Winter Break is Here!

...and so is 70ºF weather again, apparently!
It was in the upper 30s (Fahrenheit, for all you non-Celsius thinkers) for the last couple of weeks. In late November, we had a rainy and cold week, then followed by a windy/blustering and clear/cold first week of December. And now we have a week of 60º-75ºF?! I'll take it! It didn't feel much like the day before winter break, but we celebrated with our international students anyhow!

(Side note: for those of you who are wondering and would like to compare the latitudinal locations in North America that might be similar to where I'm at in China, check out this link.)

Not all of our international students celebrate Christmas (in fact, I'd say that at least 50% do not observe the holiday--whether in Christian or secular terms). But, as mentioned before in my blogs, we in the international community love any reason to gather and celebrate, partaking in music, food, song, dance, and general merriment.

A typical holiday production show: elementary school kids present
...and their parents look on... all with cameras.

Kindergarteners singing 

5th graders with their recorders and singing

Our Music Teacher, Elaine, and her SHOWTIME kids
performed Polar Express as a part of the holiday show

Sleeping kindergarten Elves :)

All I Want for Christmas is You, performed by the 8th grade girls

Holiday snowflakes and elves 

The Polar Express production by the SHOWTIME club

The Polar Express production by SHOWTIME club 

The Polar Express, by the SHOWTIME club

The atmosphere is light and bustling, and though Christmas and Western New Year's aren't observed in this culture, the students are still overjoyed at the prospect of a three-week winter break from school (yes, it is usually wintery and cold here, temps normally hover in the mid-40s (Fahrenheit) at this time of year, I hear). Students are bursting out of the doors and are lighthearted, despite the book report assignment and presentation and journal entries they will have as homework from me, to maintain their English skills over this long, 22-day span without the requirement of English-only at school. I hope my Elves don't forget/lose all that we have worked on--verbs, tenses, sentence structure, verb-subject agreement, prepositions, articles, punctuation, etc etc!!!!

And, with the blasting of Gangnam Style over the school's PA system, winter break has officially begun here at AIAN in Beilun, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.

I'll leave you with our "family Christmas card," comprised of images that we took Friday morning in honor of our little family's upcoming winter break--even though we will not be spending it all together (Kari and Kate go Stateside for a couple weeks, and I'll be staying in/visiting various of Asia for the next few weeks).