BBQ, Typhoons & Pomelo Heads

Moon Festival is tomorrow.

Traditions include...
...wearing pomelo rinds on your head.

As demonstrated by these two, cute, adorable boys. Owen and Brandon, who used to be in Morning Kindergarten (a year ago when I taught them), are now in Miss Wendy's Kbr class. I honestly don't think these two could get any cuter. And they're both huggers. I love them.
This is Corey, also in Miss Wendy's Kbr class (that used to be MKers). For some reason they all brought pomelo rinds to school, and every year at Moon Festival, they wear them on their heads. Like hats. Pomelos are the largest citrus fruits and are native to South East Asia, and are currently in season.Oh, dear, sweet Owen. I love him. A recovering kleptomanic (situation: leaving art class in MK, "Owen, what's in your pocket?" I ask. "Oh! What's this doing in my pocket...???" he says as he pulls out many crayons. Or paper. Or any craft we've been working on), he is, at heart, guileless.

Another tradition during Moon Festival is...
...Barbecuing!

Last Saturday, the employees of Berhan went to Sue's Orchard for a barbecue. Sue is Frances' aunt, and also works at the school.
From her orchard (right off the bike path, actually) we were able to see an incredible sunset setting over the bridge leading to the neighboring city.

We also fished. Wendy, in the white shirt, caught three fish. And one was bright pink (I called it the lucky, wish fish. The type of fish that'll grant you three wishes...). Everyone caught at least one fish. Except me. I felt so embarrassed!!! Living in Alaska for ten years did nothing for me!!?? And bamboo fishing in Hawaii?? I couldn't catch a single fish! Well, I did eventually, but only after they bribed the fish to latch onto my hook. And, as you can tell, it's not a big pond, yet there was over 200 fish inside. And not one wanted to be caught by me. humph. ^_^

Frances (above), slaved over the barbecue for the entire time we were there. We ate pork, chicken, fish, vegetables, and moon cakes. It was delicious.
The secretaries' children also attended, and this is Lisa, with one of the twins that she teaches in her Kindergarten Enrichment class. Carrie is their mom, and they are the cutest things ever.

(pictured above: One of the twins (I can't tell them apart) and Peggy's daughter. So cute.)
They also provided toys for us too. Small scooters. And tricycles. Or maybe they were only for the kids. But we played with them anyways. They were pretty small. Even for me. If you notice, Sarah's foot is the entire length of the body of the scooter.
Fenny and her sister, Kelly! Abercrombie and Fitch. lol. They decided to dress "like Americans" for the barbecue. I love how the coordinated their clothes! ^_^

A few more pictures of the sunset.


The Moon Festival is a harvest festival, celebrated when the moon is fuller and brighter than it is at any other time of the year. It is also time to celebrate the goddess Chang'e, who lives on the moon.

Hopefully, the weather will hold up. The last few days have been beautiful, perfect Fall weather. Well, if Fall weather was normally in the high 80s (better than in the 90s with this humidity). Last year, Moon Festival got rained out. This year, for a few days, we were worried that another typhoon would hit this weekend. But it looks like both typhoons that are heading our way, are actually going to miss us, hitting the Philippines and Japan instead.

I feel terrible for the Philippines. With the two earthquakes already, the earlier typhoon and now this category 4 typhoon heading their way...I don't know. Bad Typhoon Season this year.