Chinese Holiday - Ching Ming Festival

Hello friends and family. And any random traveler who stumbles upon our page. There is a Chinese holiday coming. For the foreigners in China, it means our schedules get discombobulated. 清明節 falls in the third lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is usually in the first week of April. It happens to be Thursday, April 5, 2018. 
The festival is a historic or ancient one in Chinese history. We heard it is around 2,500 years old. Ching Ming or Tomb Sweeping Day quite accurately describe the holiday. It is the day, and often the only day each year, when many families visit the graves and tombs of their ancestors. During the visit, they tidy the headstones, clean away grass and weeds, light incense and make burnt offerings, often bring offerings.
For an ESL teacher, or to be exact for a Shane ESL teacher that means we celebrate the holiday but ‘rework’ those days with classes. With Thursday being the holiday, those classes are moved to Wednesday and Sundays classes are moved to Friday. Friday is a long ass day then. Sometimes, we do wish we had went to an International School instead of a training center. If wishes were fishes.....or whatever that saying is. 
The top two photos are the holiday schedule and last one is Kristin’s normal schedule. #esllife #trainingcenterschedule #shanechangzhou





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let's talk about ESL Teaching

ESL teaching is not the career or job path we envisioned after college. We never wanted to be teachers. Teachers in America are devalued. American kids, especially teens, can be disrespectful.  Why would I want to subject myself to that? And, not that money is everything, but the pay isn't worth it either. Matt and Kristin had really good jobs in America. They owned a house, two cars were paid off, they had 2 adorable cats, and healthcare. So, why think about moving? It was time for a change. The world presented an opportunity, and they seized the moment. Heading into the unknown world of ESL teaching in China. Blinded by the excitement and chaos, they flew 28 hours to the other side of the map and have been there for 2 years. Yes, 24 months to be exact. Teaching is easy in China. On some days, you really do feel like a dancing monkey. On other days, you feel like a bad ass superhero. The kids are cute. They adore their teachers. They try so hard to talk with you. Mostly i...
Read more

1 week til Jeju South Korea

Hello friends and family! We have a 4 day vacation coming up. We are going to Jeju Island,  South Korea. This is our first South Korea visit. Jeju is known for its beautiful scenery.  It's the place for honeymooners in Asia. We will make sure to post lots of pictures on Facebook.  Look forward to sharing our adventures more with you. Thanks for checking in on us! #jeju #southkoreaherewecome # Teamwawa
Read more

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Hello, We are on day 3 of vacation in Kota Kinabalu. First, we've been to Malaysia before. We went to Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi last year. That was a great trip so we decided to see the other side of Malaysia. The beaches are great. The water is clear blue. Of course, the resort is great.  Especially,  for the amount we paid for it. We've been posting photos on Wechat and Facebook, so if you are interested in those, check out those social media pages. It's off tourist season since Spring Festival is around the corner. So, it means not a lot of people. It's also jellyfish season so not a lot of people swimming in the beaches. Overall, for us, a great time to go. We walked through KK waterfront and city centre. We've seen Gaya and Sapi islands. We've seen monkeys and lizards. Even a jellyfish. Today we are going to the wildlife park to see the pygmy elephants.  Excited for this! Are they really super small? Or just like baby elephants that don't grow up?...
Read more