Sports Day: No class

Schools in China are notorious for forcing their students to study and be in class for extremely long time periods.  When they get a day off, it usually  means they have to have class on Saturday or Sunday to make up for the day off.  So this friday we didn't have class, but only because we had made it up two weeks ago on the saturday of all the protests.  Instead we had a giant sports meeting for the kids.  This is a time for the students to relax, cheer on their classmates and cut loose a bit.  It is really nice to see, all these smiling faces that are normally fighting to stay awake in class, or studying furiously in a classroom.

Friday morning I woke up to them testing the P.A. system, playing patriotic music over and over trying to practice some of their last minute marching.  As you may recall from my blog last year, sports day involves an opening ceremony where all the classes march past the stage by class, they are graded on how in synch they are, how original their chant is, and I am sure other things.  Last year I watched from the sidelines.  This time however, Chris and I were invited up on stage to sit with the principal and other office members.  So we stood and clapped for every class that went by.  There are 24 classes of Senior 1s (sophomores), 21 classes of Senior 2s (juniors) and I think 22 classes of Senior 3's (Seniors).  So by the time they finished we were all super sweaty and dying, sitting in the direct morning sun!  But then we had the best view for the full demonstration of in synch morning exercises done by the Senior 1s.Watch it Here

Then we were asked to run with the teachers, 800m.  I hate running, but was talked into it by Chris.  So  I reluctantly was lead to the starting line which was surrounded by students.  They were all like "Patty, you are going to run?"  I reluctantly nodded, and the shot was fired and we all ran part way around the track, through the school and then back on to the track.  My students were cheering for me, it was fantastic, thrilling, and completely mortifying!  Odd how often those three happen to me in China!  After I ran I walked around to talk to my students and was able to see some of the other events.  High jump, long jump, running, an obstacle course relay and more.  My favorite to watch was the obstacle course relay, it was intensely amusing.  The students had to run and crawl under those three bars, jump over a desk,

run across a balance beam go around a post and run back jumping over two green squares.  Some of the people would run and try to slide across the astroturf and slip under the bars.  I only saw one successful attempt at this, the rest just looked really painful.  I was a little sad to leave sports day, but enjoyed the rest of the afternoon working on my apartment and listening to the cheers from afar.  I have to admit, seeing my students this happy makes me happy.  This also inspires me to try and make my classes a little more challenging and a little more fun!  My students are intelligent, creative young adults in their own right, and days like friday just serve to remind me of how awesome they are, and why I do what I do!