Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,

Talk about being confused.
At the moment half the time I have no idea what day it is.
Add to that trying to remember what day’s classes I’m supposed to be teaching!

As the end of September mergers into the beginning of October we here in China are lucky enough to celebrate two separate celebrations one being the Mid Autumn Festival (a three day holiday) and soon Chinese National Day (a seven day holiday). Yes it all sounds great but the actual public holidays are only one for Mid Autumn Festival and three for National Day and to allow for so many extra days schools can throw calendars and timetables in to complete disarray and add extra days here and there at will and we then have to make up those days on weekends.

So this weekend we are doing classes to make up for both past and future holidays.
So today’s were yesterdays and tomorrows are next Wednesdays…I think.

Anyhow I had a wonderful and relaxing time which began with a festive dinner with the school Tuesday night and Wednesday I spent with Jessica & Jasmine (who were two of my Grade 4 students last time I lived in Shaowu, both are now in Middle School) and Jasmines mother who tries so hard to learn more English whilst walking with us. Jessica’s father I have known for many years but I never actually knew what his position was in the city, I just knew he was/is important. I now find out that being the Leader of the Communist Party for the entire Shaowu area that he is 'the’ guy and not much happens or passes without his knowing and approval.

We ended up once eating dinner together at a lovely restaurant.
Crocodile wasn’t on the menu though which is a pity as it is such a delicious food!

Ross and I joined Yan and the Crew on Thursday for the most awesome day spent beside a peaceful river. Thanks to Yan’s motherly and organizational skills the previous evening we started the day off by making BBQ sticks which takes much longer than I believed it would but it was also much more fun that I thought it would be. As each batch was finished it was cooked and then snatched and eaten by the hungriest person nearby.   

When all the BBQ was finished and everyone was full it of course was time for lunch.
Here in China it doesn't matter if you are full, if it is a meal time you then eat without question!

So carrying out full stomachs in wheel barrows we all headed over to the little Hut/Shack type thing and started on the fish that some of the other guys had caught and after downing several boxes of beer we all headed up the road to an old temple where we spent an hour walking around, some did the Bow Bow thing and other like Ross decided that it was more fun to throw firecrackers around.


Yesterday Ross and I joined Jessica and Jasmines families for an awesome day making our way through a river bed full of huge boulders and ups and downs to the same small waterfall where Yan & Crew and Canadian Jo & I spent a day making dumplings and BBQ last time I was here Let’s Go On a Picnic Chinese Style! Bring the Wok!

Ok that’s it from me, there’s only a few days left until we have another week off for Chinese National Day and I still haven't got my passport and visa back so I have no idea what I will be doing. I want to head to Shenzhen city to visit a beautiful girl named Jiang Ni who I travelled with in Shanxi Province several years ago but without passport I can't fly or get hotels.

Life is life and I'll just follow whatever pathway it places before me.

Now For a Bit on the Mid Autumn Festival

Moon Cake Day falls in the middle of autumn OR for the freaky people it falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month so its real festival name is the Mid Autumn Festival.

In ancient times, people would offer elaborate cakes as sacrifices to the Moon Goddess on this day. After the ceremony, family and friends would kick back, share some rice wine and eat these Moon Cake things. Just as with the chicken and the egg I’m a little confused which came first. I guess the rice wine would kill the taste of the moon cake but then again was the moon cake created to kill the taste of the rice wine? No one seems to know the answer and all I know is that it spells bad news for me. I’ll have to hide indoors for the next few days so I don’t offend anyone who invites me in to share moon cakes and rice wine!

So, time passes, the capital moves, civil wars are fought, people come and people go and now the custom has came to symbolise ‘family reunion’. On this glorious mid-autumn night the moon is huge and bright as buttons. Families get together and go for an evening walk, giggle at the foreigner who walks past and invite him home to share moon cakes.

He tries his best to pass up the invitation but they the Chinese won’t have any of that!
The family and the foreigner sit together eating moon cakes whilst sharing rice wine.
As the hours pass they all stare at and admire the moon in its perfect splendor.
Soon the moon becomes a little distorted and hazy from the rice wine.
So everyone eats another moon cake to kill the taste of the rice wine.
They then have more rice wine to kill the taste of the moon cake.
And so on and so on!

Legendary Origins

Like most Chinese holidays, the mid-autumn festival is rich in oral history and legend. According to stories, Hou Yi was a tyrannical ruler who won the elixir of immortality by shooting nine suns out of the sky with his bow. But his wife, knowing that the people's lives would remain miserable for all eternity if Hou Yi lived forever, drank the potion. The fluids made her lighter, and she floated up into the moon.

Even today, Chinese like to think of the moon as home of Chang E.

A Historical Anecdote

The Mongol Hordes of Ghengis Khan subjugated the Chinese, and established the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th Century. However, many Chinese resented the fact that they were ruled by a foreign regime. In the 14th Century, Liu Bouwen helped plot the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty by organizing resistance and secret messages were passed along in moon cakes.

Moon Cakes

The ubiquitous fare at any Chinese celebration of the Full Moon festival, moon cakes are a flaked pastry stuffed with a wide variety of fillings. Egg Yolk, lotus seed paste, red bean paste, and coconut are common, but walnuts, dates, and other fillings can be found as well. Most have characters for longevity or harmony inscribed on the top.

Special cakes can reach almost one foot in diameter.
Beers N Noodles toya…..shane
___________________________________________________________

The soundtrack to this entry was by the Dandy Warholes
The album was an MP3 mix.
____________________________________________________________