written/non-written things by me (from 2005-2008)

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Season's Turn


My lovable student "William" in front of a stock pile of winter cabbages. Today all the kids were wearing their new school track suits, presumably their warm winter track suits. Us teachers were a bit dismayed when all 400 of our students came padding toward us yelling Hello! Good Afternoon Teacher! and all (now) looking the same. Before they dressed in their own unique colorfully unmatched finest. But as 1st graders this is the first time to be big kids wearing school uniforms. Say Hello, kids, to what you'll wear everyday for the next 10 years! A momentous transition.

As for the winter cabbages...every morning I'm passed up by ladies on bikes with these big cabbages (and also enormous bunches of leeks) loaded up in baby seats and wrapped with twine around bike racks, front and back, or where ever one is made to fit. Last night, my friends and I passed an immense mound of cabbages carcuses on the street. My chinese friend explained that these were stored up for the winter, as was the tradition in the "olden days" when food was harder to come by. But now the practice is a tad unnecessary, as cabbages, along with every vegetable imaginable, are in plentiful supply in the markets. Despite this they are still collected in heaps and tucked in odd spaces, such as between the bars of apartment window boxes
and stock piled at random, as seen behind William in the school yard. The scuttling about for winter preperations, a sign of the impending turn. I hope I'm ready too.

My name is Hannah Pierce-Carlson