a little coffee

The Doodles have been up to something. Ever since May Day, Chris and I’ve heard the Doodles from the nearby elementary school chanting “Yi, er, sans, si” (one, two, three, four) endlessly from at least 5 until nearly 7 at night. Not to mention their normal shenanigans during the day time (recordings of a children’s choir acting as the passing bell, for example). From our fifth floor kitchen window, Chris and I get a fairly good look at what’s going on and we’ve discovered they’ve started doing some kind of marching exercise. Maybe it’s part of their military training? Freshmen at Anyang Normal University spend the first two weeks of their college life doing military training. Don’t know what all this entails beyond tidy marching drills. And this is what we’ve seen the young Doodles do. After spying on them for several days, its not surprising that the Chinese can pull off 2,008 perfectly coordinated drummers like they did during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. They’re bred to do things in unison. 

Today there was some kind of assembly. It seems the Chinese don’t build gyms. Instead, the schools have a concrete courtyard with ping pong tables and painted lines for a volleyball court that also act as a playground. The students gathered in block formations with their class and listened to a dude blabber to them for a while. After, the classes started marching! This is fascinating to me. Impressive and funny. Imagine an elementary school teacher in the U.S. trying to get their students to even hold a formation let alone march in unison. At the middle school in Lin Zhou, we watched the students jog around the courtyard in their tight block formations chanting something as one of their classmates blew a whistle. These Doodles even take the time to practice after school under the guidance of a teacher. 

yi, er, san, si!