Have You Had Your ZongZe Today?

Today is the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. It's really not that big of a deal in Zhanjiang. Basically the only way people celebrate is by eating zongze. It's this flavored sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. There are many different kinds. My students gave me some as a gift, so I got to try it for the first time. It's pretty good, and really gooey. They said that every one must eat at least one zongze on this day. The reason they celebrate this day is actually really sad. They celebrate to honor some guy who committed suicide. In some dynasty hundreds of years ago, this famous poet tried to stop a war by pleading with the emperor, but the emperor wouldn't listen to his ideas of peace. So the poet got really upset and drown himself in some river, which is now super famous. The people didn't want the fish to eat his body, so they threw zongze into the river so the fish would eat that instead. The reason it's called Dragon Boat festival, apparently is because some guys in boats searched and searched for his body which was never found. So now, they have boat races on this famous river.

This weeks lessons are just preparation for the students Final project. Next week they will do their English performances. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I've already started to get good-bye gifts from the students. They are super sweet.

Tonight I went and bought this really cute skirt that I found in a shop. It's so far the most expensive thing I've bought. But I figured it was worth it, because it will always remind me of China.

Tomorrow is international Children's day. Has anyone heard of it? I never have. But they like to make it a big deal here. I was asked to have dinner by a couple different people. But first come first serve. I will have dinner with a Chinese woman that I met a while back and a few of her students. They are so cute, only about 8 years old. It's nice to hang out with the little ones now and then.

Friday I am in charge of an English Corner. We were supposed to have English corners every Friday, but it never happened. So now it's like they are trying to squeeze them in before the term ends. It will be fun, though, I think. It's going to be only 50 of the top students in the grade. So it should be a breeze. I'm looking forward to it.


Can any one help me out with song lyrics. I've had this stuck in my head, but can't remember the rest:
My lips will praise you, for you are lovely.
My heart will ever bow before your throne....

I had an interesting conversation with some students. They were looking at an English magazine (the kind written for English learners) and the title of a story was "Things I have Learnt." Is learnt a word? I have never seen it before. So I told them I didn't think it was a word, and they disagreed with me. They even looked it up in their electronic dictionary and it was there! I was shocked!

Well, the spider has gone. But this does not comfort me at all, because it just means that it's on the move. Ewe. Anna asked me how much money it would take for me to sit in a small room with a thousand of those spiders. Then we got to talking about the TV show "Fear Factor." And how they eat disgusting things on that show. But then we realized it was basically Chinese cuisine. They seriously eat everything.

Tomorrow will be June! Unbelievable.