From Grits to Chopsticks

During last week’s English Corner, we talked about birthday traditions in America and China.  We’re often amazed at the differences in the two cultures.  A question as simple as “When is your birthday?” can elicit an unexpected complication, in this case, the fact that many of our students keep track of their lunar birthdates instead of their Gregorian ones:

Many of our students mentioned that they were given an egg on their birthday (for good luck).  But food can still cross cultures, especially when it’s time for cupcakes and ice cream:

Remembering that I used to “clown around” at our own kids’ birthday parties, we also taught the students how to make balloon animals:

Of course, the easiest balloon animal to make is a snake.  The second easiest is a dog (or squirrel, or mouse, or …):

On Saturday, we actually went bowling with a group of students.  In the south part of town is a very large sports complex which has a 60-lane bowling alley:

We were pleasantly surprised at how nice the bowling alley was, although their heaviest house ball was only 12 lbs (vs. my usual choice of 16 lbs).  This was the first time for Samuel to bowl.  He was very teachable, and averaged 75 points per game in his three game series:

A good time was had by all, especially when they knocked ’em all down (yea Rickey!):