Ahh Random Days Off...

So, one of the major perks to teaching in Hong Kong is that they (very sensibly) have a day off after any school event, I think this is supposed to make up for having no half term, which means 14 straight weeks of teaching (it frankly doesn't make up for it but hey). Anyway, yesterday was the school Speech Day and today is therefore Speech Day Holiday! Speech Day is kind of like a Christmas concert although it included TWO HOURS of speeches (suprisingly) in Cantonese...now assembly-style speeches are fairly boring when you know whats going on but two hours of Cantonese without a clue what was being said was somewhat dull to say the least. Only made worse as I was sat in the front row, in the centre so had to look like I was paying attention and clap at seemeingly appropriate times...It started with a prize-giving which was mildly interesting because I got to see girls I know go and get prizes (although I have no idea what the prizes were for), then a speech by the Principal and then the highlight...45 minutes from a (very) former Miss Hong Kong! I could bairly contain myself...From a rather random power point of African children in orphanages I'm guessing she was talking about her charity work but who knows? She was also wearing a inexplicably short skirt which would be inappropriate on anyone giving a talk at a school and would be inappropriate on anyone her age anywhere...trust me. Another random moment was when all the staff had to line up and shake her hand like celebrities do when they meet the Queen and I was introduced by the Principal as "Miss Greaves, our Drama and English teacher". Miss HK seemed quite suprised about this, as was I as this is not true on any level, I'm barely an English teacher let alone a Drama and English teacher, I just had to pray she wouldn't come back and ask me about my Drama lessons later. This is a classic example of the HK belief that it is not what you're doing that matters but rather what it LOOKS like you're doing and obviously the Principal decided it would look quite impressive to have a Drama teacher for a day...

The only exciting part on the concert was the performance of 'Annie' that I wrote the script for (this sounds more impressive than it is) and helped out with in rehearsal (this is also possibly where the Drama teacher lie came from) This brought another classic moment where I was happily being lulled off to sleep by 2 hours of Cantonese when I heard "cantonesecantonesecantonese Miss Greaves cantonesecantonese" at which point everyone turned and smiled at me...I actually nearly died as it is quite common for people here to forget to tell you fairly important things you are meant to be doing: was I meant to make a speech? go up on stage? do a dance? luckily the moment passed and they carried on in cantonese without me needing to anything except wet myself. Shortly after "Annie" began so I'm guessing they were crediting me for it but by God...that was a scary moment. Anyway, "Annie" was really good especially as they put the girl playing Annie (who the girls affectionately call 'fishbowl head') in a bright red clown wig...a Hong Kong attempt at ginger hair. Afterwards there was a buffet cooked by the Home Ec classes and as I seem to be fine today I have to say the food was quite good. So that's a typical example of the random-ness of school events in HK - Ben doesn't kow what he's missing out on...
R x