One World, One Dream

So, a few days ago someone from the international office walked over to our classrooms once again with one of those A4s, and put it up on the message board. It said: All foreign students are required to participate in the opening ceremony of the University Sports Meet. A couple of days later we were handed over T-shirts the size of a small country, white for girls and yellow for boys, and told to turn up at 7:5o on thursday morning, ready to march out to the stadium.

And this was exactly what we did, more or less. The opening ceremony begun by the teams of all colleges marching out after their flagbearer, dressed in various uniforms or sports outfits. It was all done in the style of the olympics, or at least there was an attempt to. We, of course, we the only group where most of us had nothing to do with the actual sports event, the other people marching were actual athletes whereas the opening ceremony was the only bit we had to take part in.

The Chinese students, having probably be trained for this their whole lives during various events and drills, marched in perfect unison, lines and rows straight as if drawn with a ruler. And then us: wobbling on in our flip-flops, as this indeed was what most of us, including me, had chosen for our sporty footwear for the occasion. But other than that, I think we managed pretty well to behave like athletic stars, waving at the full stadium of cheering audience and pointing our cameras at everything.

Afterwards, as we were all standing in the middle of the field, arranged in our respective groups, listening to the speeches, there suddenly was an announcement: "everyone in the stands, stand up and face the flag!" *whooosh* The whole audience stood up. "All athletes in the field, tuuuurn back!" *whoosh* All the Chinese teams turned around with one controlled move.

And us, at the edge of the field, were left turning around aimlessly for a few seconds, until finally settling into vaguely the right position, waiting for the flag to be raised while the national anthem was sung.

And so on.

All in all, one more funny experience in the serious of events that make up living in China.

But tonight, everyone in front of their tv:s, ready for the Eurovision Song Contest! Fingers crossed for Lordi :D
Even we here are going to watch it, thanks to it being shown online in real time. That's what the green-tea flavoured chips are for, too. Can't go wrong with those.