Snow Therapy

Hello and Happy New Year!

Unfortunately, Matt was sick for his birthday, therefore sick for New Year's, and remains sick as I write this (he is down hacking it up on the sofa).

New Year's was definitely different than how we celebrate in the US. For us, it started with about 20 student parties. All of the senior classes throw a party and many of the teachers visit the parties for the classes they teach. For us, that meant visiting about 20 parties and singing at each and every one! Needless to say, Matt's voice was pretty much shot after that.

The next day we went to dinner with the English department from the senior school (only 3 hours this time!) We were able to escape without any of the post dinner activities - dancing and karaoke - because of Matt's cold. But, of course, we were not able to escape the dinner without a nice, healthy serving of Chinese guilt for sitting out the night time festivities.

The next evening we were supposed to go to a dinner for all of the junior teachers, but I called and cancelled - I just couldn't bear to spend several hours cornered by math teacher. Again, we were able to escape the dinner, but not the guilt trip.

One of the things that is really difficult to get used to is how everything is done at the last minute. The big final exam for the term is supposed to be next week, but no one can tell me what the schedule will be, if I will be having my classes and, if so, which ones and on what days. Frustrating.

One of the other things that has been getting on my nerves is the relentless commentary on my clothing. This has been going on ever since I had that cold. Every day I get an average of 12 comments about the thickness of my clothing, how my coat isn’t made of cotton, therefore it isn’t warm, blah, blah, BLAH! Very tiring - just think about it, about 12 comments a day. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but an average of 12 a day. Okay, now think of all those comments going on for a couple of weeks AND take into consideration that I am only at the main school building (where my office is) for about 1.75 hours a day - in class for about 1.5 hours of that, so about 12 comments a day in about 15 minutes - irritating and exhausting.

So. Today. After the 14th comment about my attire, I decided that I needed to chill with some of my kids. I dropped in on some of my Jr. 2’s during their open period and we played around a little bit. Then, I decided to head back home - I wound up cutting through the campus to avoid the slippery sidewalk. Some of my Jr. 1’s were playing outside - then it happened. I got hit. In the shoulder. With, yes, a snowball. It was an “accident” and the boys looked genuinely worried about it - even scared. Everything just stopped. Apologies started to pour out. My reaction? Why, to scoop up some snow and return fire! So, as suddenly as the mood turned to worry from the “misfire” we were laughing and running around chucking snow at each other.

Some of the other teachers gathered around and were watching this unusual sight - one of the adult teachers, running around with the kids throwing snow. I don’t think they really knew what to make of it. I tried to get them to join in on the fun - no luck. I didn’t really expect them to anyhow. Oh well, their loss!

The bell rang, I said goodbye to the kids gave them hugs and started my way home - very cold, very wet, but very happy.