YCFLS Rocks :-)

Wow what an interesting day! I was given the day off from teaching yesterday so that I could join all the other Chinese English teachers from our school in attending the "Yichang English Teaching Competition" which is held every two years. Carol was representing our school and I was keen to show my support. The winner of this then goes on to represent Yichang in the "Hubei Province" competition and then the winner of the Hubei competition goes on to represent Hubei Province in a nationwide China competition. Our school holds a proud history at this event and from what I had heard the competition was going to be fierce with a couple of favorites vying for the honor. I think most of us had a lot of belief in Carol's abilities. She is a fun, outgoing personality. Well...she did it...she won. Congratulations Carol! As I have mentioned our school holds a proud history of winners at this competition and with Carol winning this year it means (I think)that our school has won consecutively for the last 4 competitions and (I think) 5 times in total(I will double check this and correct it if I'm wrong). Many interesting facts and happenings occured today I will list some of them.
Interesting fact 1 : Chinese celebrate such things differently :-) It is lucky I didn't jump up and holler and yell... "YES, Go Yichang Foreign Language School,you good thing...We Rock" (lol).. because, whilst everyone amongst our group clapped and was happy...it was very much happy on the inside...very controlled...
Event 2 : The school that the competition was held at is the school in which Swallow is the Vice Principal. It was so very nice to see her...For those that remember, Swallow is the person who initially organised myself moving to Yichang. We liaised on the internet, she picked me up at the airport, helped me out when I was new here and was pretty lost and disorientated. Now, with her new job she is very busy and apart from texting, this is the first time I have seen her in a while...It was so cool to get a big hug and catch up.
Event 3 : I also saw Salina..Unbeknownst to me, this is also the school at which she teaches. It was also great to see her :-)
Event 4 : I actually felt like maybe I fit in a little around here...Yes there are cultural differences and maybe I will never really truly be thought of as one of the group...but today I actually kinda felt like maybe I was..just a little, maybe :-)So English teachers at Y.C.F.L.S, I thankyou!

Carol working the class very well... Congratulations Carol !