12 Day Break!

Today is my 12th day without teaching. It has been quite enjoyable. Here's how.

I taught last on Nov. 11th, which was a "day 3" in our 5 day rotating schedule. I was sick on day 4, so Liz taught my classes (poor Liz was a gem and didn't have this same break). Day 5 we have off already. That day I also was informed that the next 2 days I would be gone all day at a basketball tournament with the school team. More on that later, but it meant no teaching for me on day 1 and 2. After that, we found out that the students all had a "sports meeting", which was basically just a big track meet of all the classes competing against each other. So day 3 and 4 we had no day classes. We did have to go "babysit" our evening classes on day 3, but we weren't expected to teach and it was essentially just a study hall.

Day 5 we have no classes, and the next day was supposed to kick off a 4 day break. Well, the night of day 4, we were told that the school changed the schedule so we would have day 1 of the next big week before the 4 day break. We had already booked our hostel and made plans to go to the most famous mountain in China so they agreed to let us make up classes for that day later on. So today now ends what we turned into a 5 day break, and the last day of my 12 day break. I have all but forgotten what to do in class at this point, and now our 4 days of classes are squeezed into 3 so we have a rough few days ahead.

Now, I can't really complain, this break has been awesome, I just don't quite understand why we don't have to make up classes because of official school sporting events, but when the school changes the schedule at the last minute and doesn't inform us until long after we've made plans, we are then expected to make up for their mistake. Ok, that's my one gripe, now on with the post.

Last year, the school basketball team (faculty team) was blessed with a 6'4" laowai (foreigner) shortly removed from playing real college basketball. This year, the school basketball team got me. Last year, the school basketball team won the big 2-day tournament, bringing pride to the entire school. This year, the school basketball team lost the big 2-day tournament, bringing shame and disappointment to the entire school. And by lost, I mean absolute dead last. The difference between winning the entire tournament and dead last? This guy.

It was fun though, and I got free shoes, socks, a warmup jacket, and 2 missed days of class out of it. Oh, and 4 very hearty Chinese meals with everything from...well...all I could really say for sure is chicken and salted peanuts. And a glass of disgusting hard liquor for no less than 18 toasts.

The first day, our bus left at 7 in the morning for the half our trip to the school where the tournament was to be held. Once there, all the teams were ushered into lines before entering a gymnasium for the opening ceremony. After a lot of who knows what, we all shuffled out and over to the outdoor courts where I could see my breath. There, they gave us our uniforms and following the lead of the rest of the team, I stripped down to my underwear in public for the first time in my life to change into the POWERWAVE uniform. Nobody seems to care about that sort of thing here, and men change pants regularly for sports, no matter how many high school girls are around. We were on the far court and fortunately for my pride, nobody seemed to notice me. I was kind of dreading it since we foreigners stick out like a sore thumb and usually get stared at.

Along that note, the students at the school would pour out and surround the courts between every class, all day long. At first they noticed the foreigner warming up on the far court and excitedly came over to watch. It may have been the cold, or the lack of enthusiasm for being scrutinized, but I decided to warm up rather lethargically and soon they got bored and went over to watch their home team warm up.

I started the first game for some reason (for various reasons including lack of communication, I hadn't practiced with them for probably 2 weeks leading up to the tournament ) and didn't play all that well. I didn't play all that terrible either, but for some reason, the coach decided to bench me midway through the 1st quarter and left me out the rest of the game. We got killed.

The next game he decided to try me out again and I promptly scored 7 points. They left me in nearly the rest of the tournament (whether or not I played well or clearly needed a breather). That 2nd game came down to the wire. We were ahead by 1 point with the clock winding down. They fouled us and we promptly turned the ball over on the inbounds pass, giving them an easy layup for the lead. For some reason, on our next inbound, they threw it to me. I surveyed the court and passed the ball off just in time for the final buzzer to sound. Why, with seconds on the clock, would they throw the ball to the one guy who clearly has no idea that is the case? Who knows, but it was an annoying way to throw away an easy win. And they weren't easy to come by this tournament for us. By the way, the "buzzer" was actually just a cymbal they would just drop on the ground.

Our 3rd game we got out ahead and were actually playing really well when they decided to "give up" at halftime. So at the end of the 1st day, we were 1-2. The next day we lost our first game pretty handily (I guess we play worse in the morning) and the guy who speaks a few words of English told me "We 7th place. Last year, we champion." I tried to ask if we were done for the day and it seemed that we were. So, we hung out, ate lunch, came back, napped in the grass, and watched some of the women's volleyball. Our school's volleyball team was doing really well. In the middle of watching them play, we were told to go over to the basketball courts again. I wasn't really sure what was happening, but I tied my shoes just in time to start our last and final game, which of course we lost, securing last place.

We apparently had to hang around till all the games were done because there was a closing ceremony. I was bored and missing my wife, having been apart for the better part of 2 days after 2 months without so much as 2 hours apart. There was a woman from our volleyball team who speaks some English who talked to me while walking back to the gym for the closing ceremony. She asked if I was happy despite "failing". I said yeah, it was fun even though we lost, which was true.

On our way, we crossed paths with all the students going back to class. They said something to me, but I didn't understand and didn't really feel like being embarassed again in front of hundreds of students. We laowai get too much unwarranted attention as it is. So I kind of shrugged my shoulders, played dumb and kept walking. A moment later, the lady told me that they wanted a hug. I tried to keep walking and pretend I didn't know what was going on, but she coerced me to turn around, at which point 3 girls ran over and excitedly gave me the most awkward, embarassing hugs ever to occur. Hundreds of students laughed, as well as my whole team, and I turned around as quickly as I could, wanting to avoid a bigger swarm. I did, and the lady explained that they never see foreigners so they are very excited. I figure I probably made them the most popular students in school so I guess I don't really care.

That's about all I have for now. There's not much to write about our trip to Huangshan, except that it was really incredible. Maybe even on par with the Grand Canyon. The pictures don't do it justice, and I don't know if I'll ever get the video we took up on here, or if it's even worth watching, but we captured as much of it as we could. Enjoy all 691 pictures we took!