The morning was bright and beautiful. Air was as crisp as it had been for days. The sun was starting break out from behind the clouds. It was a good sign that the Sports Meeting would take place as planned. It also meant that there would be no classes for the next 3 days

The Sports Meeting would be a fun-filled time for the Freshmen and Sophomores for Anhui Normal University (Anshida). There was a variety of events: foot races, shotputs, javelin throwing, high jump, and more.

I didn't arrive at the meeting until after lunchtime. Students were coming back their shuoshi, or siesta. The stands were slowly to fill again. The teachers and I finally found the English departments table. As I sat down just above the stony grandstands, I could see the students were still not taking a break. Some had brought their homework or books to study. Others were plugged into their Walkmans listening to who knows what. I also noticed how many groups of students would have the exact same track jackets. I'm not even talking about the ones who were running and stuff. There was a huge group students in front of me that all had the same black and white track suit tops and bottoms.

The field itself was one big running track with a dirt field in the middle. The running track was made of black cinder. I had never seen a track like it. You needed to have cleats to run properly on this track. Terry said that when he was in high school, he had to run on a track just like this one. The track was, of course, marked off with chalk for the lanes and finish lines. The field was filled with a lot of different things. A lot of the time, there were only students congregating in little groups. Sometimes students would run across it from the grandstands to a group of runners on the opposite side. I guess they were carrying running orders or maybe their athlete's numbers to put on their backs. There was also a long jump pit that wasn't in use at the time.

Then I saw a man marking the field with a big chalk rectangle. A rope was placed directly in the middle. That was what we came for--the tug of war.

The tug of war is a tradition at Anshida. All the departments in the university join together and duke it out with this heavy-duty piece of rope. We were scheduled to go last, so we had to wait for quite a while.

It was about 2:30pm when they had brought out the rope. I don't think we pulled anything until about 4:00pm. The advisor from the Foreign Languages Department talked to me for a while. He explained that the sports meet is not so much about the activities themselves, but the social atmosphere. When I looked at it that way, the wait was not so bad.

A lot of my students were there, so I ended talking to them for a while. Also, I got to know the names of some of the other teachers in our department. That was good.

Well, I was trying to get psyched for the tug of war, but the wait kind diminished any vigour I had. It was sort of funny watching the other ones; however, I never really had a clear view. People just get really close to get right on top of the action. I didn't want to get into the big crowd, so I stood to the side. Eventually, a guy in these really funky sunglasses brought these big bamboo sticks and used them as boundaries to keep the crowd away. It kind of worked.

Finally, it was our turn. I got into position and got ready for the action. Each team had 15 people consisting of 10 men and 5 women. Ours was no different. So there I was ready to pull.

The tension in the rope increased and we were pulling. I wish I could say that the end result was in our favour, but this isn't Hollywood. We were pulling at a standstill for about a minute, then our team just gave up. That was round one.

Okay, now we had a second chance to redeem ourselves. The same result. This time at the end, I was dragged about a metre or two forward as the others had already let go. Oh well, you can't win them all.

We only pulled for about a few minutes, but I was just pooped out. I looked my fingers and I was hoping they wouldn't blister later on. Fortunately, they didn't. Back at my apartment, I took a looksy at my runners and noticed that a part of my shoe had broken. Insult to injury? No, not really. I was just *yawn* too tired. I think I'll sleep now. *zzz*