Opening Ceremony

On Thursday morning, to kick off the sporting events, was an elaborate opening ceremony. It began with representatives of all the schools lining up in the courtyard and processing past the school into the track area. The flag led the way.

The flag and the band: drums, cymbals, bugles, and all.

Followed by the "flower team" whose job was to march, periodically wave plastic flowers in the air, and shout.

Followed by the drum dance team...

And the balloon team...

And the flag team.

The assembled teams as the rest of the schools' representatives file in to the sides.

The drum major. She theoretically sets the pace
of the whole thing. Theoretically.

The principals and administrators watching. My principal is the only woman.

Then the flag ran through the middle and around the track...

And the balloons were released. Part of me did think this was pretty, but most of me just thought about how bad it is
for the environment...

And then a portion of our students did the morning exercise dance/warm up thing. Usually all the students do this everyday,
but here they selected students (mostly based on height) to perform it.

The whole thing is set to music and involves clapping, jumping jacks, pretending to jump rope, and more.

At this point the sun finally started peaking over the mountains. This meant it finally started to warm up.

The fog, although pretty, keeps the mornings here pretty cold until the sun burns through.
That morning I was shivering in five layers. By the afternoon the sun was strong enough that I was quite warm in only two!

And lastly, drum dancing!

Seeing everything that goes into an opening ceremony in a small region in rural China gives me a new perspective on government-sponsored ceremonies such as those televised for National Day, or of course, the Olympics.