Last weekend, Pocket of Bolts and I went to Chinatown to have Saturday morning dim sum with my students. Mind you, this wasn't something I had organized or even suggested. It was all them. Okay, that was pretty cute. Only about a third of the class came, but it was still really touching. I include a funny picture of us all standing under the gate. Chinatown here certainly is a small world. While there we ran into two others of my students who were otherwise occupied and so unable to attend the dim sum. The dim sum itself was fun. The food was average, the company very amusing. College kids are so...young. But it was fun to see them unbend more from the relatively formal classroom selves.
After eating (way too much for both Pocket of Bolts and me, given our calorie-counting and despite our attempts at moderation) we got a tour of Chinatown from the students, most of whom are Cantonese speakers and much more familiar with the place than I am. Among other things, we saw a really hilarious pro-Olympics performance/rally sort of thing with inflatable versions of the "Five Friends." We also got taken into some awesome stores, including the dried fruit store and a Chinese bookstore which made me all nostalgic.At some point, they surprised me with an impromptu present they had gotten for me: a tea set with Chinese characters on it. I was quite touched despite myself and all the resentment I've felt over teaching duties. They also gave me a card they had all signed. They asked me if I could identify all their different hand-writings in Chinese. Pretty close! I have graded a ton of their homework over the course of the year! Here's a picture of the tea-set. It says: "Love never ends" on it, though I'm not sure if any of them were actually up to reading that kind of vocabulary. They're only first year students after all. Is this not pretty totally adorable?
1 comment:
Very cool :)
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