More School

I thought I had left flag raising ceremonies in elementary school and Lady Gaga in the States however I was proved wrong this morning. All the students were gathered in the school courtyard and we were called to attention and at ease several times before we started the singing of the National Anthem. Raising the flag followed shortly after being called to attention again over the loudspeaker. It feels similar to something out of a Hollywood film complete with mass amounts of obedient students and mountains in the background however we did not break into karate or listen to propaganda speeches. Music class followed the assembly and much to my amusement we watched American music videos in English. The class started off with Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" but this was just the beginning and Beyonce's "Single Ladies" followed shortly after. The other videos included the Black Eyed Peas' "Rock that Body" and Eminem's "Not Afraid". I was sporting the school uniform through this and the rest of the day including gym. Generally speaking I think school uniforms would include some sort of dress slacks and a button down shirt possibly a tie but not at Dunxu Vocational High School. Here the uniforms include a polyester t-shirt and sweat pants. Gym class started with an eight count dance. After learning the dance the class split into their preferred choice of activity and I get the idea that they don't change throughout the year. There is the ever popular basketball, pool, and table tennis. When I peaked on those playing table tennis I was severely disappointed that their were no master players and I guess that's what stereotyping gets me. Much to my luck the number of questions I received went down considerably and to top it of I wasn't asked "are you boring?". I haven't quite found an answer to that question yet. My schoolmates' fascination with me hasn't subdued; in fact its grown. I walk through the campus and receive shouts across the halls of "HI!" "Herro" "Nice to Meet You". I'll walk past a classroom and the class will explode and soon banging on the windows and shouts of "JOHN, JOHN, JOHN" begins. There is much more most of it can not be put into words and some of it isn't important enough while many things slip from my memory, but for now I hope I painted a good picture of what school is like.