Dear Abby: Letters from China: Children's Day

Children's day was on June 1st, and we celebrated all week. There were balloons and streamers all over the school. That Thursday, we had a really cool experience! For Children's Day our school donated a bunch of new supplies and books to the special education school, so we got to go and meet some of the students there. When we first got there there were a lot of students in the auditorium. There was a little boy with Down Syndrome that caught my eye once I sat down, and he pointed right at me and smiled, and I waved back. It was adorable. Most of the students left right after we got there, but some of the students with less severe disabilities stayed, and some students from our school showed up with their parents.

We played games up on the stage, and we did a performance, and then the students did a performance. Their performance was awesome! I think most of the kids that were dancing were deaf, but they had some serious rhythm. They were the coolest.

Then one of the teachers from the school taught us some Chinese sign language. Then we had a card exchange. I gave a card I made to a little boy. I'm not sure what disability he had, but he had the craziest blue eyes I've ever seen. He was awesome. he gave me a card too! It's in Chinese, but I think it says "Happy Children's Day, happy every day." SO cute.

The next day was the big Children's Day celebration. We performed a routine our kung fu teacher taught us. I was originally part of the actual kung fu part, but when we needed an extra person to wave the flags I volunteered to switch to being a flag girl. I thought it would be easier... I was wrong. Those flags are dang heavy, and we had to run around a lot. But I think it looked pretty darn cool! My favorite part of performing was seeing our students sitting in the front row cheering us on. They kept giving us the thumbs-up and encouraging us. They looked like tiny parents watching their kids at a dance recital.

The kids' performances were far better than ours. My class is did a dance to "We Will Rock You." It was the cutest thing ever, and their costumes made them look like Lady Gaga backup dancers.