Harvest = New Year

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celebration, Cupitonians, Festival of Light, Festivals, Holi, Holidays, India, New Year, Renewal, Spring, Ugadi, Vishu

In terms of festivals, Indians have a whole host of practical ones. We love to celebrate; we have over 50 festivals (read holidays) in a year, not counting the secular, bank and national holidays. There is an old saying that we are all Indian first, our religions next. While we follow the Roman calendar, the actual New Year’s we celebrate follow our agricultural cycles. The first harvest of the year is in March and April (our spring) and we celebrate it with much grandeur, so much so that there are different versions of these fests that are being adopted into other cultures (Ana showed me this amazing one called the Colour Run)

Jacaranda Trees in Bloom in Bangalore. Source.

We only have 3 major seasons in India. Summer, Winter and Monsoon. Our winters aren’t severe but are drastically colder than our long, hot summer months and like with most countries, sometime in March, the leafless trees start sprouting fresh green leaves and flowers of the brightest colours are in bloom. Riding around town is such a distraction!

Depending on which province in India you are from, you celebrate one of these festivals, although, if we are to be honest, we celebrate all of it. Give us a reason to celebrate and we will do it in style. Our three major harvest/spring festivals are –

Holi – The Festival of Colour

The myriad of colours on our clothes, at the end of the day, always matches the colours on the trees. Source.

To say a big HELLO to Spring, we celebrate Holi – it is our Festival of Colour. Holi is portrayed in a lot of pop culture movies and TV shows and is basically a festival in which we throw colour at each other and more often than not, a water balloon. And as with any Indian festival, there is a lot of dancing and singing and food made with freshly harvested vegetables.

Ugadi – The Harvest Festival

Celebrated mostly in the south of India, the word literally means “The start of an era”. Like Holi, the festival is designed for us to celebrate the first harvest of the year. We celebrate by starting the day by eating fresh green neem leaves, jaggery and raw mango. The combination of bitter, sweet and sour is symbolic not only of a fresh crop full of health benefits but also of life itself and how all of those tastes is what makes life as beautiful as it is. The festival is also ushered in by binging on freshly made sweet treats and salads.

Vishu – The Festival of Renewal

This is also a South Indian festival, celebrated in Kerala, a province most fondly called – God’s own country.  The harvest in Kerala comes a little later and is celebrated in April. While they leave the “being colourful” bit to the wonderful scenery nature provides in those areas, they celebrate Vishu with light and fireworks. This occasion is used to buy new clothes and gadgets to symbolize renewal and an auspicious start to a new year reflects how the rest of the year will transpire. The best part of the festival (at least according to every youngster who celebrates this festival) is the tradition of giving money. You seek the blessing of an older member of the family and in return, they give you fresh notes and newly minted coins.

What are some of the festivals you celebrate in your country that is harvest related?

Exploring Hong Kong

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Asia, Backpacking, Blog, Blogging, Food, Photography, Travel, Writing

Visiting Hong Kong had always been on my bucket list. Huge city, bright lights, lots of people… I love it all. And nothing says “adventure” like a congested Asian city in the middle of summer.

I arrived from Tianjin, China after a stint teaching English to high-schoolers. Navigating the octopus (Hong Kong’s public subway system) went just fine but making my way through the busy streets was a disaster. The pack on my back was nearly ripping at the seams from being stuffed with 3 tea sets that I so proudly haggled for at the Chinese markets and behind me, I toted a rolling suitcase that I bought from a grocery store in Tianjin. No sooner did I make it above ground did the wheels of my suitcase pop off, the straps tore and the zippers burst – almost all on cue. Dragging my belongings down the sidewalk, I trekked to my hostel, located snuggly above a series of Indian-run pawnshops and lurid massage parlors. How lovely, I thought to myself. Just what my parents envisioned when I told them I’d be backpacking through Asia.

After unloading my things in my hostel room, I met up with Eric – a friend of a friend and a native Hong Konger who very kindly agreed to show me around the city. Having spent the last month and a half living off of white rice and Silken tofu (vegetarian food is a rare commodity in rural China), I was desperate for a feast. We decided to splurge at a great little taco stand in downtown called Taco Loco (to this day, my favorite taco stand in the Eastern hemisphere).

After nearly bursting from burritos and margaritas, Eric and I made our way outside of the city to the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island. The bronze Tian Tan Buddha, or Big Buddha as it’s known, stands 112 feet tall and towers over the majestic seaside. A glass-bottom cable car transported us to the monastery at the base of the mountain (you can hike it but I was told it takes 4 hours) and, like all good Chinese mountains, the hundreds of steps allow you to climb from the bottom of the hill right up to the Big Buddha statue.

View from the cable car

Tian Tan Buddha at the Po Lin Monastery, Hong Kong

Later that evening, Eric brought me to the popular expatriate hangout, Lan Kwai Fong – a street famous for its drinking, dining and clubbing scenes. Until you have visited Lan Kwai Fong, you have not experienced the truly awesome nightlife of Hong Kong. It was at LKF that we found the Balalakia Russian Ice Bar (where they keep it a chilly -7 degrees). Borrowing one of the many fur coats the restaurant offers, Eric and I entered the ice-enclosed fortress…in our flip flops! The blue tint of the iced walls combined with the narrow window where you order shots (from an extensive list of worldly vodkas) made the perfect backdrop for our pictures.

