Teachers Day

The 10th of September is teachers day. To celebrate, all of the teachers at the school went out for dinner on the preceding Saturday. They told me about this about a week before, also telling me that some teachers give speeches, sing songs etc. which is nice. Well, that's what I thought until they handed be a sheet of lyrics. They said that the whole English office (7 of us at the time) would be singing this song by a Chinese artist called 'Joey.' They picked it because it has English lyrics. Such beautiful lines as 'a little bit of something, these are our memories.' Great.

So after hearing this awful song played over and over in our office, I was starting to learn the words - through gritted teeth - and then one morning there was more news about the teachers day dinner. There weren't to be any performances this year, they regretted to tell me, and we all had to pay for the dinner. So I was really pleased, naturally, but apparently I was the only one. I really didn't mind paying the equivalent of £3.50 to not sing this song. They felt differently.

The dinner was really good. The traditionally-dressed waitresses laid out what seemed to be Noah's ark on our table, and we all washed our bowls and chopsticks in our tea before tucking in (tradition in Guangdong). I've learned not to ask what various meats are before eating them, but sometimes the locals ask 'oh, how's the pigs feet?' just as I'm chewing on it. 'Well, it was nice, but now it's gross.'

On the actual teachers day kids give their teachers presents. I managed to accumulate 3 cards, 2 bunches of flowers, some cake, a box of chocolates, a thermos, a fan, some Chinese hanging decoration and a miniature tea set. Win. It was the American boys's (Josh and Patrick) first days, so they hadn't even met the kids yet, and even they managed to get a few gifts! A couple of the teachers didn't get presents. I was talking to Anna about Crystal (both Chinese teachers in the English office) and how she didn't get presents. She teaches some of the youngest kids, about 3 years old, so I was like 'are they too young to understand teachers day?' and Anna replied 'sometimes. Some are just not very nice.'

So now all 3 Americans are here (the aforementioned two and a girl called Katie) and they're all lovely. It's nice to have more people about that speak the same language at you. At it's also nice to not be the only person getting stared at. Patrick even speaks some mandarin which is really helpful!