The Many Adventures of Ashley Rae: The Olympics Return to China

I find it funny that just when you have nothing to say, you seem to have all the time in the world to say something. And, inversely, when you want to shout from the rooftops, you never catch a breath to say a single word. Well, that's exactly how this blog has been for the last couple weeks. My time is either speeding past me at lightning speed or taking its time and meandering by without a care in the world. So much though has happened in the last week and I finally have the time to sit down and share it while I actually have the ability to connect to the internet.

So I'll start with the Olympics.

Quite a few of my classes have been cancelled in the past month as the whole school has been preparing for the Olympics sports assembly that ended the international festival. Each class was assigned one country and while they had to research the culture and history of that country, they also had to prepare a short dance for the opening ceremony. If you thought Beijing did it good in 2008, you should have seen Weiming's take on an opening ceremony. It started with a group of my first graders who acted as cheerleaders of sort. They all had pom poms anyway. They led the pack and marked off the rows of where each country would stand. There was also a presentation of flags (China, the Olympic rings) and a few other things. Then the real fun began.

I could pretend that I remember every country that was represented and tell you all about the dance and costumes and whatnot, but let's get real. I was primarily paying attention to my students. Mainly because they are the most adorable, but also because I'm a proud Mama Bear and couldn't peel my eyes away or stop raving about how cute they all were.

My three Grade One classes represented France, South Korea, and Australia.
France had one of the cutest costumes. They were dressed in blue and white, the girls almost reminded me of Mary Poppins in the chalk/carousel scene. The boys had on suspenders and little fedora hats. The danced to a song I'm assuming was in French and had the tune of the ABCs. And really, all I can say is: They. Were. Cute. (I'm gonna be saying that A LOT).

One only needs to be human to know what my South Korea class danced to. This group was only the boys because all the girls of the class made up the cheerleaders at the beginning. They were essentially just wearing their "proper" school uniform. Black jacket and pants. But they all had on some stunner shades and were carrying little swirly circle things. And then it began...."heyyyy sexy lady" That's right. About fifteen 6-year old boys dancing their little hearts out to "Gangnam Style." Though I can't say I like the song, I love my kids and you could tell they were having a blast. That dance there pretty much stole the crowd.

I feel like I should have at the beginning made a disclaimer about how most of the songs and costumes really had nothing to do with the countries they were supposed to represent. A few were pretty spot on (Spain, China, India to name a few). A couple had good costumes but bad song choices (my best example: Brazil. Green and yellow shirts to match the flag...while dancing to Avril Lavigne. Can I get a "huh?") My last Grade One class had appropriate costumes for Australia, but the song choice was a little questionable. If you've ever lived in China or have the opportunity to, one thing you'll learn right away is to just not question anything. You'll scratch your head bald trying to figure out some things that to you, will never make sense. So Australia. Picture this: 20 boys dressed up as kangaroos (tails and all) and 20 girls dressed up as goats (sheep? I'm actually not really sure) with horns. And they were adorable. Dancing to "High School Musical" because who in Australia doesn't want to "getcha head in the game". Again I remind you, don't question it.

And on to Grade Two. These three classes represented Kenya, India, and Egypt.
Class One had Kenya. The only way I can describe their outfits were that they looked like a mix between Power Rangers (that were far less covered) and well, I'm not sure. I guess they looked like slutty Power Rangers (only I'm not sure I should be calling 7 year olds slutty). But their dance was pretty awesome. They probably had some of the best coordination, rhythm, and synchronicity of all the classes. As always, some students stood out to be far better then the others. I realized that one girl, Kitty, was born to be a dancer. You could tell she was having the time of her life and had practiced a great deal.

Class Two was India. Now, one funny thing about how a large majority of all the classes went about creating their dance is that in most cases, the girls all danced in a single and the boys kinda stood around them and either watched or clapped their hands and basically did nothing. This is basically what happened with India but it was probably for the best. The girls were phenomenal. They were wearing pink outfits that were all bedazzled with gold jewelry that clinked together as they danced. If you've ever seen a Bollywood movie, they looked pretty stinkin' legit for a bunch of young kids in China. And again, I found another born dancer in the midst of the girls. Lucy was taking such care to make sure her hands were placed just so and that her timing was impeccable. And though most of her face was covered, you could see it in her eyes that she loved to dance.

Finally Egypt. I'm not gonna lie. I don't remember much about their dance. Mainly because most of the times I watched them practicing the dance, they almost always messed up and ended up stopping mid way through because they couldn't remember it. Even with their teacher, Journey, trying to do the dance with them during the ceremony didn't help much. But they did look comically cute in little headdress type hats that made them look like Egyptian Pharaohs.

Grade Three had the great honor of representing China. They all looked so serious in their white kungfu outfits that had flame designs on them. And I was also surprised to see that the one boy leading them was Jason. He goofs off so much in class that I never really could picture him in the serious role that comes with being the one leading a set of kungfu. But he did it with such pride and strength. It was also funny to see that some of the boys were clearly disinterested while some of the girls had fierce looks of determination and complete control over each and every movement.

Finally Grade Four. They were representing Germany and did so in quite an interesting fashion. They were all dressed as soccer players, decked out in the national team jersey and soccer balls. And then again the questionable music choice starts blaring out over the speakers and I just hear, "do you really want it, do you really want it...go go go ole ole ole" I had to do a double take with my ears. Really, Ricky Martin? Of all things they pick a Ricky Martin song to represent Germany. But again, I remind myself to not question it, because in China, things make a lot more sense if you don't question them.

For anyone wondering, yes the US was represented in the Olympics. And I am very sad to announce that none other than Kesha (?) and her ever so wonderful song "Tik Tok" is what is representing us in China. And yes, Justin Beiber was reppin' Canada. A few other stand outs included Denmark, who danced to "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. It was actually quite nice. They took the whole Shakespearean thing to the next level with ball gowns and partner dancing and a court jester who looked like a clown and pirates and the whole she-bang. There were also some South African hula dancers, more High School Musical, and some Waka Waka from Shakira (representing Madagascar).

After the presentation of the nations, some of the older students performed a music piece playing on a gu zheng (at least I'm pretty sure what its called). It is a traditional Chinese instrument that simply makes the most beautiful music. There was also a larger presentation of kungfu done by the older male students, a dance number including beautiful fans by the girls in primary, and a dance done by the girls in the junior department. The ceremony was quite a spectacle, filled with wonderful costumes, music, and a lot of laughter. There is always a stigma about schools in China. The thought is that everything is so strict and structured. That the students are under constant duress to learn and memorize everything. I'm not going to argue that a lot of that isn't true. I see first hand nearly every day what happens when a student makes a mistake. I see the long hours they spend at school, usually close to 12 hours a day. But it was quite a joy to see them being what they are, kids. To see how happy they were and how lively the festivities were.

I stuck around for most of the day to watch the competitions. A good number of my students participated in the various races. They also had long jump competitions and a few other activities for the school. I also found out I was filmed playing with some of the kids for the local news station and Jake was also interviewed (he was the best at Chinese).

It was a day I'm not likely to forget. While the kids got the day out of class and were relishing in the freedom and fun, they didn't ever lose sight of the bigger meaning and purpose. This was a celebration of differences. It was a celebration of an international community. Different cultures, customs, thoughts, beliefs and people were all celebrated and honored that day. It was something special.