Year of the Rat Celebrations

first graders posing for the camera: Kenya, Gavin, Evelyn, and Vivian

It's the lunar Chinese New Year time again, and the crowds and decorations are everywhere. I have this coming week off from work, and I'll be heading to Cambodia and Bangkok for my travels. On Friday, the day before the break, our school had it's annual Chinese New Year celebrations. The students wear their traditional Chinese dress (or Korean or Japanese if that's where they're from...which composes some of our student population). The kids put on a special chapel with songs and dance. Every student takes Mandarin lessons about 3 times a week, and by the time they graduate from high school, most students (if they're from Hong Kong, at least) will be fluent in Cantonese (spoken in Hong Kong), Mandarin (spoken in the rest of China), and English. Many students also take an additional foreign language after school or on the weekends. Some of my 2nd grade students are learning Spanish and French right now.
Here are some 1st graders making dumplings. There's a lot of parent involvement at our school, and this particular class had a CNY party all day with traditional games, foods, and songs.
...and frying the dumplings. these particular dessert dumpling had either sesame seeds (traditional) or M&M's in them (not so traditional)
I went shopping for some decorations. The store was PACKED to the brim. People don't like to waste space here, and shopping proves that...there are no empty spaces on the walls and barely enough room to maneuver around once you can get inside.


Here's the decorations at the mall I pass by everyday.
In Hong Kong, everything seems to be attached to a mall.
Here's me and Sean, a Korean student. He was very proud to be showing off his traditional outfit and posing for pictures.

Here are some 3rd graders performing for chapel...our entire school was decorated from wall to wall, it seemed.
On my way to buy the decorations...not exactly a picture of any celebrations, but this is a tiny glimpse into how crowded and busy it is everywhere, all the time.
It's been especially cold and rainy this week, too. I am just the right height to get belted in the forehead by umbrellas all the time.


Krispy Kreme donuts (after a dinner at California Pizza Kitchen).

The traditional greeting/blessing is "Kung Hei Fat Choi", which means something like, "blessings, wealth, and good luck to you this year". It's sort of hard to see the sign here, but it says, "Kreme Hei Fat Choi". Oh dear.