The mid-Autumn festival passed recently here in China and the only reason I mention this is that we got Monday off because of it. Thank you random Chinese holidays! Speaking of random, so today my advisor told me about the "Sporting Event Days" that will be held next week. Apparently, we are going to take two full days out of class and take all 2000+ students outside to run track and field events. This sounds pretty hilarious to me, but then it gets better. Teachers are encouraged to participate in the events as well. Now, I love sports as much as the next guy, but running the 400m with a bunch of Chinese middle schoolers isn't my idea of a pleasant Friday afternoon. So, I tried to respectful decline this invitation to participate and offered to time the events instead. This would be all well and good if I were a Chinese teacher, but I'm a foreign teacher and we MUST participate. Apparently, the kids enjoy nothing more than watching foreign teachers run around like idiots (this comes as no surprise to me). I signed up for the long jump and the shotput - I think Emma was also coerced into running the 100m or something like that. Details will follow (and hopefully pictures of this nonsense).
I've been talking about getting pet turtles for a couple of weeks. Emma mentioned it in her class and one of her students gave her a pair of turtles for us to have!
Here the turtles are in their natural environment. They are hiding in their shells because I snapped the first couple of pictures with flash and sufficiently frightened them. In any case, we got these turtles and I was overjoyed. I've been taking them out for romps in the grass and talking to them when I'm bored of grading papers. They've been solid pets. Unfortunately, this past weekend when Emma and I went to Shanghai we forgot to leave our keys with a friend in Suzhou. The turtles were on their own all weekend! I was really worried that they wouldn't make it through... Luckily, our turtles are of a hardy nature and a strong constitution and 3 days without food barely phased them. In honor of their fortitude, I have decided to name the male turtle "Wu Guai the Survivor." Wu guai (pronounced ooooo-gway) means turtle in Chinese and it's actually my favorite word to say. I'm still trying to think up a fitting moniker for Wu Guai's partner...
Here is a picture of Wu Guai the Survivor:
- Jon
Here the turtles are in their natural environment. They are hiding in their shells because I snapped the first couple of pictures with flash and sufficiently frightened them. In any case, we got these turtles and I was overjoyed. I've been taking them out for romps in the grass and talking to them when I'm bored of grading papers. They've been solid pets. Unfortunately, this past weekend when Emma and I went to Shanghai we forgot to leave our keys with a friend in Suzhou. The turtles were on their own all weekend! I was really worried that they wouldn't make it through... Luckily, our turtles are of a hardy nature and a strong constitution and 3 days without food barely phased them. In honor of their fortitude, I have decided to name the male turtle "Wu Guai the Survivor." Wu guai (pronounced ooooo-gway) means turtle in Chinese and it's actually my favorite word to say. I'm still trying to think up a fitting moniker for Wu Guai's partner...
1 comment:
How about calling the turtle "Shelly" or "Goober." If you think that a chinese name is in order, how about "xiaolongbao."
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