First day of (not at) school

A video from an in between class break!

Everyone is wearing their uniform today. Not everyone is on time; some kids roll into class around 7:26. The last few kids turn in their lunch money. The two boys in front of me -- I am now in my own row in the back of class -- are writing on their money. About 10 minutes into class everyone grabs their coats and head out the door. Two lines are made in the hall; one for girls and one for guys. Then we head out to the concrete quad next to school. It's freezing. I thought my hair had dried from my shower earlier, but my whole ponytail was an ice cube. Each class in in a line; As directed by the principal, the Americans form our own line on the far right. This is the opening ceremony for the new semester. After a few announcements and a flag raising ceremony (three students, a boy carrying the Chinese flag and two girls behind him marched from the front stage to the flag pole to our right), it was time for us to get on stage and introduce ourself. We walked on stage in our attempt at a line, but soon learned that Chinese students are much better at walking in a straight formation than we are. Becky and Elias made a speech and introduced each of us, most of which the school understood. Chen, Elias's host brother, said they couldn't understand the teachers' speech. Points for us! We concluded the opening ceremony and everyone headed back to class.

My first class of the day was geometry. The teacher's young, she can't be over 30. She's wearing a black pea coat, a pink V-neck sweater, jeans and running shoes. She has round, rimless glasses, straight, black hair and bangs cut at her eyebrows. I get the vibe that she's a bitch, although there are points when she laughs with the class. At one point she breaks into a staring contest -- I can't tell if it's with the whole class or just Baggy Pants because they were having an 8-Mile rap off type back and forth a minute earlier. The class turns from laughter to dead silence in no time at all. She's managed one of those silences that feels as though it's lasted a lifetime before she nods her head, eyes still peeled at one point of the class, and slowly walks back to resume her post in front of the white board.
She then gives a long speech, using her arms to form parallel lines. It looked like an overview of the class. She starts a powerpoint. The opening slides have pictures of the world, a watermelon, a coke can, a jewellry box, Stonehedge, the pyramids of Egypt, a pogoda and a skyscraper. The slideshow is cut short by the bell.

Next up is English. After a five minute break, the teacher walks in. "Class start," he says. Everyone stands. "Hello class. Welcome back. You can sit." Everyone sits. It turns out that this is how every class is supposed to start, only in Chinese. I guess Ms. Geometry forgot to do it. The entire class in conducted in English. He expresses his excitement to be back and work with everyone for the semester and then asks how people's holidays were.
One girl had a "very good" holiday. She "went to America to play." Another had a "bad vacation because I went to my home town where it was very cold." The last boy to be called on sits in the front row of class. He had a "good vacation because it was exciting to watch the fire on tv." He later ads, "but nothing else happened." The teacher sums up his statement in less than 10 words, "First it was boring, then it was interesting."
Today's lesson is on festivals around the world. He asks about Valentine's Day. "I am single!" Baggy Pants shout out. "I stayed home all day!" Today's lesson is about festivals around the world. The teacher asks the students to pair up and list the festivals around the world. Mother's Day, Father's Day, Children's Day (?), Thanksgiving and Christmas all make the list. He then gives them a few minutes to read a passage about festivals and answer questions. The passage is broken up into various subheads: Festivals of the Dead, Festivals to Honor People, Harvest Festivals, Spring Festivals. Four exercises follow in the workbook, although they're only asked to complete the first.
This teacher is also young. He's wearing dark, fitted, jeans, a tight, v-neck sweater with a blue, brown and white pattern on the front, topped off with brown shoes that complement the outfit nicely. He walks through the class while the students work, putting his arm around some and helping them out. Viviane's head is on her desk. I can't tell if it's because she finished or if she's just tired. Her English is way better than anyone else in the class I've talked to. After 10 minutes he calls the classes attention and goes over the answers with pictures her prepared in a powerpoint. He calls it a ppt. Not everyone has completed the assignment yet. Their homework assignment is to create their dream festival for a four-minute presentation.

Spiky hair to my left and Mustache to my right are texting back and forth. Another kid passes a note to the kid behind him who reads it and passes it Mustache, who's sitting behind him. He writes something and passes it back to the front of their train. The note jumps columns to the boy up and to his left. And then again to a girl sitting to his left.
There are way more boys than girls in the back of the class.

In history they are learning about the evolution of ancient Chinese tools. A boy's reading Stephan King and shows it to his friend behind him. Spiky Hair drops a sliver of paper on the ground, but it doesn't go far enough. He tries to blow the note to its final destination, but ends up using his foot to slide it over. In the process he notices some dirt on his white, grey and black Adidas and doesn't hesitate to clean it off with some saliva.

PE is next. This teacher is older, and decked out in Adidas gear from head to toe. Kids don't take gym seriously in China either. Everone talks through the teacher's speech and are no longer descrete about passing notes. A guy diagonal from me passes me one.
Can you understand what the teacher is saying?
It's written in some of the best handwriting I've ever seen.
No I reply. I heard him say something about swimming and volleyball and a match, but that's it.
I hand it back to him. The train of boys to my right look over what I wrote. I think they are confused with my "match." I can see how my m's would be mistaken for w's. He writes another note, but waits a few minutes before he hands it back. I think he was asking his friends if he used correct English.
Do you speak Chinese? Can you say "hello" and "bye"?
Ni hao! 你好! I write. Zaijian. I don't know how to write that. My Chinese is very bad.
They smile and nod and each goes over my strokes and pinyin and proceed to pass the note to everyone on our side of the room. At one point I hear someone repeat, "My Chinese is very bad." The gym teacher puts on CCTV5 to the NBA All-Star game. Everyone's talking with scattered groups of kids watching the screen. I'm not falling asleep in this class! Shaq makes an and one (sorry, Tom, if that's the wrong sports notation) and a clump of boys erupt in cheers. A second later he stuffs someone and they all crack up.

Three boys conference on what to say to me next. After 10 minutes I get a new note.
Do you like the NBA?
I explain that I like to play, but not watch. 你喜欢 NBA?
Translation: Do you like the NBA? I hope my characters are right, but I think I messed up a bit. A kid with thick-rimmed glasses joins the note party and writes me the next one. All of his friend grab it from him, though, as he passes it to me. Everyone has to read everything before any new moves are made.
Yes, I love it. Last year Boston Celtic won NBA Championship. Did you see that game?
I did. It was a big deal in Boston. People were very happy. Do you play basketball?
I wonder if they understand "big deal."

Lunch is an hour and a half at Jingshan, but most of it is spent playing or studying (depending on your class). Becky and I played jump rope with the elementary schoolers.

The last block of the day was physics. They're learning exactly what I learnt right before I came to Beijing. No wonder Zijian slept through every class and still aced everything. I receive my last note of the day.
Do you have a Chinese cell phone number? Can you tell us your phone number?
School's over. We swap numbers and go our separate ways.