Feliz Navidad

More evidence that the world is flat. Today was our annual "cultural experience" day for Navidad. My students did an amazing job of bring in a wide range of cultural dishes (see more pictures in photo album).

Now back to the evidence. I decide yesterday that I would contribute my little bit of culture to the occasion--Turron. I wanted to stop by the little store on S. Duke Street that sells products from Latin America. Ran short on time yesterday. So I got up a bit early to make a stop on my way to Ephrata. Now where could I stop at 6:30 AM and find a product from Spain that is ubiquitous during the Christmas season. Walmart of course. On the aisle with other products from the Spanish-speaking world, straight from Alicante, Spain. Isn't it amazing that I had little doubt in my mind that I would find this specialized item right here in Lancaster on my way to work at Wal-mart.

And another aspect of the flat world in which we live. I invite students to bring in foods that are a part of their family/cultural heritage. This morning I ate fried noodles, spring rolls and peanut sauce, egg rolls, pula (Finnish bread), Mexican rice, cheese danish, Marzapan, Tirimasu, German chocolate cake, tortilla española.... Not all these dishes represented the cultural heritage of the student, but some did. Amazing work by the students! We then went over to my colleague's German class to sing a few Christmas songs in Spanish. The returned the favor with a few German carols.

I'm off to try to get Gulya enrolled for English classes at HACC starting in January.