The 9th Day of the Chinese New Year

The ninth day of the Chinese New Year. School starts. I was so glad to see my students. At the morning assembly, I cast a long look at each of my homeroom students. Cute, I told myself. We were destined to meet each other. I love them.

On the very first day of school, still celebrating the Chinese New Year, I gave each of them two photos. One was taken on the first day we met; the other taken at the end of last semester. I told them why I chose to give them the two group photos. I'd like to remind them to cherish the classmates around them now because they are very likely to be their lifelong friends. I mentioned what J.K. Rowling said in her 2008 speech to Harvard University graduates, though I didn't quote the exact words as follows:

"At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister."

Here are the two photos I gave them:



Taken on Aug. 31, 2009.



Taken on Jan. 14, 2010.

I got some surprises today. First, Tze-chun (李知君老師) gave me a homemade shoulder bag. She knows I love music, so the bag is patterned with a lot of music notes. Here are two photos, one showing the front and the other the back.



Another surprise happened at noon when I got back to my office after proctoring the Chinese exam, I found Alex (王偉宸) and Wei-yi (李威毅) waiting at my desk. They both are already seniors in university. We had a long chat until 4pm.





On the ninth day of the Chinese New Year, I feel so rich!