Land of a thousand holidays

This country has holidays like they're going out of style. That's not to say that EVERY holiday is celebrated equally, or that every one warrants a day off, but it seems every week or so there's something being celebrated.
Truth be told, I didn't know about this holiday until a few minutes ago, so this is one of the exceptions to the rule of frequent celebration.

九月九日憶山東兄弟 王維

獨 在 異 鄉 為 異 客，

每 逢 佳 節 倍 思 親。

遙 知 兄 弟 登 高 處，

遍 插 茱 萸 少 一 人

jiǔ yuè jiǔ rì yì shān dōng xiōng dì

dú zài yì xiāng wèi yì kè

měi féng jiā jié bèi sī qīn

yáo zhī xiōng dì dēng gāo chù

biàn chā zhū yú shǎo yī rén

Double Ninth, Missing My Shandong Brothers

As a lonely stranger in the strange land,

Every holiday the homesickness amplifies.

Knowing that my brothers have reached the peak,

All but one is present at the planting of zhuyu.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Ninth_Festival)


My brothers of course are neither from, nor in Shandong (the buggers are in Walla Walla, WA and Hanover, NH respectively) so the poem isn't a perfect fit for me, but it still seems to suit my situation quite well.


Aside from the parallels between my life and web-sourced literature I have another week with no classes while my students are in military 'training' - at least if that's what you call standing under the sun in camo gear and marching back and forth to a drill instructor's orders. It sounds more tedious than anything else.

Oh, and another interesting thing that I decided to try. I realized I've spent about as much of my life in Oregon (~11 years) as I spent in Massachusetts (~11 years), so I decided to try and make contact with some of my old primary schoolmates before our lives get any further removed from those days than they already have. (Thank god for Facebook).
I only made contact with a few, but it's still nice to get a link established with someone from the past after such a long time.