Morning exercises - Day 1

All 400 middle and high school students stand on the football field in the shadow of the red flag with gold stars.  They are arranged in organized columns and rows with student leaders across the front.  Once in place, the music starts, it sounds very patriotic and similar to a parade march...yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi ba, jiu, shi...(1,2,3...10) and the students begin to march in place.  Hand waving and arm flailing come next but this day something is different.  And in China, difference sticks out like a non-smoker.  This day the Yangguizi - foreign devil - has decided to join the morning exercises.  He is not marching in-step with the rest, he flails at the wrong time and is facing the wrong direction when the students skip around in a circle on one foot.  All 400 faces turn around to catch the unsuspecting Meiguo laughing and flailing out-of-sync.  The exercise goes to shambles as the most of the student body continues to turn around to watch the westerner and his individualistic ways.

I have been performing the morning exercises all week and have received many compliments from students, faculty and administrators.  They particulary like my shouting words of encouragement to lackluster performers and general enthusiasm in spite of not having a clue as to what is going on.  After the exercise, I like to walk up and down the rows awarding high-fives and fist pounds to those that really gave it their all.  My goal is to eventually get the routine down until they appoint me "guest exercise leader"...that's when the real subversion begins.