Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Happy International Mother Language Day and Happy Birthday to Kristen

February 21, 2011 Another day off of school for a national holiday. As has been the case lately, holidays and weekends do not necessarily mean a day of rest and relaxation. School is in full swing and has been busier than ever, meaning lots of fun and exciting activities (and academic work). International Mother Language Day was a wonderful experience that I'm glad I woke up early for :) Students gathered at 7am (yes, it was optional and yes, students didn't actually start showing up until closer to 7:30....we should have known better!!) at the university gate - all dressed in black and white ready to walk to the national monument in Chittagong where we would donate our flowers. Along the walk, students sang songs to show their Bangla pride and purchased Bangladeshi flag headbands. The students had told me we would walk barefoot, which I contemplated but wasn't sure if I would actually walk the streets of Chittagong barefoot....I later found out that in Dhaka there is a special walking area and people do make long walks barefoot (on painted pavement adorned with flowers). Without those special arrangements in Chittagong we walked to the monument before removing our shoes (thank goodness!).

After the International Mother Language Day ritual/ceremony was complete, the students seemed to quickly scatter. It was about 10:30 by the time we made it home....time to eat breakfast/lunch and nap! The nap was necessary because we had a student-faculty basketball game at 4! The faculty won 38-14 but the students scored 12 points in the second half!! Of course, what do you do after any team sport, win or lose??? Eat ice cream, of course! So we treated our students to ice cream after the game!

After the basketball game, it was time to freshen up and cook some bruschetta (Michelle and mine's contribution) for Kristen's birthday celebration! It was a delicious night including bruschetta, pineapple pizza calzones, hamburgers and french fries, and chocolate cake with bounty bars!

Here are some pictures from the day....enjoy!

My students, past and present....Nusrat (white group), Khadiza (red group), and Saika (orange group)

 Vietenamese students showing their multiculturalism

 
One of the students with a hat she made - it was intense, blood and all! (ok, fake blood)

 Tien and another student with the spirited Bangladeshi flags! The whole city is green with red dots -- the CNGs are green and now they have all painted red dots on them to show their pride on National Mother Language Day.

 Intense face painting!

Once we made it to the monument (a 40 minute walk) we took off our shoes before visiting the monument and donating our flowers.

 The students and our flower arrangement
 AUW on International Mother Language Day, February 21, 2011

Everyone was showing their Bangla pride!

  
A group of cheerful boys
Happy Birthday to Kristen!!

yummy birthday cotton candy! :)

All those years that I played basketball (and dreaded practice)...who would have ever thought I'd be playing basketball in Bangladesh!!
Celebrating with ice cream!! :) 

2 comments:

Jess Barrow said...

beautiful pictures, jessi!

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