we had lost the first one). Then you pay for the visit. Then you find the dr. office and stand in line. The dr. swipes your card and hands you a paper and tells you to go down the hall. (Down the hall where???) Down the hall the nurse comes o...