Christmas Weekend

So the Saturday and Sunday before Christmas were rather exciting days...well, they were different from my typical weekend anyway.  Saturday was a workday in exchange for getting Monday, December 31st off, but my school decided not to make it like a regular Monday and had a school wide talent show all morning, which was fun for the first hour or two.  But after nearly 4 hours and watching Gangnam Style get danced to 3 different times, I was ready for it to be over...There were a lot of really cute performances though and some were just funny, so I'm definitely not complaining about having a talent show instead of classes!

On Sunday my other school had Sports Day.  I guess December 25th is their school's birthday so they had a big event that Sunday morning to celebrate.  It was super cold that day and raining at first, so I was quite thankful for the complimentary matching pink vests all the teachers had to wear that day.  I was grateful for every layer I could fit on.  The day started off with a couple of speeches.  Somehow I found myself sitting on the stage with all the important people, and even though I had been told to sit there, I spent most of the day walking around getting closer to the action.  After the speeches, there were several performances.  First there was a recorder choir and then there was a special lion dance that they've done at at temple before too although I'm not really sure what the significance is.

Besides the four lions (each one had two kids under it) there were two kids with massive head/masks who waved green leaves around

At the end this bigger lion came out and held a banner

The recorder choir was made up of fourth, fifth and sixth graders

After that the students also all did dances that they've been working on for a while.  Below are some clips of them.  The first one was a kind of warm up dance type thing that all the students did.  The person leading them is our principal.  Then there is the fifth and sixth grade dance, the first and second grade dance and a really short clip of the third and fourth grade dance.

Then there were some performances by two groups of middle aged women (actually the second group had some men too).  They mostly danced to Chinese music but I nearly lost it when they started dancing to "Achy Breaky Heart".  It just seemed so out of context.  After that amusing interlude, I spend the rest of the day watching the kids compete in goofy little contests.  Although some of them were really cute because there were so many parents and grandparents there that about half the activities included them and it was just really nice to see the kids and parents and grandparents all working together and having fun.

This group also did a dance with fans

This is the whole school standing with their grade 

Some fourth and fifth graders dancing (the one in the front is the same jump roper in the photo at the end)

Sixth and fifth grade

Third and fourth grade

The fifth grade contest involved a relay of putting tennis balls on the frisbees and then picking them up again...it was much more exciting than it sounds

The sixth graders had to race around while only stand on those foam squares

The third and fourth graders competed in a jump rope race relay.  This little guy couldn't jump rope at all (you can see everyone else had finished by this point).  He even lost his shoe during it but he never stopped smiling

After Sports Day was over, I hopped on my scooter and drove to the orphanage to see what they were up to for Christmas.  That was what really got me in the Christmas spirit I think because all the kids (well, not just the kids) had so much excited energy there and it was contagious! There was a massive gift exchange and they had even gotten me a gift! It was so sweet of them! All in all it was a wonderful day!

Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays!!

Well, Christmas has come and gone...but in a small way I sort of feel like I'm still waiting for it.  This year was definitely different, which is no surprise of course.  First of all, being in a totally different climate this year didn't prepare me as the bitter cold and snow of Minnesota usually do, by making me realize it's winter and that Christmas will be coming.  Then of course, there weren't finals (not that I can say I missed those!).  But I've sort of gotten used to those as being the last thing to conquer before I can really delve into Christmas festivities completely.  And finally, here in Taiwan we had no Christmas break and in fact, I also had to work on the weekend before Christmas (more on what those days involved later), so I joked about the 12 Days of Work instead of the 12 Days of Christmas...which doesn't actually sound funny now, but for some reason I found it amusing at the time.  Anyway, despite all that, I would still consider it a really great Christmas! And the title of this post isn't trying to be ironic or something, it's just stating a fact.  There really is nothing like being with your family for Christmas! But I had the joy of being with my family via skype on Christmas Eve during our family celebration.  Besides the fact that I wasn't actually there to give everyone hugs...it pretty much felt like I was there (until I signed off and went to work...that was probably the low-point of the day).  But through skype we all took turns opening our gifts just like usual and I even had some to open due to a wonderful friend from college (thanks Amy!).  Then my dad read the Christmas story from the Bible (which we usually do before presents, but in the excitement of skyping we got things a little out of order).  Anyway, I was (and am) very thankful for technology because it really makes the distance seem much smaller!

Despite the fact that (and maybe because of it) Christmas isn't celebrated much here, I got to teach about it in school.  We even got to have class in a different classroom with a projector that day just for the occasion! We sang some songs and I gave a little presentation about Christmas traditions and then shared what my own family does.  Cutting down Christmas trees was a subject of fascination and one fourth grade class in particular asked tons of questions.  They wanted to know how much they cost and if you had to pay more for bigger trees and if you could just pay fee and then take as many trees as you'd like, and lots of other things...Then some of the classes got to play Pass the Parcel which is always a big hit.

Just talking about Christmas to one of the classes

Who will get to unwrap the parcel?! (Clearly that's what they're all wondering)
By the way, if you noticed the face mask on the little boy, that's totally a common sight.  People wear them whenever they have a cold or cough

The excitement of Pass the Parcel never ceases!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l3e-xe9iEg

Here is a link of the second graders at one of my schools doing a funny little dance to Jingle Bells.  They could sing it really well, but multi-tasking was a little difficult for them.  They actually practiced this for a couple lessons so  performing it and getting recorded was the reward.

And below is a video from one of my first grade classes on Christmas Day!  This was at my other school and the first graders are singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas (and also doing a funny little dance).  This was only a one day thing, but I think they did a pretty good job! In the video they are practicing because they went back and performed it for their homeroom teacher.