Week in Review

This past week we were back to our normal routine. Coming off a break is always a little tough, but coming off Spring Break seemed especially so, at least for most of my students. It is mid-April and we have 7 weeks left of school so everyone (teachers and students alike) is getting a little anxious in anticipation of the end of the year and summer. It is a little more difficult to focus and takes more discipline not to look ahead and miss out on the here and now. 

Last Monday Eric started his second coaching gig of the year when volleyball season started. We have a co-ed team ranging in age from 7th grade to seniors. It should prove to be interesting. Regardless of how successful the season will be, Eric is excited for yet another opportunity to relate to the students. The group is obviously eclectic and he gets to hang out with students he otherwise would never have an in with. 

I am one of three 10^th grade advisors this year and Friday night we had a lock-in at school. This basically means we had an all-night get-together from 6pm to 8am the next morning. We really did have a great time. We ate dinner together, watched a few movies, played capture the flag and sardines, and had quite the adventure finding a Shao Kao place. Shao Kao is Chinese street bbq. At about 8:30pm every night Shao Kao stands pop up all over the place and stay open until the early hours of the morning. I still am not clear on why they open so late, but there you have it. At around midnight we had planned on walking as a big group over to the nearest Shao Kao place for a late night snack, but upon walking up to the place we saw that they were closing (it was misty out which scares off customers). We then proceeded to walk a few blocks to a street corner where there were a few more stands, but as soon as we were about to order a police truck drove by and forced all of them to close (technically, Shao Kao stands are illegal because they don’t pay taxes, but as far as we have seen this could actually be said of 90% of the businesses here.) We were at the point of giving up and going to the 24hr McDonald’s when a lady pulled up in her SUV and said that she had a Shao Kao stand about a 10 minutes’ walk from here and she would be happy to shuttle us over there in her car. This being China, we said, “Great!” and a group of us hopped in her car. It took about a half hour for her to shuttle everyone there, but she did exactly what she said she would do and all 30 of us enjoyed our bbq after all! Only in China! What a great night!