Not an egg and spoon race in sight: a Chinese sports day

After a day where I awoke with a sparrow on my bed (sounds cute and Disney-ish but it was more horrible, screaming, bird flapping in my hair violently wrenched from sleep than that) and had had many of my lessons cancelled last minute I had one more fun thing in store. After seeing the children rehearsing all week for a big sports presentation I had often commented that it looked lovely, was a nice idea etc etc not thinking anything of my words. Until I was asked to participate, still not too bad, until I was shown the dress. The lurid primary coloured silk puff sleeved dress.

To me, the idea of sports day conjures up images of cheering (if a little bored) parents, grass stains, cold sports fields and coming in last. Not so the Chinese sports day where sports seems like a thinly veiled excuse for teachers to rent ballgowns and children to spend hour practicing elaborate dance routines.

So I found myself stood in the centre of a sports stadium in a full length red dress dancing with a multi-coloured paper flower with teachers either side of me and a thousand students behind me.

I'm pretty sure that there can be no mistaking the fact that I looked horrendous, and in a line of petite yellow frocked teachers (because obviously I had to stand out even more) the difference was even more pronounced. The students loved it though, I was handed babies to hold and had loads of people come and take photos with me.

It was great, if a little scary and embarrassing and I got the opportunity to chat to a lot of my students in a much more informal setting than I had previously. Managed to get some serious hate eyes from one kid too, when I told on him for drinking Bacardi Breezer at the back of the stands, but seriously, if you’re going to break the rules at least have a decent drink. There are no cool points for getting caught with a Bacardi Breezer.