Nearing midnight, Eric saved the best for last. We hailed a taxi and scurried to the top of Victoria Peak – one of Hong Kong’s photographic hot spots – to watch the city’s nightly light show. Overlooking the illuminated buildings, I couldn’t believe how head-over-heels in love I was with Hong Kong. The day, the sites, the locals I met – it all was fantastic. I highly recommend Hong Kong to anyone visiting Asia, if not for the tacos, at least for the adventures!

Hong Kong skyline as seen from Victoria Peak

If you would like more advice on things to do/see/where to stay in Hong Kong or would like to know what other fun things were on my itinerary, please feel free to message me via comments. Thanks!

Teaching English & Dance in China

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Travel

During my time in college, I was fortunate to participate in a summer abroad program that sent small groups of students overseas to complete various projects. Projects included everything from building recycling centers in Ghana, weaving with the natives in Peru, preserving the Maori culture in New Zealand and for me, teaching English using the arts in China. I had danced for nearly 20 years and had taught for many of them but never had I used dance as a medium for ESL (English as a Second Language) instruction.

I was assigned a class of elementary students at an organization in rural China that houses children and orphans who had been infected with HIV/AIDS. As I prepared lessons for my elementary students, I incorporated American songs about colors, numbers, animals, and directions of movement – I would teach them the words in English and they would have to listen for the words as they danced to the songs. I couldn’t wait start teaching on the other side of the world! A week before I was scheduled to fly into Beijing, I received notice that I would no longer be teaching English for the elementary students. The Chinese government did not want American students working with the HIV/AIDS organization and if we wanted to be let into the country, we had to change our plans.

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For 4 weeks, I lived at Tianjin Normal University (TNU) in downtown Tianjin, China – a bustling city with 13 million people and one of China’s largest cities.

Tianjin is about 90 minutes outside of Beijing

I spent 2 weeks teaching dance to middle schoolers (6^th and 7^th grade) and high schoolers (11^th grade) that already knew English fundamentals. They could communicate in [very rough] English and were more interested in American music, dance and culture. A large part of teaching is being adaptable, particularly to students’ needs and abilities. While I had prepared basic English lessons for very young students who did not know English, it was clear that my lesson plans would not be of any use to my new group of students. So I had to make up new lessons on the spot!

Armed with all the Michael Jackson songs (ironically, Michael Jackson died just days before I started my teaching), High School Musical songs and well-known American songs like The Hokie Pokie, Cupid Shuffle and Chicken Dance, my new focus was teaching American culture through music and dance. Along the way, the students would learn some new English words as they related to music and dance culture of the U.S.

To help the students comprehend, we would write the English lyrics to High School Musical songs on the blackboards so the students could follow along as we sang to the music. Once they felt comfortable with the words, I would teach them a series of dance steps that they could perform while singing. They loved it! Many of the older boys were very shy at first – embarrassed to dance and sing in front of their female classmates and in front of the Americans. But after a few rounds of singing and silly dancing, the boys were having just as much fun as the girls.

Another tool we used to help teach conversational English and American culture was the use of Arts & Crafts. We wanted the kids to be creative and use their imaginations, so we instructed them to make masks out of the various supplies we had brought from the States (pipe cleaners, colored paper, puff balls, and glitter). After the project, they would present their masks to the class (in English) and explain their designs. While the students made their masks, we would sit at their tables and talk with them (in English) about life in China, school… we’d answer their must-know questions about American culture – usually which celebrities we thought were the “most handsome.” (Even when discussing Hollywood, the Chinese are still modest).

 

My remaining time in China, I worked with university students from TNU who were studying education. All had a very good understanding of written and spoken English and could communicate very well. These “students” were the same age as me and I focused more on a cultural exchange with them rather than the actual teaching of English. They were still very interested in dance and wanted me to play Michael Jackson and High School Musical over and over again for them. So I decided to teach them a 2-minute hip hop dance that they could practice, show their families and teach their friends. Because hip hop is now thought of as an American style of dance, I thought it fit well our exchange.

The students were so excited to learn “American dance like you see on television” that they forgot about teaching us Chinese songs – they just wanted to keep dancing! So I taught them the Cupid Shuffle – a basic, group-dance song that is played at nearly every wedding in the U.S. The song that goes on and on, gets stuck in your head and is so addicting, you sing and dance it everywhere. The students really enjoyed it.

We also taught them the lyrics to some of the songs from High School Musical. (I have never seen High School Musical and to this day, I am only familiar with a couple of songs from it because of teaching the lyrics. In America, High School Musical is popular with teenagers but in China, kids of all ages enjoy it – middle school through college-age.)

The Cupid Shuffle was such a huge hit in my teaching, that when the administrators at TNU heard about this “special dance” I was teaching their students, they asked me to teach it to them, too! During our closing ceremony at TNU, just a day before we were to leave the university and head back home, the Dean of the School of Education called me forward to teach the dance to all of the University’s administrators!

The Dean of the school is the woman in the black dress on the left and I am in the pink dress.

Sometimes I laughed so hard, I just about cried!

Teaching in China was a fantastic experience. It was wonderful for me to share my love of dance while helping students with their English. If anyone ever has the opportunity to go abroad and teach (be it foreign language, environmental awareness, anything), I highly recommend it! Even though I was the “teacher,” my students definitely taught me many things, too!