I really loved celebrating Lunar New Year. I celebrated with one of my Taiwanese friends and his family in their hometown of Changhua, which is in the middle of Taiwan’s West coast. They were wonderful hosts. They showed me how they celebrate by praying at several local temples and visiting friends and family to deliver red envelopes. These envelopes are filled with money and decorated with the zodiac animal of the New Year -- this year, it's the horse. People also celebrate the New Year with fireworks, which was a lot of fun! There were so many fireworks this week, it almost felt like I was back home for the Fourth of July.
Honestly, the thing I’ve spent the most time reading this week has been my students' new textbooks for the upcoming semester! We are back to school this week, and I want to make this semester even better than the last one. My co-teachers and I have been thinking of some creative lesson ideas to bring to the classroom that I’m super excited about!
On Lunar New Year, my friend taught me how to play a card game called Niu Niu (牛牛, pronounced nee - yo - nee - yo), which is a common game in East and Southeast Asia. The rules are fairly simple, but it does require quick mental math to play. It felt like a bit of a brain workout on a holiday!
