Excuse me! Practice!

Sports day is over!!!

What is this sports day, you ask? Or perhaps you are thinking to yourself "aw, sports day sounds fun!"

Well, let me tell you. Sports day is a day where all of the teachers in Lin'an team up with the other teachers at their school and then compete against one another in "sports" for two whole days. They start practicing in the middle of October, about a month before the competition in November. Which means that the teachers from Bo Shi Kai Elementary, my school, met every morning before school, while the kids were doing their morning exercises, and everyday after lunch, during recess, to jump rope, run soccer drills and practice all of the other games that were going to be at the event. The day they started practicing, the head gym teacher came into the English office and found me and Carly. He asked if we had time for the competition and wanted to give it a try. We said sure, we will give it a TRY (key word being try....as in I've tried and now I'm quitting). Unfortunately, it wasn't until about 5 minutes into our first practice, after our first try at jump roping (which went, unsurprisingly, very very badly) we found out that "try" to Chen Laoshi (the head gym teacher) actually means "order me a jump suit because I'm in this for the long haul." (I even tried begging to get out of it ,"Chen Laoshiiiiiiii bu huiiiiiiii" (Teacher Chen, I can't do thisssssss)) Nothing worked. Everyone kept saying "it's just a game. it's fun" and when we still were not convinced, they created the phrase "it's fun, fun" as a way to help us understand. (For example, when I got tangled in the jump rope, they all looked at me and said "no problem, its fun, fun!" as though if the first fun didn't convince me, the second one would) And, actually, a few practices in, when we started to get kind of good at jump roping, it was fun. Until, they brought out the boards. I don't know who thought of this game but I hate them. For this game, that I can only assume is called "sliding", 8 people stand together in a line, they place their feet in footholds on two wooden planks and they skate across the floor holding on to the person in front of them as tightly as they possibly can, because if they don't they will fall (and when you're sliding across the tiled court yard, it will hurt....especially when it gets to be the third time you've fallen....bruises on bruises on bruises). Thankfully, the high school teachers needed to use the boards too, so most of the time we couldn't practice that game and, instead, had to practice my new favorite game, that I can only assume is called "the most official game of Keep It Up that there ever was". This is how you play: 8 people (their collectivist society was really shining through during these games) hold on to strings that are attached to a drum. One person places a ball on the drum and the people with the strings have to work together to bounce the ball on the drum as many times as they can without dropping it. It is seriously so so fun (and a surprisingly efficent work out). So, that was practice - jump rope, sliding, keep it up and soccer.

On the actual day of Sports Day, when we got to the college-sized middle school that was holding it, we looked awesome. We were all in matching uniforms and we were ready to go (even though it was 7:30 in the morning). We were the only team with foreigners and people started laughing when we set up our jump rope, but we showed them. We did awesome....in the warm up. In the actual event, one poor, unfortunate soul ruined sports day for practically all of China (like the Grinch that stole Christmas...I'm the girl that stole the fun out of sports day). When we actually had to jump rope, I dont know what happened. The rope was too short ( I was ducking and jumping at the same time...it was a mess), my shoes were untied, I was stressed and I couldn't jump more than four or five times without messing up. It was atrocious. I tried to play if off like I wasn't horrified that I had just ruined and went to get a drink. When I came back, my whole team was standing in a circle and they all turned towards me and, my friend, said "They are worried that you think it was your fault. It is just a game." OH OK. So, it was my fault, which I had already known, but if I hadn't, I did now. So embarrassing! Thankfully, I unruined sports day (much like when the Grinch gave Christmas back to the Who's) during the soccer event. For this game, you had to kick the soccer ball around the cones and down to the table (let me just tell you, there is a reason I quit soccer at age 6) then when you get to the table, you had to pick up two marbles out of bowls of water using chopsticks. I was awesome (and I feel confident saying that because the people watching told me that my skills were better than some Chinese, also because this is the only thing that's keeping me from going into hiding after the jump rope incident of 2015).

The next day (because this is a two (full) day event), was the board race. I was not ready. Nope. Not even by a long shot. And I was panicking. And, since I was part of the second leg of the team, I was really really panicking. We had to get on the boards fast and then slide across the floor fast. And, since I was part of the second leg of the team, we didn't go very fast. But we did cross the finish line! And that's what matters! So, the fact that .3 seconds after we crossed the finished line, I landed sideways in the mud, is not important. Embarrassing but not important. (And at least it wasn't tile!) Also, we killed it in the drum game. So, all is well that ends well, right? Right!

Anyway, sports day is over now which means no more practicing - no more jump roping, no more sliding and, sadly, no more drum. While I probably wouldn't have elected to do the sports day if I had known what it entailed, it actually turned out to be very, very fun! Embarrasing, but fun! Like a lot of other things in China, it pushed my limits (I can only fall down in front of a large group of adults so many times) but I did it! And, not only did I get a warm and cozy sweat suit, but I also got the chance to become friends with people outside of the English department and my homeroom teachers. So, it was absolutely worth it. Once again, China wins.