Hello, Friends.
What do you think of when you hear the term "March upsets"? Stock market? Weather changes? Spring break plans and wrapping up our winter class meetings? March going out like a lion instead of a lamb?
April 1-April 8: International Friends Spring Break
No! Not at all for us Hoosiers! This is the latest on March Madness and basketball bracket busting. Our Hoosiers are out! The 16th seeded FDU took the day over #1 seed Purdue. IU lost to Miami. There are no top seeded teams left as we go into the Final Four. Once again we are reminded that statistics, favoritism, and random selection is not a reliable predictor of actual outcome.
Welcome April!
April is a busy month. Let's just concentrate on the first week!
Saturday, April 1: April Fool's Day. Play practical jokes on your friends and family. Look out! You may be the victim of some hoaxes yourself. Don't worry, though. Listen for the shout, "April Fool!"
Holy Week
April 2: Palm Sunday. This Christian holiday signifies the end of Lent beginning of Holy Week. You can read this celebratory story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to celebrate Passover in Matthew 21: 1-11. (Bible Gateway is a favorite link to read the Bible; it has translations and versions in almost every language, and you can compare two (or more) languages at the same time!)
April 6: Maundy Thursday. This Christian holiday celebrates when Jesus ate his last supper in human form (which was Passover) with his disciples. This meal instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion or Holy Eucharist and is inspiration for Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. Read the story in Luke 22:7-38
April 7: Good Friday. This Christian holiday remembers the passion of Christ. When he was tried, convicted, and hung on a cross. Jesus died and was entombed. Matthew 27: 45-56 tells the story.
April 9: Easter Sunday. This is both a Christian and secular holiday. Starting
Christian celebrations: Christians celebrate Easter or the day Jesus rose from the dead. Matthew 28 tells the story.
Secular celebrations: Egg hunts, spring clothes, elaborate hats, dinners with family and friends, and bunnies are hallmarks of secular Easter.
Community Egg Hunts
Kiwanas Club of Fishers free public event is scheduled for 10:00 AM to noon April 8 at Roy G. Holland Memorial Park in Fishers for toddlers to preteens.
Indy With Kids has a catch-all of egg hunts in the area.
Families enjoy getting together and eating dinner. Usually ham or lamb is served. Some families eat turkey. Here is a good resource from Food and Wine for Easter dinner ideas. Dye Easter eggs and then enjoy them as deviled eggs and egg salad.
For family celebrations, have egg hunts, the Easter bunny "hides" candy (chocolate eggs, bunnies, Peeps, jelly beans, pastel colored candies), small gifts, and money in plastic eggs. Kids of all ages find and collect "eggs" in "Easter baskets". Read about the traditions and their history in this History Channel article.
Other customs associated with Easter: you can now wear white shoes and attire (not to be confused with "winter white"!)
Easter is not unique to the United States. This Women's Day article tells about how other countries celebrate.
March 23-April 29: Our Muslim Friends are fasting during the day and break their fast from sunrise to sundown in observance of Ramadan. Be aware that invitations to go out for coffee, lunch, etc. or offers of snacks will be turned down. This article from USA Today explains Ramadan belief and practice.
April 5-April 12: Passover (when the Angel of Death passed over the Children of Israel leading them to be released from slavery in Egypt) is celebrated by our Jewish Friends. Learn more about Passover beliefs and practices. Read the story in the Bible in Exodus 12. Wish your friends happy Passover.
In the Hamilton County Reporter
Thursday's Hamilton County Reporter has a number of interesting articles to keep you up to date with local happenings.
April showers bring May flowers!
Floral Design Institute has a wonderful interpretation of this proverb. Catch some beautiful words to add to your vocabulary as well as some practical descriptions and advice at the same time. This five-minute or so video is worth the watch. Listen! While this school is located in the Pacific Northwest, she talks about living and driving in Indiana.
Keeping Your Children and Family Safe: Only use drugs prescribed for you.
Our police departments are charged with keeping our communities safe. This the Westfield Police Department released a public safety announcement that counterfeit M30 pills have appeared in the community. Do not buy use pills that are not prescribed for you or purchased from a pharmacy.
Watch this important news from WTHR
Public notices help us to keep our families and friends safe. Here is the notice from FaceBook.
Our All Media Recommendations
Our list grows! Not everyone is a reader. Not everyone is a movie buff. Not everyone has the patience or time for a feature film.
Books:
- The Nightingale and The Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
- Bridgerton Series
- Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Netflix:
- True Spirit
- Bridgerton
Constitution of the United States of America: Article 1, Section 5
Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.
Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.
Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.
Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.
American Sign Language: Tuesday, 5:00-6:00 PM, Zoom
We met to sign about vacations. We found quite a few new words in our conversation. We also found "signonyms" that help us misread or misinterpret what is being said.
March 28: Tell us about your or person or persons you admire and why.
American English: Thursday, 9:00-10:00 AM, Zoom
Our time flew by (as usual) as we "jumped right into" our "found vocabulary" lists. Try to use your own new words and borrow one or two from our shared list this week. We had a few examples of jargon--specialized or technical language of a trade, profession, or similar group, such as from sports (sweeper), advertising (gimmick), volunteerism (background check), travel (all-inclusive, excursions, cancellation), and academics (purport, investigate, adversely). Class awareness of idioms and phrasal verbs is increasing, too--(so far so good, keep an eye on, back to square one, drink from the firehose, take the initiative). We left our breakout room chats ready to plan our next vacation.
March 30:
Vocabulary:: Focus on adjectives (describing words) to help you tell about a person/ people during the conversation breakout. Paint a picture with words.
Conversation topic for next week: Tell us about a hero: A person (or people) you admire, living or dead.
Grammar and usage review:
- Subject vs object pronouns: “She and I went with them to the party.” Bring questions and challenging contexts.
- Count (“assignments”) vs non-count (“homework”) nouns. Consider you language conventions for counting. We will cover American English grammar plural.
American Accent Training: Thursday, 9:30-10:30 AM, Zoom
This week there was so much conversation through the week.
March 30: Join the Chit Chat, Bill's Tip, and adjust your accent.
Kids' Conversation: Friday, 5:30-6:00 PM, Zoom
Our Kids' Conversation group are bringing new words to class each week. Our words included predawn, ajar, firmly, necessities, encyclopedia, and buddy. This week was peak cherry blossoms in Tokyo, Japan. We learned how this beautiful time of year is celebrated.
March 31: Bring new words to class. These words can be found in English or another language, but we will talk about them in English. Tell us the word, where you found it, and how to use it (an example is good). We will hear about how Easter is celebrated in Brazil.
break their fast: eat and drink
catch-all: broad collection
concentrate on: focus on, look closely at
feature film: a cinema movie
happenings: events
hoaxes: tricks, deceptions
in observance of: the custom of keeping or celebrating a holiday or religious custom
movie buff: someone who loves movies
passion: Jesus' suffering and death
proverb: a short saying that states a general truth of advice
sacrament: Christian rite commanded and instituted by Jesus
turned down: refused
version: a variant of an original
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