Day 388 Warhorse

At the end of the school day, as is every day, students are assigned to come to the classrooms to clean.  We have no school janitors, per se, unless you count the woman who pushes around a piss soaked sour mop in the ladies bathroom.  The Chinese apparently don't believe in using Lysol or bleach, though she does burn incense when she's finished, so that's a plus.

Which reminds me...

I finally got the word on the broken potty- while we are off school for Golden Week, they are tearing in to the Western toilet on my floor.  Apparently it is an even bigger problem than I suspected- one that involves jackhammers.

Back to the kids....

Though our rooms are far from 'professionally cleaned', coming from a mom who had a chore chart for her five kids, I appreciate the life lessons one learns in cleaning up after others.  The majority of our kids are 'privileged' as their parents and grandparents pay big money for them to attend school at BNDS. Now, I don't have the issues some of my colleagues are having in their rooms.  My kids are great about staying on top of the mess, but perhaps it's because they like the positive reinforcement from Momma K :)  Nevertheless, I love their attitude about sweeping up the mounds of silky black hair that accumulates on the tile floors in just one day.  I tell them what a good job they are doing, I thank them, and almost without fail, the student, in turn, thanks me- for being their teacher, that it is an honor to have me here, they want me to be happy, and that they take their responsibilities seriously.

Seriously?!

Seriously, these are the responses I have received this year from 15 and 16 year old kids, about having to clean my classroom. The funny thing is, not one of the kids who has cleaned my room is one of my psychology students- my room just happens to be their home room. Some days I love China.

Occasionally I leave chocolates for my Chinese babies to show my gratitude.

If it worked for Skinner's rats, it can work for me, too :)

So, after school today, I pedaled my big self to the grocery store.  I am becoming quite agile on a bicycle, dodging in and out of rush hour traffic.  I say that, but I had a close encounter with a city bus just yesterday that made me shout bad words as I slammed the brakes and jumped off my bike in a near miss.

Today was a new day...'get back up on that horse and ride it'...or something like that.

Real quick, though, back at the grocery store...I was coming out of the grocery  which is a good 10-15 minute walk from campus.  I had my back pack on all loaded up, and I had a bag of groceries hanging from each handle bar.  A BNDS boy came up behind me and said, "Teacher, I am surprised to see you here. Please let me carry your groceries home for you, it would be my honor."  I replied, "Heavens, no! That is so kind of you, but I can make it home on my bicycle just fine :)"  This boy is not one of my students either; his homeroom just happens to be my classroom.  What a sweet boy.

Have I said that some days I love China?

Then I remember.....

These kids will grow up, spit on the sidewalk, cut in front of me in line at the ticket counter, and push and shove me through the subway station.

I learn to take the good with the bad :)

I no sooner got home, unloaded my groceries, and was just beginning to prepare my dinner when the phone rang.  It was my friend Rob. "How spontaneous are you?" he asked.  I replied, "I can be super spontaneous, what do you have in mind?"

In ten minutes, I was meeting them at the north gate to go see a live musical production, at the other National Theater of Beijing (not the Egg).  Another teacher friend in their group could not make the show, and his loss was a HUGE gain for me!  Rob, John, Kirsten and myself had an awesome time.

In keeping with the 'get back up on that horse and ride' theme...

A professional Chinese traveling troupe was performing Warhorse.  I was not familiar with the story line. I have not read the book, and I didn't see the movie version that Steven Spielberg directed a few years back.  In a word, it was incredible.  Though the performance was all in Mandarin, I was spell bound.  The stage was sparse, yet so creative and artistic.  The 'backdrop' which was like a cloud of smoke, is where moving black and white scenes were projected.  Much was left to the imagination, and I was captivated.  I was only able to snap a few photos, then I got 'tagged' by an usher with a laser light. I'm such a rebel sometimes, geesh.

This was one of the opening scenes with all the townspeople.
The show is set around 1914 in Europe, during the outbreak
of the First World War.  It is a story of a poor farm boy whose
father buys a colt to become a plough horse, though Albert
trains Joey to become more of a beloved pet and friend.
Later the horse is sold to the British army by Albert's father,
in order to pay the rent on the family farm.  Albert grows up,
joins the army himself...and you can figure out the rest.

The puppeteers who were the horses in the show did
an amazing job, down to the horses' ears twitching and
eyelashes blinking.  I obviously forgot they were puppets,
as the battle scenes with some horses dying had me in tears.

English soldiers encountered German soldiers, who
could not communicate with each other, yet it was all
spoken in Mandarin...my mind was blown, y'all, lol. 

And this is where I got laser tagged, so I was sorry to discover
it came out blurry.  It really was a beautiful show.  Afterward,
we couldn't stop chatting about it the whole subway ride home :)
I love watching live theater, and to see a musical
in Beijing, in Mandarin, was truly incredible.

Some days, I really love China.

G'nite, y'all!