Company Sports Day

This weeks: Story of the Week, comes to you from the Company Sports Day
There I was standing in a line with my right and left leg strapped to 1 other English speaking whitey (Chris for those of you who know him) and 8 other Chinese teachers/ company workers. They called it a Caterpillar race. As I strapped in, I looked around at the other two teams and heard them chanting yi, ar, yi, ar, while moving their right and left legs up in perfect synchronization. I also recognized these same teams as being the ones who were practicing under the eaves of the Cafeteria and Gym while everyone else was hiding from the torrential rain under whatever cover they could find.

As for me, I had been pulled into the race last minute (MY race was the 16X200m). Okay "pulled" isn't really the best term to use maybe. I think the conversation went more like this:

Chris: Hey J, Sarah's not here, do you want to compete in the Caterpillar race
J: (not knowing what exactly a catapillar race was) Sure!!!

So I guess I jumped in with a sense of excited naivete really.

As the ref said "something, something, something, BANG" the other two teams took off down the race course at an alarming speed, their 20 legs moving seamlessly to the beat of yi, er, yi, er. They were striding like gazelles, gliding along as if they were Siamese dectuplets who had had to walk this way since birth. I was agaw!

My team on the other hand was barely moving. None of us had practiced at all for this race, we had Chris the tall German as our fearless leader calling out yi, er... or left–right... or something.... and we were taking steps the size of a caterpillars. As we slowly made our way down toward the cone that we then had to go around, only to come back the way we came, I see the other two teams go yi–ering by us .... IN THE OTHER DIRECTION... their legs still drumming to the rhythm.

Our team slowly made our way down to the cone. There were a few stops along the way for us to regroup, and try to begin again–this time on the same beat, only to be off in the next second. I felt the rope sawing through my flesh as I tried to keep my feet moving forward and backward in the same timing as the person in front of me to no avail. The crowd that had gathered was now cheering us on with a loud "giyo–giyo!" And I think I saw Jackie and her mom pointing and laughing as we passed by. Actually I may have even had a whole conversation with them as our Caterpillar slowly slanked by their post along the course rope.

We made it past the finish line to loud cheers, high fives, and a race time marked by the sundial. But our team as a whole was jovial in spirit. We laughed, I said stuff in English they didn't understand, they said stuff in Chinese I didn't understand, I then said hen hao a few times in return.... and Chris and I went jogging off to our next appearance: the 16X200m race.

Other highlights from the sports day included:

-being required to come in on a Saturday as one of our school holiday make-ups
-the opening ceremony march with people dressed in costumes that may have vaguely represented 2 mice (mickey and minnie I suppose), Tigger, and some very bright pink something that I couldn't categorize.
-a new hat for me from the flee market
-wearing the new hat with my workout cloths for the rest of the day
-getting free food from a selection of different food vendors
-seeing my Kindergarten kids perform their "morning exercise" routine
-and playing volleyball in the gym until we got kicked out by the "renting Police"

<~Here's part of the opening procension. The two in the middle are my Kindies! :) Oh! I'm so proud.. :)

This week we're taking a field trip to the Animal Safari park with the kindergartners. This includes driving a van Jurassic Park Style directly through the habitat of the lions and tigers and bears (OH MY!). All of us K1 and K2 teachers will be helping out with the P1 classes (think 2.5 to 3 year olds), since apparently the second part of the excersion requires a lot of walking.

Today I taught my Kindie's the beginning of Blondie's "one way or another" song. I think it's important that they know about the hazards of stalking at an early age.

The gang and I are trying to figure out costumes for a Halloween partay some of our kids are having on Saturday... current ideas are: Carebears, Ducktails, the Wizard of OZ. There are 6-9 of us who are all trying to dress in a theme. We'll see what theme wins.