Thursday, December 17, 2009

Christmas & Sports Day

Christmas decorations everywhere. Christmas songs playing at school. At Carrefour. At the pool. By the sound-truck that's advertising the new restaurant near my apartment. In my head. Being whistled by me. Oops.

Then there's Sports Day. This is an annual tradition at most schools, whatever the word is that means once every two years at my school (bi-annual and semi-annual both mean twice a year, right?) In theory it's about sports. In practice... wow. Yeah, there's a lot of practice.

See, everyone has to march. And every class does a cheer that's really elaborate. And there are hosts who banter bilingually. And then relay races. Then exhortations. Then awards.

Our Sports Day is on Saturday, and we've had 3 practices. From what I understand that's not many- many public schools have half a dozen. It's kind of fun but it's just funny how much Taiwan is all about pageantry and not really about fun. My kids even spent half an hour practicing the relay race. Also we dress up in uniform-type things. Mine fits so I'm happy. And we get off Christmas day to make up for sports day so I get a 3-day weekend and I'm going to the beach so I'm really really really happy!

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