Rolling along

Joanna the sushi chef is ready to roll up the world!  For the second time in my life I’ve successfully made sushi rolls.  If the world ever has a surplus of early childhood educators, I may change careers.  My Japanese neighbors hosted an early afternoon session of sushi rolling.  We consumed our rolls whole as done in the area of Osaka.  We also sampled Japanese plum wine, sake, and rusk biscuits.  Two Japanese-speaking Chinese students from CCNU, my friend Paola, and her husband were also invited for this special gathering.  

For some holidays many Japanese people will eat the rolls in whole facing a specific direction depending on the year.  We faced northeast, and silently ate our first roll while thinking about a special wish for the next year.  Last year Paola’s husband attended this same type of gathering and made a wish for a baby.  Paola is currently four months pregnant.  We celebrated with songs and an interesting discussion about the meaning of our names.  

In addition to preparing Japanese cuisine I was recently invited to talk about my involvement with C.E.C.P. to the American consular general of Wuhan.  We met in a historic area of Wuhan where the great travel writer, Ms. Hu, shared interesting information about the historical buildings related to the old American concession.  I talked briefly about the Boone Memorial School and my work with CCNU’s kindergarten program.  The consular invited us again to meet the Ambassador while he visited Wuhan.  

We met Max a few days later in the same part of Wuhan.  He asked me about non-traditional education programs in China and a little about the logistics of kindergartens here.  I invited him to visit CCNU’s Montessori program next time he is in Wuhan.  The meeting was brief, but still quite an honor for C.E.C.P.  

The children at the kindergarten have been very different with the changes to accommodate the Children’s Day performance schedule.  The classrooms have spent hours choreographing and practicing lengthy dance routines that would make Bob Fosse proud.   Thankfully the show will be only for the children and the teachers at the school.  Parents will be a recorded copy sent home.  

This weekend our dragon boat team with face off against other amateur groups from Wuhan.  The last few weekends of practice have given me hope that there will be enough people to fill a long and short boat.  I may be drumming or I may be paddling.  Anything to get the dragon rolling along to victory.