Dragon Boat Festival
We're off today to continue celebrating Dragon Boat Festival. The students have been bringing us treats of zongzi (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves and shaped like pyramids) and boiled eggs. Carol just came from visiting her hometown and the sweet girl lugged home a bag of food for us. This on top of the food she brought for her roommates. Yesterday, we were invited to Cruise's home here in Jinan and his mother made us a feast for lunch. His family welcomed us into their home and fed us till we couldn't eat another bite. We felt honoured to be there enjoying the meal and the company. She even sent us off with a care package of food. Her dishes were similar to the style of food that my parents make. While it made Don & I feel quite at home, it made me a bit more homesick.
High School Exam
Saturday was a big day in China. All the high school students started a two and a half day university entrance exam. They have been studying for this exam for an entire year. Every waking moment has been dedicated to cramming knowledge in so that they can access it in order to do well for this exam. Their results will determine their future and ensure that they get into a good university and therefore a better job prospect. No pressure, huh?
I have been hearing such stories about the rigors of studying, like getting up at 5 in the morning and studying well into the evening. To make sure that their children are physically well, I've heard how some parents would never serve new food to their child in the 6 months before the exam for fear of making them ill. If you are unable to write the national exam for some reason, you have to wait for the next year. In one city, there was police presence at the school cafeteria to make sure that nobody tampered with the students' food. You see, there is great competition for the relatively few spots in the universities. When you have a population as numerous as this, you never have enough room for everyone who wants a university education.
June 1
China uses a staggering number of plastic shopping bags. So, in order to encourage people to reduce their usage, from June 1 onwards businesses are required to charge their customers for the plastic bags they use for their purchases. I paid 5 cents the other day for one bag because I didn't have my shopping bag with me. I think that it's a very environmentally responsible step and again, due to the size of the population here, a small thing like this will likely make a huge difference.
School Year
We found out late last week that the school year is being shortened by 2 weeks. It may or may not have something to do with the Olympics. We were planning to give our final exams in the last week of June, but we're now getting ready to finish the semester in the next 2 weeks. I am finished at the end of the coming week. Don will teach one more week after that. We're happy to have summer vacation start earlier but are a bit worried that we'll be aimless. We've now started to think about where we might travel to this summer and are excitedly looking at the possibilities. We'll definitely have to narrow down the list of places we want to see though. Stay tuned for those adventures.
J xoxo
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