May the first brought us CFE students to a local elementary school to help celebrate May Day. As the students entered the school for their morning classes they were met not only by us but by two Morris Dancing groups; all of us dressed in various brightly colored vests and floral hats; two accordions playing; singing and dancing and brightly colored handkerchiefs flourishing in the sun.
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| Hobby Horse |
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| Flourishing kerchiefs and accordion music to warm up |
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| Getting ready to perform |
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| CFE students in their Spring flair |
Once the students gathered around they were told about the tradition of Morris dancing; the May Queen, Green Man, maypole, and hobby horse; and the tradition of celebrating the new season. Then us CFE students helped sing a song and we all gathered on the field to spin around the maypole.
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| Getting ready to dance around the maypole |
Later that morning we reassembled at the Nitobe Japanese garden on campus. We were given a guided tour through the garden and learned a lot more about Inazo Nitobe and how Japanese gardens cultivate metaphors for the journey through life as well as they do beautiful cherry blossoms and koi fish.
To finish the day we went back to the Orchard Garden for some spring cleaning. We helped empty, clean, and reorganize the tool shed which is an important part of maintaining a garden (or anything). We also met a cute friend.
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| Our new friend! |
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| Someone's gotta sharpen those tools |
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| And someone's gotta sort through some junk |
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| Sharing some wisdom about apples I found in a bucket |
Overall, it was a pretty busy day filled with lots of fun. It was great to see the students excited about something traditional that connected them back to the Earth and the sun and something fun. As an English teacher I was thrilled to learn about the metaphorical structure of the Japanese garden. And as a chaotic person it was relieving to at least sort out someone's mess for once.
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