Sports Festival

Devan-
Today we had our school Sports Festival. It was just a day of track and field stuff. Here's a video...
My favorite caught on tape moment so far...

Here are some pictures...
Sports pictures
After the sports festival we had a teacher's party at a hotel downtown. We have these parties about four times a year. I hate going because it's a really expensive dinner (60-90$) with food I wouldn't eat and I never get seated by English speakers. This party was a lot of fun though. They seated me by people who spoke English (what a novel idea!) who translated what was going on for me. Also, they had ordered me a special vegetarian menu. I was embarrassed when they told me they were ordering me something different from everyone else because that just makes me stand out even more. Plus everyone has to come over and see what I'm eating and make a comment about it...but it wasn't bad this time. The food was good and close enough to what everyone else was eating so I didn't stand out that much...plus it was really good so I didn't care if people commented, I was too busy eating three times my weight in asparagus.
These parties are famous for how drunk everyone gets. Last year, there was never a drop of alcohol served. This never bothered me because I'm not a big beer person. But now I've found out that that may be why last year's parties were so lame. I don't know if it's the new administration or the person who planned the party but this time there was ton's of alcohol and everyone was trashed (don't worry grandparents reading this, I only had a glass of wine because I had to make it home alone on the train). Anyways, I have never seen my coworkers so happy. People were hugging and yelling and speaking English. I had a secretary tell me she loved my shoes and then proceeded to get down on her hands and knees to get a closer look. That was weird. It was fun to see everyone let their hair down. I do think it's strange though, in this reserved culture, you can do the stupidest stuff at the party and no one will say anything that next week at work. It's like being two different people. I remember back home the stories that would circulate for years about the guy who got drunk at the company Christmas party. It was fun but I'm exhausted.
Paul's birthday was also this weekend. We went to a nice sushi restaurant with some friends. Here are some of Paul's dishes. I hope he enjoyed it; it sure gave the rest of the table some entertainment.