SIAS UNIVERSITY
Henan Province, China
May 2013
While I was teaching in China, I noticed these huge water fountains on campus. They would be turned on randomly and most people walked away from them. I told my students that we were all going to run through them on the first nice day of spring. They thought that idea was ridiculous. They had never heard of such silly behavior.
So we had a nice day and I gathered the groups. the fountains had been on for the last two days so I thought for sure they would be on this day. But I was wrong. On the most beautiful day in weeks, the fountains were dry. My students were a little disappointed. But mostly, they were relieved. However, they underestimated the cockiness of Americans. My fired, Sean, was with us. He went directly to the maintenance office and told the supervisor that the fountains had to be turned on as an American teacher (me) was leaving campus tomorrow and insisted that she see the beautiful fountains one more time before she left. They turned them on. We ran through them and this has now become a tradition with the students in my program. They run through the fountains while the other 25,000 students on campus look on in disbelief.
So we had a nice day and I gathered the groups. the fountains had been on for the last two days so I thought for sure they would be on this day. But I was wrong. On the most beautiful day in weeks, the fountains were dry. My students were a little disappointed. But mostly, they were relieved. However, they underestimated the cockiness of Americans. My fired, Sean, was with us. He went directly to the maintenance office and told the supervisor that the fountains had to be turned on as an American teacher (me) was leaving campus tomorrow and insisted that she see the beautiful fountains one more time before she left. They turned them on. We ran through them and this has now become a tradition with the students in my program. They run through the fountains while the other 25,000 students on campus look on in disbelief.
