Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Wet Pain and Yellow Thunder
The other day, I (Claire) came out of class sixth period and started down the stairs. When I got halfway down the stairs, I noticed that all of the black stair railings throughout the whole school had white printer paper hung all over them. The papers were shining so bright in the midday Caribbean sun while they billowed about in the breeze that it took me a few seconds to realize that there were words printed on all of the papers. All over the school, hung on three floors worth of open air stair railings, were bright white pieces of paper with these bold black words printed on every single one: "WET PAIN". I don't think anyone likes pain, but I wonder which is worse... wet or dry. I had a very good laugh right there outside in the middle of the school. I laughed loud and hard at how much those signs saying "wet pain" sum up our experience here at this "English speaking" school.
On the same token, next week is Spirit Week. All of us foreign teachers have yet to figure out exactly the function and purpose of Spirit Week, and all the details are equally hidden from us. What we have been able to glean from different sources around school is that we only have class from 8-12:30. Then, mass chaos reigns until 2:15. We think there are competitions - sports competitions - between the high school grades, and we guess the rest of the school stands around in the hot sun and watches - or they all run around like little barbarians and make trouble while the teachers go out for a smoke break. The latter is the likelier of the two. Anyway - the four high school grades are supposed to campaign for their color in order for people to support them in the competitions. They were supposed to campaign for the two weeks prior to Spirit Week; however, the signs just started going up a few days ago. The 9th grade color is yellow, and they chose thunder for their mascot. Imagine that. Yellow thunder. So, there are signs all over school now with pictures of yellow lightning bolts that say "Yellow Thunder". Some one should have realized that thunder is a sound, and sounds don't have colors before they made all those signs. Once again, I had a long, loud laugh.
On the same token, next week is Spirit Week. All of us foreign teachers have yet to figure out exactly the function and purpose of Spirit Week, and all the details are equally hidden from us. What we have been able to glean from different sources around school is that we only have class from 8-12:30. Then, mass chaos reigns until 2:15. We think there are competitions - sports competitions - between the high school grades, and we guess the rest of the school stands around in the hot sun and watches - or they all run around like little barbarians and make trouble while the teachers go out for a smoke break. The latter is the likelier of the two. Anyway - the four high school grades are supposed to campaign for their color in order for people to support them in the competitions. They were supposed to campaign for the two weeks prior to Spirit Week; however, the signs just started going up a few days ago. The 9th grade color is yellow, and they chose thunder for their mascot. Imagine that. Yellow thunder. So, there are signs all over school now with pictures of yellow lightning bolts that say "Yellow Thunder". Some one should have realized that thunder is a sound, and sounds don't have colors before they made all those signs. Once again, I had a long, loud laugh.
// posted by The Roths @ 8:04 PM 
