Sports Day!

Hey Everyone,

As you probably surmised from the title of this post, this weekend was indeed "Sports Day" here at Zhanjiang Normal University. Actually it was more like "Sports Weekend," as the events ran from Friday through Sunday. Imagine Track & Field Day from when you were in grade school, only on a university-sized scale. It's awesome.

Sports Day is easily one of the coolest things about Chinese universities. Not only do we get a three-day weekend, but the whole school shows up to compete in different events, cheer everyone on, and celebrate in a spirit of friendly competition. In a year when the Olympic Spirit runs so strong throughout the country, this years games were especially meaningful to everyone here.

Perhaps one of the best parts of Sports Weekend is that the events are not only limited to student participants. On Saturday all of the teachers at the school are invited to compete against each other, with the different departments going head to head in each event. Needless to say, John, David, Ben and myself proudly answered the call.

It was a glorious day for the Foreign Language Department, as we secured medals in all the events we participated in except one (a relay race in which Ben and I thought we were simply running a practice run and therefore weren't really trying that hard). All together it was a fantastic weekend, and as usual, I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking...

The Stadium

Women's 4x800 Relay

With the Terrorist Threat at Level Chartreuse, Zhanjiang's Finest were on hand to provide security...

Prizes for the winners...

加油!! 加油!!
These two characters, jia you, are pronounced "ji" (ryhmes with pie) and "yo." It's the Chinese expression for "Come on!" or "You can do it!" and it is used to encourage or cheer someone on. Obviously this expression was used quite often this weekend. The funny thing about the expression, though, is that it literally translates into English as "add oil," as in, "Give 'er the gas!" It's definitely one of my favorite Chinese expressions.

When it comes down to it, there's only one thing you need to do...
DO WIN!!

Free massages from the Physical Therapy Department!
(This was a VERY popular booth :-)

This little lady is the fastest runner in the Foreign Language Department (and I'm her teacher!)

Three lovely ladies from my Freshmen English Writing class. Their job was to go around and report on the weekend's events. And occasionally pose for photos with foreigners.

Sophomore Society and Culture students

The English Education Women's 4x400 Relay Team
(all my students)

Smiky hasn't quite grasped the concept of the headband yet...
(And no, that's not a typo, her name really is Smiky)

...but she does have ruby red running shoes, guaranteed to make you run faster, jump higher, and kick harder!

Victorious!
(Note the black wristbands borrowed from her English teacher. Clearly the reason her team won the race. ;-)

Sugar made a great cheerleader...
(Yes, her English name is really Sugar, and yes, I feel a little creepy every time I call on her in class.)

Lorelai and Luna showing off their pipes...

You may recognize Luna as the #1 Apple-Bobber in all of Zhanjiang. Clearly she is not one to be messed with...

In class last week we were talking about the different events the students would be participating in, and one of the girls was doing the high jump, and she asked me if I could do the high jump. I told her it's hard for me to jump high because I weigh so much. And they all said, "But you are so thin! How much do you weigh?" When I told them I weighed 85 kilograms, they gasped in awe, and then Lorelai piped up and said, "You weigh twice as much as me!" And if you look at the photo above, that's no so hard to believe. :-)

John, Ben and Myself took home one silver and one bronze in the two basketball events. Not a bad showing, considering one of the teams we were competing against was the Physical Education Department. Not sure how that's fair, considering it's literally their job to play basketball all day. Can you imagine the school hosting a Physics competition and having every department compete? Who do you think would win? And no, I'm not bitter at all. :-p

David and I did however teach those Phy Ed jerks a lesson later in the day. This is a photo of the GOLD MEDAL winning team for the Three-Legged Relay Race. Foreign Language Department, #1 baby!! It was so awesome. A couple of our Chinese teammates came up to us after the race and said, "This is the first time our department has been number one!" They were absolutely thrilled. I was trying to get everyone to make the "#1" symbol, but as you can see, the Chinese habit of making the "Peace" sign is strong.

Let's try again....

...Oh! So close!
(Does a "thumbs up" count as a "#1"? I know in Germany it does...)

One more try...

Hopeless. But hey, thumbs up for beating the Phy Ed Dept.!!

And thumbs up for Sports Day!!