JAI YO MEESA LINDSAY!!!! JAI YO!!!!

Imagine.

Heart pounding, ragged breathing, wind whipping my hair, eyes focused on the track ahead. 

Waiting. 

Gun goes off. 

More waiting. 

Watching as my teammates speed around the track.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see my babies jump to their feet in anticipation. I look back and there she is, running at me, waving the baton in her hand. I stick my hand back, feel the plastic touch my fingers. 

Then it’s all or nothing. 

288 Chinese babies roaring, “JAI YO MEESA LINDSAY!!!! JAI YO!!!!”

Feet pounding the track, muscles screaming, heart ready to burst. No looking back. Eyes on Xiao Wu and his big ears. Hand the baton to him and barely spit out the words “Jai yo!” before he takes off.

Look back-all my babies are on their feet still shouting “JAI YO MEESA LINDSAY!!! JAI YO!!!”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, pretty much perfectly describes my time in China.

Jai yo is how Chinese say “Come on!” when people are competing in a race or athletic event of some kind. It’s a phrase I never knew until Sports Day. 

Sports Day is basically the most awesome day of the school year. Technically is should be Sports Days because it was actually a 2-day gig. 

So why is Sports day the most awesome day of the school year, you ask?

BECAUSE I GOT TO SPEND TWO DAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING WITH MY BABIES!!!!! OF COURSE IT’S THE BESTEST, WONDERFULEST, MOST FANTASTICAL DAY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got to play all sorts of games with my babies, watch them play with their parents, watch them stuff their faces with snacks brought by their parents, and of course got to be the star of about a bajillion photo shoots by parents. 

One of my favorite things was watching the parents and the kids play what I call the “balloon-butt-pop game.” Dad would blow up balloons, put them in between kid and Mom’s rear ends. Mom and kid would then try to pop the balloon by pushing on it with their butts.

Balloon-butt-pop

Let’s just say it was pretty freakin’ hilarious. The poor dads were about ready to pass out after blowing up so many balloons. 

The kids also participated in 4-legged races with their parents. It pretty much consisted of the parents picking up the kids and rushing across the field with them. 

I saw this going on and got a crazy idea. So I ran and grabbed Anna, then ran and grabbed my Dustin. So yeah, poor kid got dragged across the field with the rest of them. But he loved every minute of it.

I got to watch my babies run in the 60m dash and the 200m dash. They did several class relays-one where they had to run and then crawl under 3 hula hoops, a traditional baton relay, and the some weird race on these little cars that they had to scoot across the field. 

My boys starting the 60m dash

My girls finishing their 60m dash

Aubrey crawling through the hula hoops

Dennis beasting his way through the hula hoops

Cooper running the relay

Dustin running his heart out for class 3

I even got to compete in the 4 x 100m teacher relay. The English department was all ready to go, our line-up was Anna, Sylvia, Me, and Xiao Wu (we call him Big Ears because he has the biggest ears of any Chinese person I have ever seen. And we don’t call him this to be mean, it’s just a fact. Dude’s got big ears-I think they’re adorable). So there we were, ready to compete against the other departments in Section 3. 

When another one of the foreign teachers here, who is not on our team, come up and demands to be part of the line-up. We didn’t want him to be, but finally the Chinese teachers just gave in. So Sylvia ducked out for him. 

Well not two seconds after the gun goes off, he falls flat on his face and can’t run anymore. So were we disqualified from that race. 

I have never seen so many Chinese women so mad at one guy before. Fortunately, he was smart and left the field quickly so as not to incur the wrath of our Chinese English teachers. 

Anna and I were bummed because we thought we wouldn’t get to race again. That’s when our teachers went and asked our beloved principal if we could run it again. She loves us foreign teachers, so of course she said yes. But the other departments didn’t want to race again. So the principal called for any parents who wanted to participate in the race to come down to the track. 

And that’s where the beginning of this post picks up. We ran against parents and school administrators. And of course we creamed ‘em. It was fantastic. 

Needless to say the whole event was pretty hilarious.

But I think my favorite part was just being able to hang out with my babies. We took so many pictures together-I wish I could post all of them to this blog, but that probably cause my internet to crash and never come back again.

I got a series of pictures which each class. All I did was go over to the kids while Hailey just snapped picture after picture on her camera. The results are pretty hilarious. So, ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure, I present:

Meesa Lindsay

And

Class 1

Where is Meesa Lindsay?!

There she is!!

Back at the beginning of this post, I mentioned how that whole scene perfectly describes my life in China. This is why: my babies. No matter how much I’m giving, no matter how tired I am, my babies inspire me to keep going. They are for me, always cheering me on with kisses, hugs, “I love you’s”, and of course a lot of “Jai yo!”

27 days left in Taiyuan … 20 days until I teach my last class on Friday the 13^th (go figure).

Here’s to making this last month count! JAI YO MEESA LINDSAY!!!