The 10th Day of the Chinese New Year

(The photos were taken and put on this entry on Feb. 28.)

The 10th Day of the Chinese New Year. I saw both my classes today and gave each student a bookmark I made, with the song "The Rose" and the poem "The Oak." It seems that today's lesson was taken from nature. "The Rose" conveyed the idea that everyone is the seed of love, or rather, the seed of anything. I told Class 209 that even if they didn't feel love, they can start to love someone. The poem "The Oak" was written by Alfred Tennyson, a famous English poet. Chris introduced it to me the other day and I fell for it right away. The poem goes like this:

 

Love thy Life,

Young and old,

Like yon oak,

Bright in spring,

Living gold;

 

Summer-rich

Then; and then

Autumn-changed

Soberer-hued

Gold again.

 

All his leaves

Fall'n at length,

Look, he stands,

Trunk and bough

Naked strength.

The description of the oak at different stages reflects the life cycle. Every old man was once young, and every young person will get old. This is what life is. The reason I finally still chose to share with the students this poem was that I wish them strength all the time.

P.S. I'll put a photo of my bookmark this weekend.

P.S. I also gave each student in Class 209 two photos, one taken last September on the first day we met, the other last Christmas. On getting the photo, they looked them very carefully and later even burst out laughing when seeing some classmates' funny facial expressions.